Long Road To Bali

We woke up at 5am and didn't get to our hotel in Bali until 10pm.  We've had longer travel days before, but this has felt like the longest day EVER, mostly because the airport in Malaysia was the WORST and every line that could take longer, did!  Let's backtrack.

Our taxi driver forgot to pick us up this morning, so we waited outside our apartment building for 15 minutes until he came for us.  At this point I'm nervous because we're running late and of course the stupid security decided to pick today to search Aaron's entire backpack, only to find an external hard drive with a bunch of movies on it.  Ohhhhh!  You really got us now!  Way to go!  

After a painless hour and a half flight, we were in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The airport is super fancy with a giant mall inside and tons of food options.  We have 6 hours until our next flight and they won't let us check in until 3 hours before, so we sat and waited.  Of course, Aaron had to try McDonald's and it was a huge, weirdly decorated McDonald's:

Weird stuff on the menu:

Malaysian money:

When it was 3 hours before our flight, we got in a stupid long line and waited a stupidly long time.  This is how infuriating it was: There was one guy servicing the entire line and it was like his first day or something, so each person was taking a lifetime.  Then another lady finally opens her lane and pulls all the people from the BACK OF THE LINE and services them.  Does that make any sense???!!?  We're in the middle going "WTF LADY?!"  Why wouldn't you pull the next customer?  What would possess you to pull people who had just gotten in the line versus people who have been waiting for an hour?!  It was infuriating.  Then to top it all off, they were constantly calling out flights that were fast approaching and pulling all those people to service first because otherwise they were going to miss their flight.  That's how slow this line was.  Unbelievable.  

We finally got through that mess and rushed to Immigration, which took another crazy long time.  What's with this airport??  Everything's so unorganized and slow!

After Immigration, we're starting to worry, so I cut the line at security and informed them of our departure time and they let us through.  We didn't have to take our liquids out, our electronics or our shoes off, like everyone else was.  Hmm, that was way too easy.

We literally ran about a mile to our gate and were covered in sweat when we got there, but we made it on our flight.  Malaysia, goodbye and good riddens!  

Not so fast: we sat on the tarmac for about 40 minutes waiting for our turn to take off and landed in Bali an hour late.  Not cool!

Thankfully Bali's got their shit together and we were in and out of there in less than half an hour (which is awesome of you think about it: we went through the visa line, Immigration, baggage claim, currency exchange and taxi line).  Way to go, Bali!

We checked into Eden Hotel in Kuta (near the mall) and it's beautiful:

Lobby:

Kids pool:

Our room:

That's the adult pool down there:

We're loving the hotel, but the weather is HOT and we're so tired and gross.

We walked around a little looking for food, but most places were closed (it's 11pm at this point), so we just ordered a bunch of room service.  Baked mustard Tasmanian salmon for me:

Nasi Campur, which is Balinese spicy steamed chicken with shredded coconut, Balinese Satay Lilit and 3 sambals (no idea what any it is, but we wanted to sample some local fare.  It was all pretty good, lots of different flavors):

Spaghetti bolognese for Aaron:

Tropical fruit plate for dessert:

Strawberry milkshake for Aaron:

This is exactly what we needed after a horribly long, tiring day.  Everything was delish!  Tomorrow we explore Bali!

Last nights in Thailand

Tonight is our last night in Thailand and we're so bummed.  Thailand has really seeped into our hearts and we wish we could stay longer!  On our last night out, I took some shots on the scooter.  I realized I hadn't done so before and while it's kinda scary, we've both gotten so used to being on the scooter now that's it'a almost second nature.

We hit all our fav hot spots one last time and it was nice to kind of say goodbye.

While out, I got some bracelets made for my girls:

Classy!

Back on the home front, the family had an excellent Thanksgiving with the boos:

Today, after all the stupid packing and last minute running around, we were able to take some pictures and watch the sun set:

It seriously looks like a painting!  Gorgeous!

Tomorrow morning we leave our apartment at 5:30am for the airport.  Our first flight is at 8am and we have a layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for about 6 hours before making our way to Bali (we won't get there until about 7pm).  We'll stay in Bali for a few days and on December 2 we'll head to Sydney.  We'll be in Sydney until the 5th and then we fly to Melbourne, where our apartment will be.  We're actually staying a couple miles north of Melbourne, in the suburb of Parkville.  It was in our budget and the apartment seems really nice, so we're not too worried about being outside the city.  Here are some pics of our apartment I found online (sorry, they're fuzzy):

Okay, they're really fuzzy, but I'll take better ones once we get there.

A couple more last minute errands and then we're going to catch up on American Horror Story (Gaga is killing it!).  See you in Bali!!!

FOOD! And more food!

Since we got home, I'm so over going out to eat, so I've been cooking up a storm.  The other night I made curry chicken tenders and my favorite new Asian veggie, morning glory:

So yummy, even Aaron likes it (I added some ham, so that helps).

The next day, I made spaghetti with the leftover chicken, some pork belly and ground beef (yea, we like it meaty):

I used a jar sauce (I know, I know, I'm the worst person), but I added some white wine and it turned out delicious!

Check out the moonlight with my fancy camera:

The moon over the water is insane:

We are gonna miss this view so much!

Yesterday, I made more morning glory with some bak choy and we got chicken from a stand down the hill:

Yum-o!

Since Thanksgiving snuck up on us and we're so far away from home, I'm making a little dinner for the two of us (nothing fancy, but special).  I made a marinade for the chicken:

It has lemon juice and zest (which wasn't easy because I don't have a micro-plane, or even a cheese grater!  I had to use a knife), honey, garlic, salt, pepper and red chili flakes.  I want it to be lemon-y and tangy and garlicky and sweet with a little kick.  I added it to my bag of chicken pieces:

and let it marinate for a full 24 hours.

While the chicken was doing it's thing, Aaron and I partook (is that a word?) in a Thanksgiving tradition: going to the movies!

OMG I look just like her!  I really missed my calling as a movie star.  My bow and arrow skills, however are not up to snuff.  I'm sorry, I just said bow and arrow skills.  Umm..I probably should have just said archery.  It's like that commercial for Acuvue where the girl talks about going to the "eye doctor."  Everyone knows what an optometrist is, stop talking to us like we're morons!  My apologies.

It's fuzzy because you need 3-D glasses to see it clearly.  Duh!  Or Aaron just sucks at pictures.

Anywho, the next day (today) was (is) Thanksgiving and I made a spread to celebrate.  It's hard enough being away from home for long periods, but it's especially hard to be away during the holidays, especially if you love them as I do.  I really get into the holiday spirit and just love everything about it.  I love dressing up to see the family, buying gifts, making our Christmas card, picking my wrapping paper colors, cooking, dressing up my dogs and taking pictures and making my boyfriend crazy with decorations around the house.  Aaron's not as into the holidays (let's face it, he's a Scrooge!), but he suffers through it all for me and for that I'm always grateful.

Even though we're in Thailand, today was no different.  I'm in full holiday mode.  Around 3pm, I went into the kitchen and started our feast.  Here's what's on the menu for today:

First of all, I had to use my flash because my kitchen is so dark.  Even though I have a big window, I get no natural light.  This is the kitchen I'm working with:

This is with the flash on, people.  If I turned it off, you would need night vision goggles to find your way.
Here's the view out the window, in case you were curious.

A little later they had some sort of bonfire out there:

Stay on topic, Sharmeela!  Okay, so today I'm making: honey lemon chicken (the one I marinated), garlic mashed potatoes, mashed carrots (I couldn't find yams or sweet potatoes at the store), Stove Top stuffing (so, shoot me!), cauliflower, bak choy and a packet of mushroom gravy (it's the only one I could find).  So, as you can probably tell, this is not your average Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Special.  This is the I'm in Thailand cooking on a hot plate and this is the best I can do, Survivor-style Thanksgiving.  Go with it, or get out of my kitchen.

First up: I started the mashed potatoes.  Before chopping:

After chopping:

Oooooh!  Aahhh!  It's like magic!  I like to cut my potatoes before dropping them in the boiling water because the smaller the pieces, the faster they cook.  I'm sure there's probably a reason why you shouldn't do it this way, but I ALWAYS do it this way.  Not to mention, I don't have a masher of any kind, so the smaller the pieces the better.
I did the same to my carrots:

Got 'em both in the water:

This is my stove situation:

Not ideal and it takes a little longer than normal to heat up, but it works and what doesn't kill you, gives you some damn good stories to tell.  Am I right?  Next year I can tell the story of cooking Thanksgiving dinner in Thailand on a camping stove.  Get ready for that one, it's a nail-biter!

For entertainment while I'm cooking, I've got my trusty, covered-in-food iPad playing Adele:

I know that makes me seem super bandwagon-y, but I've liked Adele for a long time, okay?  I know everyone says that, but I feel like I've liked her longer than most people and that makes me feel entitled to listen to her and not feel like a cliche.

Okay, back to cooking (does Martha Stewart not do long, defensive side-notes?), the potatoes are done, so I added some milk and butter:

Carrots too:

It was actually pretty hard to mash the carrots, but it finally happened.  I forgot to add some honey, but I think that would've put it over the top (maple syrup would be even better!).
I smashed some garlic:

peeled it:

and chopped it:

I sauteed it with some onion until brown:

and threw them on top of my mashes:

and I cooked up some pork belly to add on top, if we so desired:

Okay, two sides down!  Now onto cauliflower!  I washed and cut it:

them threw it into the boiling water:

which was a mistake because the backsplash ended up burning my finger.
I also washed and tore the bak choy leaves from the stems:

I sauteed the stems first (in the pork belly fat.  I know it totally defeats the purpose of vegetables, but it's Thanksgiving!):

Then once translucent, I added the leaves:

a couple minutes later:

Bam!

Cauliflower also done:

I added salt, pepper, garlic powder.

Chicken time!  I dumped the contents of the whole bag into a pan:

While that was cooking, I cut up some persimmon and Chinese pear:

Chicken's done!

Stuffing took 5 minutes:

So did gravy:

We're all ready for dinner!  Here's our spread:

From start to finish (including washing the dishes), it took me about 2 hours.  Not bad camping stove!  Let's eat!

If my baby's happy, I'm happy:

Now we're food coma-ed out and are laying on the couch watching TV.  It's like a real Thanksgiving!  Aaron's fav thing to watch while I'm busy blogging is Dragon Ball Z:

Yup, it's a cartoon for children.  I really don't get it and I think it's totally weird, but he loves it.
 Check out the Thanksgiving lightning:

Pretty fricken cool.

I'm thankful for so many things this year.  This has been the year everything has been different.  I'm so thankful for my family, being supportive and keeping our affairs in order while we're gone.  I'm SO THANKFUL for Ryan and Sophia, taking care of our babies while we're gone (probably the hardest and most thankless job in existence, but I love you!).  I'm thankful for being able to travel the world, which has been the best thing I've ever done in my life.  For example, I happened to look at the painting in our bedroom for the first time yesterday:

and I realized it was Angkor Wat and we had just been there!  How randomly cool is that??  Travel takes you places.  It's the most redundant, stupid sentence, but also the most true thing I think I've ever said.
I'm thankful for my health and for my friends (old and new) for sticking around, even when it takes a lot more effort.  I'm thankful for all of you who read this blog.  It's been such a cool experience for me, I've never written anything people have actually read before and it's been really scary and rewarding and super fun to share our experiences with you guys.  Last, but not least, I'm thankful for Aaron, who is my rock and someone who's kept me tethered to some sort of reality through it all.  At the end of the day, I can look into his eyes and know I'm in right where I'm supposed to be.  Corny much??
What are you thankful for??

Tonight we're going out on the town for one last time before we leave on Sunday for good.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!