We visited a monkey forest in Indonesia- they were EVERYWHERE!!!
Typical monkey :)
They were wrestling like little brothers for about 10 minutes!
Inside of the monkey forest
Mothers carried their babies around everywhere with them..one monkey even had a kitten she carried around
My favorite!
During our 9-hour village tour, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant where we sat over the rice patty fields...The chicken curry with rice was AMAZING :)
Our tour only had four people- Martha, myself, and two girls from France who are our age..we got to be good friends with them and were glad we found them!
Overlooking the rice patty field...
Outside of the village, these two little kids were wandering about and sat down next to us
Traditional wood carving..
We toured a indonesian home- This is the owner of the house and the best picture yet!!!
The owners pet
Master bedroom
Toothbrushes in the bathroom
Laundry room
Making jewlery
This is EKKA our tour guide for the whole week
Making colorful scarves by using hot wax
TRAFFIC JAM
During our tour we watched a traditional indonesian dance
Outside of the theater
These men are stabbing themselves with long swords, without drawing blood because a "spirit" is protecting them...
Dancers
Mode of transportation-MOPEDS... Mothers even hold their newborn-3 year old babies on them..once they get older they hold on themselves!
ONE MILLION RUPIAH = ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS
Hard Rock Cafe, Bali
Mopeds
Chocolate cake :)
Out hotel, the White Rose, is right behind this memorial. In 2002, over 200 people died in a nightclub that once stood here due to a terrorist bombing. Most of them were Australian tourists.
Room service of icecream, chocolate cake, cheeseburgers and garlic bread..we had to splurge a little :) Plus it was only 12 dollars!
Names of the people who died in the nightclub bombing
This is where we spent the majority of our time....
How CUTE!
The lobby of our hotel
Group photo that will hang in the P&O common room with all of the other study abroad groups
Martha, Micah and I
We took a boat cruise from Fremantle to Perth with our directors, Lynn and Charlie for one last hurrah before they left! 
Lunch on the boat with Anna, Peter and Martha
Perth skyline in the background!
Port city!
My directors, Lynn and Charlie..they took such good care of us!
The city of Perth
Ryan and I on the boat
Roomates!HELLO!!!
The pictures again, are a little out of order and might be doubled up...
Boat Cruise=
Our directors Lynn and Charlie are leaving soon, so we used the rest of our St. John's/St. Ben's money and took a lunch cruise a couple weeks ago from Fremantle to Perth. It was such a beautiful day! The cruise took us to Perth and we went by the most AMAZING houses I have ever seen.. The biggest and most expensive house in Australia was overlooking the river and I was too amazed to even take a picture.. I will steal one from someone else though and post it soon! We had lunch on the boat and then went on the top deck and chatted about our trip. We said our goodbyes to Lynn and Charlie who will be going home in a couple days.
Trip to Indonesia=
Now THIS was an experience...
Since Martha and I are staying with our RA (Anna) and her family for about a week and missing out on the group trip to Indonesia, we wanted to go just us two! We went during "study week"..well we didn't do much studying....
We caught a taxi to the Perth airport and arrived two hours early to catch our flight to Bali, Indonesia. I haven't heard of any previous study abroad groups who had traveled to Bali, but out of all of the Australians we had met during our stay and around school, they said it was a hot vacation spot. We had a meal on the plane and it was about 3 hours long. We set everything up with STA travel and it was SO organized for us. We had our tour guide, Ekka, pick us up at the airport in indonesia and bring us to our hotel, the White Rose. Another stamp on my passport!! We also had to buy a Visa for ten dollars to get into the country..The van brought us to our hotel and it was definitely an eye opener...Indonesia is a third world country, Ekka explained, and is completely packed! Everyone drives around on mopeds and there are no laws about driving.. I thought we were going to get hit/hit someone about 20 times just on the way to our hotel! Little babies even ride on the mopeds, holding on themselves, or in their mothers arms! We made it to our hotel and checked into room 2050. We really had no idea what to expect except for the pictures from the hotel web site and our travel agent who said it was a nice place to stay. I am glad she was right! The hotel was guarded by police officers with a gate for all transportation to enter. Our room was small, but worked well-we had two twin size beds and a little living room area. We couldn't drink the water or even brush our teeth in it because it could make you really sick. We just bought bottled water (a HUGE bottle for about 15 cents).
We then went to go convert out money. This was probably the funniest parts of the trip because it took us the whole night to figure out how much everything was and the exchange rate..Math is not my favorite thing in the world, or martha's... We finally found two australians who spoke english and they gave us their little chart of what prices meant (200,000 Rupiah = 19 dollars)
So we went to the ATM and took out a MILLION Rupiah each! We had no idea how long it would last...
Throughout the week we ate at many restaurants or ordered room service.. a large meal was about 3-4 dollars! We had to make sure to not drink anything with ice in it, or even salads that could be washed with water...
Along the streets there were vendors EVERYWHERE... selling anything from knock-off purses, sunglasses, souvenirs, etc. By the end of the week I was very frustrated because I am not good at bargaining!!! I would buy a pair of knock-off sunglasses for ten dollars thinking it was a steal, and then walk down the street and hear someone shouting, two for 5 dollars!! I came home with a LOT of stuff.. purses, gifts, etc!
Martha and I spent most of our time at the pool which was BEAUTIFUL...
We also got 3 massages and a facial (each massage is only about 5 dollars, and we went to the more expensive places!) It was soooo nice we had to go three times :)
We decided that we needed to see a little bit of the indonesian culture, so we booked a village tour with Ekka. It was 9 hours long! It was definitely worth it.. and was only 12 dollars :)
We started out by seeing a traditional indonesian dance/play and then traveled to three different villages. Each village was known for something different- Wood carving, jewelry making, and paintings. At each village we saw how it was made and then could bargain with them to take the products home. We also were able to tour a traditional home (pictures above).
Seeing everything really just opened my eyes to how people around the world live so differently. It was hard because no one spoke english (Ekka was learning, but not the best). On our tour, it was martha, myself and two girls our age from France! They were studying in Perth and were in Bali for a vacation... they were so nice and the entire time they asked us questions about America... They couldn't believe we were from there and want to visit so bad! For lunch we ate at a restaurant that overlooked rice patties..it was so pretty! After lunch we went to a monkey forest... monkeys were EVERYWHERE and I got some great pictures! They tried snatching my camera, but luckily I had it wrapped around my wrist! :) We were definitely glad we went on this tour, but we got stuck in traffic for TWO HOURS on the way back! The rest of our time in Bali, we hung out by the pool and relaxed! We only went out to the clubs/bars one night because we were supposed to meet the two girls there- we couldn't find them! We went to a 4 story-dance club and looked everywhere..it was hard because our phones didn't work. It was a little scary, being just Martha and I, so we only went out on our last night there. We met many Australians that we still talk talk to- and even got a ride on the back of their mopeds (Don't worry mom, we were fiiiine :) We HAD to ride a moped if we were there!!!!!
Well, today I shipped home my large suitcase packed with clothes I don't need for the rest of my trip and some odds and ends.. I leave the P&O on Saturday :( It is going to be so sad, I feel like I just got here!!! I am SO excited to start traveling though.... here is my schedule for the rest of my trip..
Saturday- LEAVE
21st- 26th- Staying at Anna's house with her family (my RA) for a little more beach time!
26th-30-GREAT BARRIER REEF to scuba dive and snorkel.. I am traveling here BY MYSELF! I am meeting the rest of the group here and Martha is staying longer at Anna's house
30-9th of Dec- NEW ZEALAND... we are just booking skydiving and bungy jumping today!
9th- 14th-SYDNEY... we are going to the broadway play WICKED and climbing the Harbor bridge!
I have one final left on Wednesday (journalism) and I am alllll done! :) My other finals went really well I think!
I will write again soon!
Abbie
