Unstoppable Family MTV Cribs Bali Edition HD

The Swans' Endless Summer Journey

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Take your lady on a date like this...

This is the classy way to roll up to a 5 start Restaraunt. Ku De Ta.

Visit to the Medicine Man from the Book "Eat Pray Love"

Have you ever read the book "Eat, Pray Love"? by Elizabeth Gilbert?...., well in the book she visits this medicine man on a daily basis while she is in Bali to seek out her life's purpose and what she can expect for herself. Well, I was totally amused by this guy in the book so being in Bali, I wanted to go. I kept talking about it for the first month we were here and still didn't go..and then SIGN #1...."Eat, Pray, Love" the movie was being filmed at Padan Padang Beach right by where we were staying on the Bukit Penninsula. Julie Roberts was there and Brad Pitt so the beach was always flocked with onlookers.

Then I met this girl on the airplane, while returning from a business trip from Mexico back to Bali, she had a surfboard and was traveling alone. We started talking in Taipei Airport and found out that she too was from San Diego, a surfer girl and in seek of "The Medicine Man" from the book!!!! Sign #2, I am going to meet this guy.

Vanessa Stone, and I decided to head out to Ubud on a Monday 2 hour trip from the Bukit Penninsula. Our Driver Kadek Suardita with Bali Best Transportation was knocking at our door at 8am (Brian and Hanalei were going to have a day together, what a great husband) So we headed off.

On the way we decided to write down questions we wanted to ask the Medicine Man so we could be focused. So we turned on a little Deepok Chopra, "7 Spiritual Laws of Success" to get us inspired. He is my ultimate favorite, and I learn something about what he says everytime I listen. (I always listen to his books, his voice is so soothing you feel like he is taking directly to you)

After our inspiring trip to Ubud, we saw a sign that said "Elephant Sarfari". Ok, a little pit stop, how could you turn that up? We literally were touching Elephants, I highly recommend you going.

After our Safari adventure we finally made it to Ketut Liyer's home. It was a simple Balanese home, were Katut and his whole family lived, chicken's and all.

He spent over 30 minutes with me, reading my palm, legs, back and neck....It seems as though I am very lucky, will be rich and have 3 kids!! Well, I am in for the first 2 but not so sure about the last (maybe he was including a few animals!!) Nontheless it was a powerful experience sitting on the floor of this man's home, while his son's chicken's and wife. At the end, he did a traditional blessing ceremony with chimes and at the end blessed me with rice on my forehead and on the heart chakra. (For all my Canadian Friends...check out his shirt! He loves Canada apparently)

Live Your Dreams,

Villa Cha Cha Cha in Seminyak, Bali

We spent the last 3 months on the cliffs of the Bukit Penninsula in Uluwatu. We have now ventured out into TOWN!!!! We moved to "Villa Cha Cha Cha" in Seminyak, which is an ultra trendy part of Bali. The villa is amazing, 3 Master King rooms, stone bathtubs suitable for a king and an amazing backyard with a daybed and pool to enjoy the Bali sunshine or peaceful shade.

It has been a perfect location to conduct business and have a blast in town.

There are still more motor bikes in one spot than I could ever imagine!!!

Anniversaries....1 Year Traveling & 6 Year Wedding

Since it has been over 3 months since we updated our last Blog posting....we thought that it would be a good time to give an update. What better fashion to make our next blog post being that we are celebrating a Trifecta week for our family! What is great about being a day ahead of the USA...you can celebrate your holidays & anniversaries 2 days in a row!!!

Today, atleast in Bali where we currently have been for the past 2.5 months, it is our 6th Year Wedding Anniversary!!!! Since we have known each other for over 11.5 years, we are nearing the mark of being together for almost 1/3 of our lives...not bad, eh?

Let's back up just 3 days ago to Nov 25th....that marked our 1 Year Anniversary for our Endless Summer Journey that we left San Diego and flew to Hanalei Bay, Kauai to kick off our travels. Wow, has time flown since we have left. Our daughter, Hanalei, is now 2.5 years old and she will have been traveling for 1

/2 of her life by the ripe old age of her 3rd birthday this next April.

What makes up the Trifecta Week for us...the 2 Anniversaries along with Thanksgiving! We did not have Turkey this year though we did enjoy some great Mexican food at Sunset Grille out at Padang Padang on our Thursday. On our Friday, which was Thanksgiving back in the USA, we ventured to the East Side to Nusa Dua and enjoyed lunch at Tao on the beach!

Tonight for our Wedding Anniversary, Rhonda has a special evening planned for us at Jimbaran on the beach just North of us. Details will follow on the next posting...though it may take 3 more months.

Well, the waves have picked up today, so we are going to head to Uluwatu for a low tide beach / surf session! You can check Uluwatu from Surfline: http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/uluwatu-indonesia_5557/travel/ The picture at the top right is of me @ Uluwatu (Sept 11th) when we first arrived to Bali. For all our pictures, go to Facebook.

Lastly, I have to leave you with the best monkey video that we have, thusfar.

The loading of the luggage cage..

Swano' Preparation for Nica border cross

So most of you might be saying...Good on ya Swano! No reason to plan for a 3rd world border cross with your family..you will figure it out your a world trevelor....

Well, the moment we arrived "close to the border" the chaos began. The budget rental car guy couldn't speak english so he drives up and there are about 20 Costa Ricans with big wads of money in their hands slapping them in our face..With my muey poquito Espaniol I figure out they are trying to sell us money to exchange our colones...to cordovas. Now when you are a seasoned travelor you realize this is just a way for these dudes to make money. They love Americans because we have a ton of bags and usually dollars!!! Extra exchange value for them.

After that mini chaos subsided, Swano figured out we had to go in and get our stamps to leave Costa Rica. At that point we just had to put all out bags in the big metal cage that some dude was pushing and walk to the border...simple!!

Because our cage was filled with over 8 bags, the guys kids, amigo's, boss, boss's wife, their daughter, her boyfriend all decided we required help. So here we are..this gringo family this cage of 8 bags and a small army walking toward the border..simple!

Now we actually get to an area that looks like a border. There are a million dudes running around yelling at you and pulling at you to give them your passports. Do we trust these dark, no english speaking boys? We just lost our passports in Costa Rica so Swano is staring at these guys with the sight of a ghost and then spinning his head around to look for a glimps of someone that can make sense of this....No luck.

Finally Tim sends this little Nica kid that speaks decent English to tell us he is on the other side of the border. Swano gets smart and asks if he can be taked to the "border Wall" to ask a question.

Tim reveals that these guys trying to take your passports can help..they are just looking for a tip. So here we go..the process begins these guys take Swano and the passports and starts the wild chicken dance for getting our passports stamped and approved to cross the border, all the while Hanalei and I have to stand by the cage to be sure our 8 bags dont get clipped...

Let me set the stage...It's about 90' 100% humidity..there are about 300 Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans standing at this border and running around like a circus taking people through their process. Swano's eyes are bulging out in a fish like stare at these guys becasue he has no idea wht they are saying to him.....until we finally get through the line and the guys says...NO entry, your passports require 6 months left on them and you have 3!!!! (Oh yea, our computer bag got stolen in Costa Rica and we had to drive 8 hours, miss a ferry, stay in a grungy hotel and go to the US embassy to get new passports. They only gave us temporary passports because we didnt have time to wait...)

OMG! your kidding, we can't cross? It's been 2 hours and we have no ride anywhere and Tim is on the other side. Uno Momento the guys says..lets go talk to my Boss, after another line of heat and chaos the guy says, ok let them through...we go back in the first line to get the stamp..another hour, all the while Hanalei and I are standing next to the cage watching the bags and flipping coins in the air with some Nica dudes.

Its finally time to go pass the border..Now after this nutty 3 hours of chaos and procedure, I am expecting this massive border passing. Oh no, its a little gate with some chick asking for a $1 for us to pass. We give her our $1 and we walk through. The dude and his whole family grab our bags and walk through too. WHAT!!! I went through all of that for this? 3rd world process...its rediculous.

They drop our stuff at Tim's car and everyone and their amigos stand and wait for a tip!!! This part was so hilarious, I could only watch. Swano was handing out cordovas to all these dudes and only 1 agreed to help..he was so stressed and sweating I just sat and cracked up....

Last Day in Costa Rica!!!

We have had a great time in Costa Rica..But it is time to go!!!!

We are heading out to Nicaragua this morning and our buddy Tim Sullivan (AKA..PBR) is meeting us at the border. Now of course we have no idea how this is going to work. I am only imagining us getting to the Nicaragua border with our bags, kid and surf board and looking around for Tim..

Like a stranded orphan family looking for our new parents in another country! I'm sure it will be fine, but my anxiety is present because this is the part of the trip that Swano said" I'm taking care of", now this is always against my better judgement, not that he can't do it, he's just not as thorough as me..(duh!)

For example..I asked him this morning if he had arranged with the rental car company where we should take it, what time we can drop it off, how we were getting to the border..all the obvious questions and he said, I'll figure it out! Well we leave in an hour and a half...get figuring it out already..

All will be good, I'm confidant of that. It's just so fun to talk about it!!

Costa Rica Month in Review

It is hard to believe we have been in Costa Rica for over 5 weeks now. I can truly say we are living Pura Vida. We have been at the same house in Langosta for most of the time, with a 5 day stay at the J.W. Marriott, Tamarindo for a business event.

Allot has happened in this 5 weeks, let me list them out.

1. Brian pounded his head against the wall for the first 3 weeks because the surf was crappy!!! We also declined renting a car because we were so close to Tamarindo (10 min walk) this was Brians idea so I had no mercy for the first week. 2nd week we finally got a car, the brightest electric blue Toyota I have ever seen, non 4WD. Now for those of you that have ever heard, seen or experienced the roads once you get into Tamarindo, Costa Rica you know what I mean. The pot holes are almost big enough for this little car to fit in and your kidneys are kicking you when you stop. (Yea Brian, way to wait to get a car) I have fallen in love with the wonderful machine though!! So as they say "There is always a silver lining to everything"

2. We made a tough decision to leave our company of 4.5 years and switch to "THE COMPETITOR" now for those of you that have corporate jobs, this may sound like an everyday thing. But let me tell you...when you are an entrepreneur in the home business industry...its like war!! So we avoided bullets and daggers for a few days and snuck in to the new companies "Destiny Event" to see if they were really legit.

Wow! Can I say that when you don't know what your missing...You really don't know. Being part of the Life Path Unlimited "Destiny Event"was powerful and transformational...so we were happy to bite the bullet and leave Liberty League. Nothing like being in your 8th month of a world tour and have to start a new business...but hell if you guys know what we went through with Real Estate last year...this is a cake walk and all is good. Real Good.

3. Swan finally got some good surf at Avellana's, (Lil Hawaii) right in front of our hotel and we met up with some of the most powerful and amazing people at the event.

4. Hanalei is a jungle girl!! She is loving it here, and our Nanny Eugenia has been a god send. She comes every morning at 10am and stays until about 2 or 3 when Hanalei takes a nap. Allows us to get our jogging in, surfing and business. We have truly been blessed everywhere we have been with amazing people that love our family. We will miss her when we go to Nicaragua next week.