The Old & The New

Whew!  It's been awhile since I've contemplated a blog post.  Check that - for months (years?) since largely abandoning a blog started when I first began traveling in 2007, I've regularly contemplated picking it up again (with the associated guilt and all).  That said, for the longest time, I never seemed to have anything to say in a travel blog because I jam-packed my days with yoga: trying to balance my new teaching endeavors and maintaining a practice at the same time.  Not a lot of (ahem, any) traveling.

Then things changed.  After our wedding, Kei and I threw caution to the wind and set off for some adventures, Kondo-style: first stop at Malapascua, Philippines so Kei could become a Divemaster and I an instructor (check and check), then to Indonesia to visit some dear friends I made in the Gilis and to befriend some new friends of the underwater or furry variety.  Unfortunately, on the computer I have available right now, I only have pictures from the last few days of the trip, but they will just have to do - I'm rusty at this, remember!

But alas old friends/readers (or should I just say: Dad & Kathy?), Dreams & Schemes is back!  This will be the Kondo Edition: a bit misleading in the sense that the chances of Kei piping in - or even remembering this thing exists - hover between slim to none.... but nonetheless the intention will be to capture the adventures of a few wandering newlyweds and (someday!) their future family.

So Dad & Kathy, here's just a small sampling of what we've been up to:

Chasing unsuspecting sharks:

Creating bad habits in Gili's kitties:

Having our minds blown by an incredible dive at Manta Point in Bali:

And their friends, the (apparently quite randy) sting rays:

The next day, we head up to Ubud, Bali - where they have a Sacred Monkey Forest.  I'll be perfectly honest, the first day, I spent most of the time with scenes from Outbreak flashing through my mind and remained pretty solidly terrified of touching a monkey.  Behold:

Kei was marginally more adventurous, but "comfortable" was evidently still a ways off...

This little guy amounted to my monkey-loving breakthrough (so cute!):

That little monkey friend stayed in my mind all day, and the following morning (our last in Bali), I insisted on going back.... and what a different (amazing!) morning it was!

(I love this one of Kei and his live-monkey hat so much it hurts!)