Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

This was THE best lunch ever. The food…AND the company.  Thanks SO much Siska and Feller!!

When we finally got to Legian Beach, I was SO glad that I had left this part of the trip for last and only spent a few days here.  Ang was right…STAY AWAY from Kuta Beach.  It was just like going to San Diego or something, tons of shops, white surfers and drunken late night bar hopping.  There is ZERO culture, locals (other than the workers) or real rituals.  I couldn’t IMAGINE coming to Bali to stay at one of the resorts for a week and then leaving without ever seeing the north and middle of the island in the way we had.  Seriously, the ENTIRE trip we hung out with our drivers and locals, joined in their local traditions and RARELY ever saw another white person…and it was PERFECT!  I MUST admit though, it was nice to spend the last couple of days being able to run on the beach, sit in a pool and read and get sun…No more markets and shopping and driving and craziness….I just spent my last couple of days reading two books by the pool.  Sarah left a day and a half before Nish and I, so on her last night we went to Jimbaran Beach and checked out the other sea temple, Ulu Watu. But my FAVORITE Temple of ALL was Pura Tanah Lot, the sea temple…featured in this video.  It is the temple that I bought a painting of in Ubud.

There a monkey tried to steal my camera, I literally had a tug of war with it.  They are such little shits!  I saw one steal a lady’s wallet and run up a tree.  They are sneaky little things.  We also decided to have a “Luxury tour” of all of the really expensive resorts in Bali.  So we checked out the Bulgari and the Four Seasons.  Both have guards and bomb sniffing dogs that check you out before you can enter.  They cost over $1000 a night to stay there and they were INSANE.  It’s so trippy that just outside the walls of the resort is utter poverty and dirt roads and then once inside it is like a garden city with stone walkways and pristine manicured waterfalls and ponds and foliage.  What you would imagine of paradise.  All of them have indoor/outdoor luxury cottages and just walking around the grounds having a drink was luxury enough…But even still, with the choice of spending my entire vacation in luxury like that, or seeing the island the way we did…I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  It was REALLY cool to see the completely different faces of Bali though; from the ultra luxury to the mountain shacks it all is beautiful. We then decided to have the famous seafood dinner in Jimbaran Bay, where after seeing the most AMAZING sunset that Bali is known for, the entire beach lights up with thousands of candles from all of the restaurants.  It was REALLY cool.  The restaurant itself was unusual, because there is no set menu.  Literally, you watch the fisherman come in with their traditional colorful wooden boats and unload their nets, then when you go to “order” in the restaurant you have to get up out of your seat and walk over to see what they have just caught, point out what you want and weigh it and that determines what you get and how much your dinner is…SO BIZARRE.  Nish didn’t like to see the faces on her seafood before she ate it.  I didn’t care☺  I took some amazing photos of sunset and fisherman, and was a little obsessed (photography-wise) with the man selling corn on the beach and took like a million photos of him.  Seriously, it’s my favorite photo series of the trip...

One of the highlights of the dinner was when our waiter in his broken English, found out that we were from America and he started trying to tell us how George Bush had shoes thrown at him.  I don’t know WHAT was more funny, the way we were trying to get details of the story half through charades and half through his English, or the story itself.  We have been SO isolated from news, internet and the rest of the world, that this LITERALLY was the first contact we had had regarding America in weeks and it was SO funny how we were having our news delivered to us.  He ran inside and got us an Indonesian newspaper that had photos of the President ducking and it was hilarious.  After dinner, Nish and I said our goodbyes to Sarah, Ketut our driver and went and crashed early.  Quite a contrast to the night before where we decided to go out dancing till 3 something in the morning in KUTA.  Although I had fun dancing, Nish and I left early (meaning 3 am) leaving the “Young one” Sarah to stay out till 6am.  Not that we feel old, but DAMN I felt old.  Everyone there was like 17-21 years old, Australian and on their break from school.  One guy, when he found out how old Nish and I were was like “No WAY!  You look like you  are 21, but then again it is dark in here…” Gee thanks! Nish and I then vowed to only go out in Seminyak, the more “sophisticated, older” area on our last night. And that is EXACTLY what we did.

Our last day, after spending the entire day at the pool, we went out early to catch the sunset in Seminyak. Honestly, if I ever go back to Bali, I will spend more time in Seminyak and just go diving on the other side of the islands and at the nearby lslands.  Seminyak is like the West Hollywood/Beverly Hills of the Island.  SUCH beautiful restaurants, bars and shops. We checked out the Oberoi and “The Living Room”. They were SO beautiful but my favorite of the night and quite possibly one of the best bars I have EVER been to was called “Ku De Ta”.  The vibe was SO chill, with amazing drinks, honestly the BEST sunset I have EVER seen and just great atmosphere. It actually was almost like being in LA, funny enough.  Nish and I just talked for hours and it was SO ZEN.  We sat there and summed up what we each got out of this trip and how amazing of an experience it has been in so many ways. I told Nish that THAT is why I travel internationally every year.  I feel like I “reset” myself and my life and my priorities.  I have not thought about my cell phone ONCE in three weeks.  I don’t miss it.  It makes me realize that I don’t need these things and that I am happy and content outside of my “comfort zone”.  It makes me realize just how amazing life is and although I may not have all of my questions answered when I get back home, I ultimately know that I am..OK.  That life is good…rather..GREAT.  It originally was supposed to be just Nish and I on this trip, but Sarah ended up making a great addition. It was quieter when she left, but I have to say that I truly appreciated this last night of “zen” with Nish to be able to discuss our feelings about the trip, love, the book we both read on the trip “The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coehlo”…and just LIFE… Just like all of the ladies at the market thought we were sisters…we really are soul sisters in a lot of ways. I am sure we will definitely look back on this trip and reference it for years to come…

Munduk was awesome…it was a 2 hour windy road through the mountains to get there.  When we did, we were in a tiny resort called Puri Lumbung Cottages.  The resort only hosts 14 cottages and they are like little 2 story huts over looking the terraced rice patty fields and just SO tranquil.  At night the sounds of the frogs and bats were SO deafening, that it actually lulled me to sleep and I had two of my most relaxed nights of sleep there, despite the crazy frogs.  Perhaps the cooler mountain air had something to do with it.  We basically chilled out, ordered food and 40’s of beer to our hut and took advantage of the local culture.  We were staying at an eco-resort, so they offered classes like Indonesian instruments or dancing, weaving, trekking, spiritual discussion hour or cooking classes.  There were like 20 different trekking trails with guides.  Some took you through an ancient village to the holy hotsprings (since Munduk is ON a volcano) others took you to waterfalls, some through rise pattys.  It truly was a place to relax and enjoy the Indonesian way of life.  So we decided to first go to the Holy volcanic hotsprings.  We were practically the only women there.  I decided to wear a shirt over my bathing suit, because I felt it similar to the experience I had at the Dead Sea in Egypt…where the men ogled like aliens had landed at the sight of all of that white skin☺  The water was SO refreshing and healing.  Nish swears that her shoulder knots finally were healed by the water.  Afterwards, we drove back, had a lazy dinner and then I learned how to play the Indonesian Gambulan (Xylophone) with the traditional balinese band that was playing.  I FINALLY got the hang of it after like 30 minutes.  It almost mesmerizes you, because it is such an eery repetitive melody (since the instrument only has like 5 notes you can play).

THIS IS MY MOST FAVORITE VIDEO OF THE ENTIRE TRIP!!!  It shows what TOTAL girls we are!!  LOL.  It is of our encounter with the HUGEST spider I have ever seen!  We were just looking at it, then our guide takes his bamboo walking stick and grabs the spider out of its web for us to take a closer look…In the process the HUGE spider swung out towards us…and the REST is on video….

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Afterwards, we went and joined our guide for our trek through the jungle to a few beautiful waterfalls.  We saw SO much in the wild, HUGE spiders, every type of plant you could imagine, avocados, pineapples, bananas, cacao, nutmeg.  Most of these foods I never know how they looked out in the wild…Pretty cool.  What was also amazing was how many people lived SO far out in the mountains, that it was like a 30 minute trail uphill to get to their little shack…with no roads or anything connecting the houses to civilization..CRAZY.  After our trek, we had a little old lady from the village come teach us how to weave banana leaves to make things, like the little baskets they use to make their daily offerings to the gods, or decorations for the house, or a purse.  IT’s amazing you can make just about ANYTHING out of bamboo, banana leaves or palm fronds.  The Balinese people are SO creative and resourceful with what they have.  The rest of the afternoon passed in lazy amusement. I of course got the bug up my ass to go fishing (like I did in Amsterdam) and Dewa and Wayan helped me whiddle a fishing pole out of bamboo, Dewa then jumped knee-deep in the rice patty mud to catch me some worms and I proceeded to catch the prize carp from the resort’s pond. ALL this while wearing a banana leaf crown that I had woven myself during class. When one of the staff came over I thought I was in trouble, but instead he brought us beers and joined in our little fishing adventure.  TOO FUNNY!  We then had dinner, played Yahtzee and had another Frog croaking early relaxing night.  The next day we were READY for the beach and civilization!

Ubud is SUCH an amazing , spiritual place.  I have never experienced anything like it.  It’s not just for the tourists either, it is just engrained in their existence.  Every morning women and children sit on their porches weaving little baskets out of palm fronds so they can put little rice and flower offerings to the gods.  Everywhere you walk there are little baskets with incense and offerings…in fine restaurants, shops, sidewalks and back alley ways.  Its VERY BEAUTIFUL.   There are temples from thousands of years ago mixed in with more modern structures and people have shrines in all of their houses.  The town is divided into art districts like the Painting district, wood carving district, silver, egg painting, batik…you name it.  There are artist colonies in each section where artists live and just create art ALL day long.  There is SO much art being generated on a daily basis that it is just OVERWHELMING really. So much talent, discipline and hard work and we find ourselves haggling down prices for mere dollars less.  I splurged and bought a painting of Pura Tanah Lot the sea temple painted on banana leaves and canvas.  I have NEVER spent hundreds of dollars on art, but it was SO beautiful I could not refuse.  I ALSO have been splurging on massages, food, and TONS of Christmas presents for all of my friends and family.  They DEFINITELY were right when they said “Shop till you drop in UBUD”.  Since we have been here we have gone to lunch over looking the mountains and rice patties, visited Silver, woodworking, Batik and painting communes, done yoga, visited the sacred Monkey Forest, wrestled with a baby komodo dragon and played with the Parrots at the Bali Bird Park, prayed at and visited numerous temples and MY favorite so far was the famous and traditional Kecak Dance.  It happens every night and it is SO beautiful.  It is named for the sound “KE-CHAK” that the men chant the whole time while the women danced.  The Balinesian dancing is SO graceful, complicated and difficult.  They had two young girls like 7 years old (virgin girls) dancing in a trance for 20 minutes, COMPLETELY in unison with their eyes closed the entire time….SO incredible!  Then another man, in a trance as well, danced with his eyes closed barefoot in a fire of coconut shell cinders…..BEAUTIFUL.

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The nearby village had a huge full moon ceremony and our drivers who are locals took us even though us white folk aren’t really allowed to go.  They dressed us in their traditional sarong outfits and let us be blessed by their priests with rice and water…We were in the middle of the jungle at a temple with a few thousand other people and drums and other ceremonial instruments…It was like we were back in time in some tribe…a well dressed tribe.  They made all of these food offerings to the gods on these tall golden fruit covered platters that the women balanced on their heads.  I took some amazing photos.  It was a very special thing to be a part of…We also visited the VERY SAME medicine man, Ketut Liyer, from “Eat Pray Love”….HOW RAD IS THAT? He was VERY spiritual and cool.  He told me I was VERY LUCKY and had strong karma.  Apparently I have been reincarnated 5 times already and that I am spiritually more advanced than most.  He said that I tend to be impatient and that people tend to follow me and that I am an artist.  He also said that I would live to 100 years old have great health in my life and have two children and that the man I am with is ” A VERY VERY GOOD MAN”:)  I agreed. OH….and he said I had a good nose!!  SO between the yoga, my nap, the medicine man, the village full moon ceremony and my sitting down to write…I feel like a TOTAL hippie today. LOL…a Very spiritual day indeed.  I prayed for happiness, health, and laughter in the New Year for everyone!

We have had our “bodyguards” Ketut and his brother Wayan with us EVERYWHERE, mainly because your drivers don’t JUST drive you everywhere, they wait for you like a loyal servant NIGHT AND DAY and come along with you like bodyguards until you retire at night to your hotel room.  At first it was VERY strange to us.  We would walk outside of the restaurant from dinner hours later and THERE they are waiting for you….or every morning when we leave our hotel, THERE they are waiting for you.  They have now become our great friends and their “bodyguardness” comes in handy when we go out.  The first night we went to a total local bar where we were the only people dancing to this insane jungle techno.  During the night, someone managed to go into my purse and steal ALL of my money.  I noticed it later and told our drivers.  They PERSONALLY frisked and searched EVERYONE at the bar and ACTUALLY FOUND THE THIEF!!!  He had my money stashed in his crotch (gross! We sprayed it with anti-bacterial stuff LOL)  and although he denied it at first, the ATM receipt was even MORE proof of his lie.   It was SUCH a huge deal.  IN their culture dishonesty and stealing is THE WORST thing you can do other than kill someone.  Ketut our driver held my arms down when the shamed man came over to apologize and give me my money back, like I was going to go CRAZY and attack him or something.  LOL. Apparently, I had the right to hit him if I wanted to, but I refused.  It was SUCH a fun night, blemished by the theft, but ended well miraculously!  It taught me to be even MORE careful even around the spiritually, warm people of Ubud.  Also, last night, we had SUCH a fun night.  We had Mexican food, the FIRST time Ketut and Wayan EVER tried it in their lives and then went out dancing next door.  They had a band there covering American music and we were the ONLY people there when we first arrived,so they let us go on stage and sing with them like it was karaoke…SO fun!  Then more and more people started showing up.  NO ONE bothered us the whole night, because our bodyguards stood watch from a back table, guarding our purses after the incident from the other night.  For three girls, it’s actually quite nice to have an entourage.  I could get used to this☺  but after last night, we NEEDED a detox day like today to recenter ourselves.

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We girls have declared it “Pampering Day” (not like this ENTIRE trip hasn’t already been “Pampering Day”) and we are starting the day off with the morning traditional dance ceremony called the Barong Dance, then we  are going to the Mango Tree Spa for a 4 hour package of massage and scrubs in the middle of a jungle up in a tree!!  This is one of the things I have been looking forward to for months!!!, THEN, we are having dinner at the famed restaurant, MOSAIC, which is like a 6 star French Restaurant, rumored to be one of the BEST restaurants in the world.  It’s expensive…for here that is, like $50 per person!!! LOL, again I can get used to the prices here and the $15 massages.  Then we are going to just CHILLLLLL……….  I think it will be a perfect way to end our Ubud experience, but the BEST part is that we still have Munduk (in the mountains) and then Seminyak (by the beach/nightlife) left to enjoy on this trip.  It’s like 5 vacations in one!done

NOW  we are in Pemuteran, Bali….We feel like we have reached the end of the world here…but it is as amazing as I would imagine heaven to be.  Honestly, my brain hurts from looking around me as a photographer does, constantly analyzing light and framing amazing moments…to me here EVERYTHING is amazing from things as simple as a village woman balancing a huge basket of wood on her head and walking down the street, to the way the sky reflects like a mirror image in the endless fields of cascading rice pattys….Honestly, it would be hard to take a bad photo here…

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Esteela was right, it truly DOES feel like an entire other country.  Bali is every part as amazing if not more than I had envisioned.  Today was a bit bittersweet for me, since I had wanted Robert here by my side.  He even had an empty seat for him on the plane.  He would LOVE this place….truly, but Sarah  has been SO excited and positive throughout EVERY part of this trip so far….that it has made it all ok.  From the moment we landed Sarah and I have been in AWE of this place.  Larry, another recent groom of mine, JUST got back from his honeymoon here and hooked us up with his driver Ketut.  Ketut showed up with his brothers to pick us up. They were right on time with a sign at the airport waiting for us.  Since that moment they took us on a 5 hour drive through mountains and rice patty fields, lunch underneath the volcano, stopping at a cremation and taking photos, stopping at a Hindu Temples and tying a sarong around us so we can enter the temple,  visiting a forest of monkeys and feeding them bananas…jamming out to Bob Marley on Sarah;s Ipod and FINALLY getting to Bali destination number 1….the northwestern beach town of Pemuteran at a bungalow resort called Taman Sari….We drove hours through villages and mountains where white people are seldom seen and have arrived at this sleepy, picturesque destination…..this beach paradise that I cannot wait to FULLY enjoy tomorrow.  Honestly, it is ALL honeymoon couples and MAYBE 15 bungalows total here.  Upon our arrival a few hours ago, Sarah and I enjoyed a couples massage…LOL, AND a romantic candlelight dinner, and now we are in our gorgeous thatched roof bungalow with a huge canopy of mosquito netting surrounding us and tropical frogs croaking in our bathroom that has no ceiling where you shower on stones underneath the stars…..Not quite the romantic first night in Bali I imagined, but I know it’s going to be amazing regardless and our adventure has only JUST begun… Robert, I wish you were here….

I SWEAR I think the staff thought Sarah and I were Lesbians, because everyone there was a married couple on their honeymoons and EVERY time we ordered spa treatments, they did them like couples massages or couple’s facials!  LOL, it has become a joke with us now.  We basically just relaxed and ate, read, went snorkeling and diving and had spa treatments EVERYDAY.  We had ZERO internet and we felt like we were on the moon it was so remote.  It was amazing.  We spent more money on diving and spa treatments than food and lodging combined.  I figured it was worth it, because when ELSE am I going to be able to dive in Indonesia?  I finally was able to put my PADI card with my ridiculous photo on it to good use!!  We took a boat to Menjangan Island and saw the most beautiful reef I have ever seen!  Underwater it looked like a field of wildflowers of all different colors, bright yellow and blue and purple coral.  I saw a sea turtle and grabbed onto its shell while it was swimming (like a life DREAM of mine!) and saw SO many fish I have never seen before. It was SO Zen and I finally feel comfortable and relaxed underwater.  My dive master was pointing out things I could pick up and touch and I was playing with sea worms and starfish and even touched a seahorse!!  So there are no words to describe this experience I had in Pemuteran.  Afterwards, we played soccer with our drivers and then stayed up late drinking beers and learning about their culture and laughing  ALL night long at the funny quotes that only a language barrier can create.  It was SUCH a wonderful day and night and the drive from Pemuteran to Ubud was EQUALLY as stunning as the first drive from the airport…and at the end of our drive was NISH to greet us!!!  It was SO fun adding her to our adventures!

So back to my goals of the trip, (other than the wedding of course:), I wanted to find my childhood home that I lived in the first 4 years of my life in Jakarta when my parents were stationed here with the US government.  Its strange, my whole life I have seen photos and heard stories and grew up with the same furniture and Indonesian decorations, but never really knew if my memories were my own or just through being shown home movies and being retold stories again and again…I was determined to see if I had ANY recollection of my home once I was there as well as just curious as to where I spent my baby years…

The next day (our FINAL free day before the big wedding day) was our Jakarta adventure.  Esteela’s sister Tatiana hooked us up yet again with a driver and guided tour throughout the Old Batavia Dutch section of Jakarta.  We went ALL over the city and learned so much!

We went to The National Museum and saw the oldest human skull ever discovered “Java Man”…dated 3 million years ago…and ancient tribal artifacts and Hindi Cultural statues…then to China town where we lit incense in an old Buddhist Temple and walked through the craziness of the market where they were selling turtles and snails to eat…then to the Old Dutch section of town where we had lunch and went to another museum and then to the harbor…where we were practically assaulted by the sailors trying to take photos of the old fashioned wooden cargo ships that they still use to this day.  The boats were SO cool by the way, because they get SO weighed down that the deck of the boat actually dips below the seawater level, but because the boat is SO waterproof that it actually sails like a submarine…Crazy!…then I was DETERMINED to do the best part of the tour BY FAR…Trying to find my old home I grew up in.

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We bought our driver Starrrrrbucks, since he has never tried it and can’t afford to buy one himself.  Over there a coffee from Starbucks would be like the equivalent of $20 to us…He LOVED it!

It is amazing to me that I have had to drop my mom’s name TWICE on this trip in order to make things happen, but BOTH times it paid off and after calling my mom’s contact at the American Embassy and bypassing security, we were able to get an actual address for the American Club  where American Expats are stationed and live under high security..AND clearance to go on the property to look at my old home.  To say that this experience was emotional is a HUGE understatement.  Not only did we find my old home (I brought  our Christmas card photo from 1981 as a reference), but it happened to be temporarily vacant and we were able to go inside and sneak some photos (even though it was forbidden).  Here I am, 26 years later, as a woman; a professional photographer and I am now EXACTLY the age my mother was when she first arrived there as a young mother of 4 toddlers.  It was bizarre to see the place through the eyes of my mother.  It was sad actually that life is SO fast and that things come back around like this.  Sad and amazing.  I texted my mother that I was there and she wrote back a very nostalgic letter to me about how those were some of the best years of her life there.  The “good old days” and it made me realize that I TOO may look back years from now at my life and years in Los Angeles NOW as “The good old days” and THAT scares me too.  I  saw the pool and backdrop of so many super 8 home movies and photos….and then we left.  And that was that….driving out of the protected compound of the American Club; my youth, through the neighborhood (which by the way was a SUPER rich nice neighborhood with HUGE homes where a lot of the important ambassadors and government officials live) and then  in a few minutes being back in the chaos of Jakarta traffic, with illegal homes built out of paper and cardboard yet with satellite dishes under bridges…it was like it was a dream and never happened at all….

My NEXT goal in Indonesia was to meet my boyfriend, Robert’s Indonesian cousins whom he had never met…THAT goal of course was when  he was coming originally, but once he canceled I had already been emailing his cousins for months and they were SO excited to meet “The Americans”…so we (meaning Sarah, Rob’s replacement on the trip) decided to go ahead anyway and meet up with Roberts family and make an adventure out of it….

SO, the next morning Sarah and I hired a driver to take us to Bandung to meet Rob’s family.  Esteela woke up really sick and her sister was sick, so we pretty much had a free day of no obligations and went on another 2 hour adventure in the opposite direction over the mountains to Bandung.  We had no idea what to expect, not only with Rob’s family, but with the city itself.  We showed up directly to Rob’s family’s house.  Siska, his cousin greeted us with her entire family.  It was a BIG event that we arrived and everyone showed up to meet us.  They brought out boxes and boxes of old photos and we all sat on the marble floor digging through old photos, taking photos of the photos and each other and then trying to draw a family tree to figure out JUST how Robert was related at all.  Turns out he’s like 20 degrees of separation, but it was SO amazing that we were even there at all…sitting around like we had known each other for years in the middle of a house in a far away town in a far away country. Between the planes, trains and automobiles it took for us to get there, we traveled 30 hours to be able to be sitting there with Rob’s distant cousins. It made me realize that the world is SO huge, yet we are all connected across thousands of miles.

Here is THE original Link pictured below, Aunt Henny (Robert’s Dutch aunt) married Opa Boenwe (an Indonesian man)

We told stories and Siska’s husband owns a FABULOUS popular sushi restaurant called Sushi Tei, so he treated us to a HUGE lunch where food just kept coming and coming.  We had to be rolled out of there!  It was THE BEST meal, not just because of the food, but we all felt like we had known each other for years and were laughing and Siska was giving me tips on how to make my website better…LOL.  Sarah made a good point that the ENTIRE day could have turned out SO differently and been EXTREMELY awkward considering the language barrier and the fact that we aren’t even slightly related to these people, but instead they treated us like royalty.  It was awesome.

I was SO excited to find Starrrrrbucks…As they pronounce it in Indonesian:)

My Reaction to the SUPER hot chili peppers in Indonesian Cuisine..LOL

Siska and her sister took us to the Indonesian Photo week exhibit at the Asia/Africa Summit Hall and then we went to a factory outlet mall, because that is what Bandung is famous for (other than the huge volcano that sits next to it) and then it started to pour rain and they left us to get a 2 hour massage…to the soundscape of pouring rain…Ahhhh… AND the best part was that it only cost $10.  YEP, we knew we were going to LOVE this country after that experience.  It was SO necessary after our traveling and driving for hours…  The factory outlet was SO cool too.  It looked like a miniature Bali and was a beautiful outdoor/indoor mall.  I don’t know why they don’t build something that beautiful in Los Angeles.  I think it would do SO well there..

Afterwards we all met up at the top of this mountain at a restaurant/teak furniture factory called Congo which overlooked the ENTIRE city of twinkling lights and went through Feller and Siska’s wedding albums and watched their wedding video and just chatted.  They wanted us to stay a few more days…and frankly we did TOO.  We all felt like we had been friends a while and it was a sad farewell.  Even after just one day.  We didn’t get home till 1am and it was a long, yet amazing day.  Although it was not my OWN family, I was excited to have been able to meet them for Rob’s family and to be able to take photos and document their family tree.  Pretty amazing experience.

SO, My FIRST Indonesian experience was when Sarah and I got separated at the airport at the Visa check stand…She was flirted with by the guards and had NO issue buying a visa to get into the country.  I on the other hand, was asked for a bribe of $200, pulled into a back interrogation room for 30 minutes by two armed guards and harassed until I told them that my mother worked for the American Embassy and they let me go.  The bride had men scrambling around the airport holding signs for “Laura Grier” and frantic that they could not find me…Corruption, welcome to Indonesia!

I LOVE this photo, because we took it RIGHT after I got my VISA at the airport!!  SUCCESS!!

Next, Esteela, the bride, Stefan, Sarah and I went on a day outing with her sister Tatiana…who is like a travel coordinator/concierge ALL in one.  I HONESTLY don’t know how we would have managed on this trip without her.  We went to the Sentul Mansion where the original site for the wedding was and took a million photos…  It was SO beautiful and SO SAD because the wedding was now going to take place in a convention hall instead because there were too many guests to fit inside the mansion (1000 guests).  Stefan was SO depressed, not to mention Esteela was not feeling well….so the wedding week was not starting out on an upward note….NEXT we decided to go on a 2 hour adventure through the mountains to a town called Puncak.  Apparently their gay fabulous decorator named SHOE is super famous in Indonesia and he was to be their saving grace in making it a beautiful wedding in this convention hall.  We decided to go to his summer home in Puncak to get “inspired”.  Basically,we wanted to be reminded of how FABULOUS he was.  I HAVE to say his house was UNREAL.  We drove again through dirt poor markets and thousands of motorcycles with 4-5 family members and babies all crammed on one motorcycle and pollution and trash (surrounded by AMAZING scenic mountains and rice pattys), then turned off a side street and into a hidden gate with a guard and all of a sudden we were in Shangri-la…SO bizarre.  Shoe’s house was a HUGE bird sanctuary surrounded by lush orchid gardens with plants from all over the world.  His house was indoor/outdoor (my favorite) where the living room had 3 walls and was open to the gardens.  His house was Spanish style, yet had huge wood floors and stone walls like you were in a cave and was like the Garden of Eden.  The craziest thing was that he had exotic roosters and birds from all over the world wandering around the property and in cages.  I didn’t understand the obsession with these birds until Sarah pointed out the obvious fact that Shoe probably likes having Tons of exotic cocks surrounding him…being as flaming gay as he is….Too funny!  Although we sat in the infamous Indonesian traffic on the way back home for hours, it was SO worth the trip to see these opulent places that not many people get to see that are tucked away amongst the utter poverty in Indonesia.

SO FINALLY the whole reason we were in Indonesia…ESTEELA and STEFAN’s FIRST WEDDING:)

We got up at 7am to start taking the getting ready photos…Esteela had TWO gowns to change into, so we had TWO long getting ready sessions to photograph.  Considering what Shoe, the designer, had to work with, he pulled something short of a small miracle with decorating the site… He somehow transformed a bleak conference room into a Mediterranean looking portico with cascading roses down the façade of what looked like an old stone villa and created trees of roses around the room.  The wedding cake was twice as tall as Sarah (which is how we seem to be measuring things these days) and the aisle was a carpet of roses. So after the entire debacle about the décor of the wedding , we HAD to go early to take a million room preparation photos.  For ALL the fuss, the wedding was SO short…it was over in just 4 hours.  Somehow 1000 people managed to each shake the bride and groom’s hands AND stuff their faces and leave by 4pm…SO bizarre.  Basically, Indonesian weddings are ALL about the parents and NOT the bride and groom.   Stefan and Esteela wanted as many photos as possible, so Sarah and I followed them BACK to their honeymoon suite at the Mandarin Hotel in Jakarta…and after about 20 minutes in their suite it was QUITE obvious that they should be alone together, but they wanted us there hanging out and taking photos…Finally, although I love them both, we had to pull the plug and just leave.  Twelve hours and 4,000 photos later we called it a night☺  Phew!!  Here is a video slideshow of that day…including the police escort we had through the grisly traffic in Jakarta to take us to their honeymoon suite:)  AWESOME!

I have to give a shout out to two of my favorite ladies.  First, the coordinator, Beth Helmstetter, who referred me this wedding and made it as spectacular as it was.  Thanks girl!  AND secondly, the one and only Meg Perotti, who shot these amazing photos.  I am SO proud of Meg , because she is now FULL-TIME launching her own wedding photography business and I am sure her name will be published all over VERY soon.  Meg was SO thrilled, not only to be shooting at the gorgeous Hartley Botanica, but that the couple is SUPER STUNNING.  The groom just so happens to be a model for Dolce and Gabbana and I think I just saw him on a billboard on Sunset Blvd…LOL, I’m not even kidding.  If you would like to check out more photos from this event, please click on this link.