In Bali, I stayed in hotels for $1-2 a night (including banana pancake breakfasts and exotic swimming pools), watched the cremation of the king’s son while severely hungover from the local brew, washed myself with ice water from a bucket (as we did for the next 3 months!), and played with wild monkeys in Ubud.

I next took a crowded listing ferry through the polluted ocean to Lombok, Indonesia (Bali’s neighboring island) where Chris and I met Megan, our Californian travelling companion for the next 2 months.

We all fell in love with the tiny village of Senaru....

It was like a field trip to Fantasy Island.

We hiked to the top of Mt. Batur, a live volcano, spent one night in the Twilight Zone village at the base of the volcano (eerie!!),dodged bats while crawling through the center of a mountain following a man made canal, prayed for my life each time I got into any vehicle, actually laughed when Megan ran over a dog with her motorcycle (no worries, it ran away), screamed when we hit a chicken, and wished the whole world was as green as Lombok.