scattered showers here on my 4th day in uluwatu. i totally dig it here. its full of surfers and backpackers and crazy people. the first two days i was here, i partied with two dutch teenagers and a hungarian woman. we took motorbike rides all day in the monsoon rains all over the island and laid out on the beach getting awesomely burned. yesterday we again hit the beach all day; cruising from place to place on the bikes and enjoying the shit out of the sun finally. then last night the hungarian left and we picked up an italian, and we all went to have beers on the water and take part in what eventually morphed into a late-night bob marley's birthday moshing. madness. the two singers were fucking crazy and we had such a blast with all the shoeless tourists and tanned and blonde surfers and of course the stereotypical locals who showed up and raged with everything they had. rock on.
i eventually got sick of the reggae, so the dutchman and i went home to find some englishmen to play card games like bullshit and shit and pool with until the wee hours of the morning. the italian, being his characteristically all-too-forward italian self, asked me to promise to keep my door unlocked for him, so naturally i set the deadbolt and the doorchain when i went to sleep. oh italians.
i woke up feeling quite refreshed because ive been on antibiotics and happily choosing not to drink on them after an unfortunate incident yesterday morning. it was rather fabulous slowly watching the drunkenness creep over everybody last night. actually, thats probably why i left the party before midnight. haha oh well.
well its time for breakfast and a prayer to the universe that this plane ticket on an airline no one has ever heard of is actually real and not standing-room only. and i think ill actually go see the traditional balinese dance at the temple tonight if its not raining. its one of those things i have to do before i leave.
with that, i leave!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
I think if I were staying away longer, I would not be so homesick and excited to get back. But as it stands I am so friggin stoked to come home and start my life again. I miss you all. I miss creature comforts like being able to brush your teeth in the shower and ordering a salad without having to simultaneously gamble with your life, or having to put on bug repellant to go to sleep, or whatever.
But I also like have no responsibilities. No deadlines excePt for plane flights. Nothing mandatory. No commitments. No work. No ringing phone.
Wait. I kinda like the phones and the commitment. Well you know what I mean.
Anyway Uluwatu is full of surfers and home stays. Perf. I'll be here for a bit, thanks.
Monday, January 30, 2012
i figured it out. i think. the reason that the balinese only smile at each other and just throw trash everywhere. and why i am not totally comfortable in this country. and why i all of a sudden became happier everytime i rode my motorbike through the poorest areas of the countryside. this comes as a revelation after chitchatting with an english expat over too much bali coffee and not enough sleep because of too much bali coffee last night so forgive my shaky hands that arent typing properly right now.
they are angry. angry as fuck. angry at the tourists who have possessions and money that they never even dreamed of. angry that the tourists fuck up their way of life. angry that they will probably never have those kinds of opportunities. angry at the corrupt government and its officials that are inept and totally ridiculous. angry that there is no free, clean water. no medical care. no public transport. not enough educational institutions. HUGE class differences that are now extremely visible because of the unbelievably exponential grow of the tourist market in the last 10 years. angry that they have so few options to make a living.
id be angry too.
so they throw trash on the ground because they hate the land that their government officials cant seem to take care of, even though they love their people and their customs and culture. they hate the tourists that dont seem to care or see whats happening and yet they are forced to cater to their whims in order to survive. they go about their lives with angry or utterly bored looks on their faces and drive like fucking maniacs to release some kind of stress due to their frustrations. you cannot tell me that people who drive like they do and look bored as often as they do are actually happy. you cannot tell me that people who push the personal boundaries and try to cheat people as often as they do are actually happy people.
the reason i felt differently almost immediately after driving into the countryside is because it is the poorest part of bali. these people live their lives almost completely without tourist interaction, and almost exclusively within their tiny, tiny towns. they never travel anywhere or go anywhere and are more content to live their lives as they have for decades, even a century. they do not have to face the complications of living in a larger city and thus are able to maintain a more pleasant existence. now, you may not believe in the ability to feel energies, but as a therapist and just a generally intuitive person, i believe that i can. i swear i felt the air change in these areas. the roads were cleaner. the smiles were genuine. the children were excited to see blonde hair coming out from under the helmet, like it was a kind of new experience.
all this makes me very sad.
but i have to go run around now before my heart palpitations make my body explode. too. much. coffee. good lord i must bring some of this back for the doc program. oo maybe ill start taking orders and charging for this shit! market to my gf's in the program... haha jk girls. love you.
they are angry. angry as fuck. angry at the tourists who have possessions and money that they never even dreamed of. angry that the tourists fuck up their way of life. angry that they will probably never have those kinds of opportunities. angry at the corrupt government and its officials that are inept and totally ridiculous. angry that there is no free, clean water. no medical care. no public transport. not enough educational institutions. HUGE class differences that are now extremely visible because of the unbelievably exponential grow of the tourist market in the last 10 years. angry that they have so few options to make a living.
id be angry too.
so they throw trash on the ground because they hate the land that their government officials cant seem to take care of, even though they love their people and their customs and culture. they hate the tourists that dont seem to care or see whats happening and yet they are forced to cater to their whims in order to survive. they go about their lives with angry or utterly bored looks on their faces and drive like fucking maniacs to release some kind of stress due to their frustrations. you cannot tell me that people who drive like they do and look bored as often as they do are actually happy. you cannot tell me that people who push the personal boundaries and try to cheat people as often as they do are actually happy people.
the reason i felt differently almost immediately after driving into the countryside is because it is the poorest part of bali. these people live their lives almost completely without tourist interaction, and almost exclusively within their tiny, tiny towns. they never travel anywhere or go anywhere and are more content to live their lives as they have for decades, even a century. they do not have to face the complications of living in a larger city and thus are able to maintain a more pleasant existence. now, you may not believe in the ability to feel energies, but as a therapist and just a generally intuitive person, i believe that i can. i swear i felt the air change in these areas. the roads were cleaner. the smiles were genuine. the children were excited to see blonde hair coming out from under the helmet, like it was a kind of new experience.
all this makes me very sad.
but i have to go run around now before my heart palpitations make my body explode. too. much. coffee. good lord i must bring some of this back for the doc program. oo maybe ill start taking orders and charging for this shit! market to my gf's in the program... haha jk girls. love you.
The tour in Ubud was quite the shitshow. totally hilarious on a number of levels due to the elderly man and his penchant for saying things to incite our driver who did not speak english very well, but knew enough that he should be getting pissed. well at least it was funny from the backseat with the two finnish girls. we saw rice paddies, kintamani, coffee plantations, a major water temple where a huge ceremony was taking place, the mother temple which was absolutely beautiful, and then we stopped at a cockfight on the way home. and the weather was perfect. such a fab day. then the girls and i went out for drinks and super cheap, best meal that ive had in bali. super simple tofu curry with potatoes, carrots, and ginger that i had to wait an hour for, but totally worth it.
oh right, the cockfight. it was the kind with chickens, not the fun kind you see at a gay bar. as it turns out, tis the season for cockfighting in bali and all the men of the local areas bring their cocks out, tie blades to their legs, pull feathers out of their faces to make them angry, and then pit them against one another while betting. needless to say, this was deeply, deeply disturbing, and the girls and i left right after the first blood was drawn.
another disturbing part of the experience was that i was among the only white or female faces in the bunch, and this kept drawing stares from the circle of about 200 dark men around me. i started to think about what it must be like to live as a racial minority, and i did not like the now personal conclusions that i came to.
side question: why is it that here in bali many strangers come up to me and ask to take their picture with me? is it because i am a tall white woman with curly hair? it cant be because im american because most times people dont even ask where im from. is it because- unbeknownst to me- there is some international scavenger hunt and somehow i fit the bill for one of the items?! if so, i want in!! i think i should start charging money for pictures...
anywho, the balinese people are an interesting bunch. they seem to only smile when looking at another person, and if not they appear to be intensely miserable. its quite drastic to witness. they also have perfected the ability to make and use leisure time by constructing raised structures on every corner and at every home for people who suddenly feel the need for a nap or simply get too hot. as a person, i totally admire this, but as an american, i dont understand the siesta mentality. they also wear thick sweatshirts when riding motorbikes. wtf?? how is that possible?? its hot as balls out here and im sweating just from typing at 8pm. the balinese are also extremely proud to be balinese. like intensely. they talk about it all the time and often engage me in welcome conversations about their religious ceremonies, people, families, lives, etc. this being said, why do i constantly witness people throwing their trash in the streets and rivers and peeing all over the sidewalk? why do they allow dogs to run around with mange so terrible they cant even open their eyes? why is there garbage everywhere? why?
i realize that much of the trash situation has to do with the lack of education, people doing what has been done by their parents, and the necessity of using ephemeral methods to honor their gods and statues twice a day. still though... at least there is a huge effort to recycle plastic bottles and glass. it seems to be rather recent but is making huge progress with at least part of the trash.
well, i am currently in sanur and feeling mucho better, but i think this town is a little too commercial (read: expensive) for me, and tomorrow i might either stay another night or head to nusa dua via motorbike for a couple of days so that i can see the sights on the bukit peninsula and whatnot. then hopefully ill head up the west cost to tanah lot if i have time.
just 8 more days left in this trip and im rather excited to go home. i feel that restless american urge to achieve/accomplish/further my career/start my life/train for the LifeCycle again. i have so much to do and its all i can do to keep my brain from spinning when i think about it. when i am not though, i find myself conversely at almost a complete standstill. i simply sit for minutes and stare at nothing, not moving, just thinking about whatever. its rather pleasant, mostly. i mean its pleasant until i hear my mother's voice in my head saying something like "what are you doing?! go out and see some shit! youre in bali for gosh sakes!" i love you mom, but im ignoring your voice haha. i like not doing anything here. i think thats really what bali is for: following your passion and right now mine is turning the brain off.
well its been 2 hours playing on the internet. i think ill go have a beer to calm the caffeine shakes and maybe swim in my hotel pool. maybe ill even shower! i already did my laundry with shampoo in the sink yesterday when i was sick because i pleasantly had nothing else better to do, and nothing better to wash my clothes with. incidentally, im going to have to go through all the clothes i brought on this trip and either rewash them or just throw them away. yeesh.
oh right, the cockfight. it was the kind with chickens, not the fun kind you see at a gay bar. as it turns out, tis the season for cockfighting in bali and all the men of the local areas bring their cocks out, tie blades to their legs, pull feathers out of their faces to make them angry, and then pit them against one another while betting. needless to say, this was deeply, deeply disturbing, and the girls and i left right after the first blood was drawn.
another disturbing part of the experience was that i was among the only white or female faces in the bunch, and this kept drawing stares from the circle of about 200 dark men around me. i started to think about what it must be like to live as a racial minority, and i did not like the now personal conclusions that i came to.
side question: why is it that here in bali many strangers come up to me and ask to take their picture with me? is it because i am a tall white woman with curly hair? it cant be because im american because most times people dont even ask where im from. is it because- unbeknownst to me- there is some international scavenger hunt and somehow i fit the bill for one of the items?! if so, i want in!! i think i should start charging money for pictures...
anywho, the balinese people are an interesting bunch. they seem to only smile when looking at another person, and if not they appear to be intensely miserable. its quite drastic to witness. they also have perfected the ability to make and use leisure time by constructing raised structures on every corner and at every home for people who suddenly feel the need for a nap or simply get too hot. as a person, i totally admire this, but as an american, i dont understand the siesta mentality. they also wear thick sweatshirts when riding motorbikes. wtf?? how is that possible?? its hot as balls out here and im sweating just from typing at 8pm. the balinese are also extremely proud to be balinese. like intensely. they talk about it all the time and often engage me in welcome conversations about their religious ceremonies, people, families, lives, etc. this being said, why do i constantly witness people throwing their trash in the streets and rivers and peeing all over the sidewalk? why do they allow dogs to run around with mange so terrible they cant even open their eyes? why is there garbage everywhere? why?
i realize that much of the trash situation has to do with the lack of education, people doing what has been done by their parents, and the necessity of using ephemeral methods to honor their gods and statues twice a day. still though... at least there is a huge effort to recycle plastic bottles and glass. it seems to be rather recent but is making huge progress with at least part of the trash.
well, i am currently in sanur and feeling mucho better, but i think this town is a little too commercial (read: expensive) for me, and tomorrow i might either stay another night or head to nusa dua via motorbike for a couple of days so that i can see the sights on the bukit peninsula and whatnot. then hopefully ill head up the west cost to tanah lot if i have time.
just 8 more days left in this trip and im rather excited to go home. i feel that restless american urge to achieve/accomplish/further my career/start my life/train for the LifeCycle again. i have so much to do and its all i can do to keep my brain from spinning when i think about it. when i am not though, i find myself conversely at almost a complete standstill. i simply sit for minutes and stare at nothing, not moving, just thinking about whatever. its rather pleasant, mostly. i mean its pleasant until i hear my mother's voice in my head saying something like "what are you doing?! go out and see some shit! youre in bali for gosh sakes!" i love you mom, but im ignoring your voice haha. i like not doing anything here. i think thats really what bali is for: following your passion and right now mine is turning the brain off.
well its been 2 hours playing on the internet. i think ill go have a beer to calm the caffeine shakes and maybe swim in my hotel pool. maybe ill even shower! i already did my laundry with shampoo in the sink yesterday when i was sick because i pleasantly had nothing else better to do, and nothing better to wash my clothes with. incidentally, im going to have to go through all the clothes i brought on this trip and either rewash them or just throw them away. yeesh.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
so. i was in ubud. stayed there for a couple of days and just wandered around the city and surrounding areas via motorbike by myself. heavenly. saw many, many temples and took ridic amounts of photos. had lunch in random places and totally made an ass out of myself repeatedly. quite a good time.
but i felt like i needed some sun and beach time because im in bali dammit! so i hi-tailed it over to padangbai where i knew i could find a whole lot of nothing but sun and sand. i was correct.
after being harassed repeatedly by the locals who wanted to give me a ride somewhere, i finally found a shabby but exceptionally quaint place to stay at the end of a beach that looked like it had been fairly abandoned. Topi Inn. it was perfect. it has a restaurant on the first floor frequented by tourists and their local guides alike, as well as single rooms and dorm mattresses on the floor overlooking the bay. i was lucky enough to get a room to "myself" with a couple of fans and a mattress that smelled of sweat. i say "myself" because the walls were just sticks of bamboo and at one point i thought the girl who sneezed in the room nextdoor was in bed with me. no matter. i was about 10 yards from the beach at any given point in the establishment and i travel with my own sheets.
i may come off sounding elitist and like a shitty american tourist, but i really dont mean to sound that way. i loved that little hotel and made it my home for 4 days and 3 nights. i spent those days in PB sitting in the shade of the hotel and watching the waves, reading, hiking over the cliff to the next bay over for more sheltered swimming. actually, the water currents were quite interesting to watch because even though they were calm for about 200 yards out, they proceeded to become incredibly choppy and tumultuous just past that point. i had no need for that business so i settled myself into some snorkeling in bloo lagoon.
the topi inn was a funny place. the staff seemed to both hate and love their job, and really dislike the people who stayed there. fair enough. tourists can be quite demanding, im sure. nevertheless, i found some lovely people who turned out to be mostly scandinavian. couple of swedes and couple of finnish. even one croatian.
i spent one of those days riding all over the east coast of the island. i even found myself a little beach and posted up for a couple of hours. that would be where i caught a really nasty sunburn. whatev. i rode of and got myself again pleasantly lost in the hilly valley between two volcanoes. pictures abound. it has to be one of the most beautiful scenes ive ever seen. i had to pull over and withstand being honked and hollered at to take some amazing pics. it was on this ride that i did some off-roading on the shitty rental bike and and got a dragonfly stuck in my helmet as i was riding. totally didnt freak out and managed to get it out of my hat and hair without crashing. bravo!
decided to forego the gili islands and lombok because the ferry had been put out of order indefinitely- causing a traffic jam of semitrucks for literally 5+ miles- due to bad weather which makes tourists throw up on the boat and just a general mishandling of everything, as far as i could tell.
that being decided, i made my way back to ubud because i felt like i hadnt yet experienced all it had to show me. this bus ride was of course taken after a night of drinking local arak with some scandinavian misfits and promising some balinese man that i would attend a cockfight with him the next day.
needless to say, the cockfight didnt happen and the bus was late and our busdriver was sideswiped by a truck which caused him to jump out and punchthe offending driver. making us later into ubud. and i still needed to find a room. and i needed to eat. i ambled across the street from the bus "depot" and had an interesting lunch which proceeded to make my stomach unhappy.
this unhappiness made me snap and yell at some guy who accosted me asking if i could come with him to his homestay, but finally settle for a room in a house with a gorgeous temple.
stomach unhappiness continues today, but yesterday was a fun tour with some other people from my hotel. it included two finnish women and an elderly kiwi who thinks he knows more than god. either way, i had a blast and made a couple new girlfriends in the process.
i must go. toilet calls... again. shitballs.
but i felt like i needed some sun and beach time because im in bali dammit! so i hi-tailed it over to padangbai where i knew i could find a whole lot of nothing but sun and sand. i was correct.
after being harassed repeatedly by the locals who wanted to give me a ride somewhere, i finally found a shabby but exceptionally quaint place to stay at the end of a beach that looked like it had been fairly abandoned. Topi Inn. it was perfect. it has a restaurant on the first floor frequented by tourists and their local guides alike, as well as single rooms and dorm mattresses on the floor overlooking the bay. i was lucky enough to get a room to "myself" with a couple of fans and a mattress that smelled of sweat. i say "myself" because the walls were just sticks of bamboo and at one point i thought the girl who sneezed in the room nextdoor was in bed with me. no matter. i was about 10 yards from the beach at any given point in the establishment and i travel with my own sheets.
i may come off sounding elitist and like a shitty american tourist, but i really dont mean to sound that way. i loved that little hotel and made it my home for 4 days and 3 nights. i spent those days in PB sitting in the shade of the hotel and watching the waves, reading, hiking over the cliff to the next bay over for more sheltered swimming. actually, the water currents were quite interesting to watch because even though they were calm for about 200 yards out, they proceeded to become incredibly choppy and tumultuous just past that point. i had no need for that business so i settled myself into some snorkeling in bloo lagoon.
the topi inn was a funny place. the staff seemed to both hate and love their job, and really dislike the people who stayed there. fair enough. tourists can be quite demanding, im sure. nevertheless, i found some lovely people who turned out to be mostly scandinavian. couple of swedes and couple of finnish. even one croatian.
i spent one of those days riding all over the east coast of the island. i even found myself a little beach and posted up for a couple of hours. that would be where i caught a really nasty sunburn. whatev. i rode of and got myself again pleasantly lost in the hilly valley between two volcanoes. pictures abound. it has to be one of the most beautiful scenes ive ever seen. i had to pull over and withstand being honked and hollered at to take some amazing pics. it was on this ride that i did some off-roading on the shitty rental bike and and got a dragonfly stuck in my helmet as i was riding. totally didnt freak out and managed to get it out of my hat and hair without crashing. bravo!
decided to forego the gili islands and lombok because the ferry had been put out of order indefinitely- causing a traffic jam of semitrucks for literally 5+ miles- due to bad weather which makes tourists throw up on the boat and just a general mishandling of everything, as far as i could tell.
that being decided, i made my way back to ubud because i felt like i hadnt yet experienced all it had to show me. this bus ride was of course taken after a night of drinking local arak with some scandinavian misfits and promising some balinese man that i would attend a cockfight with him the next day.
needless to say, the cockfight didnt happen and the bus was late and our busdriver was sideswiped by a truck which caused him to jump out and punchthe offending driver. making us later into ubud. and i still needed to find a room. and i needed to eat. i ambled across the street from the bus "depot" and had an interesting lunch which proceeded to make my stomach unhappy.
this unhappiness made me snap and yell at some guy who accosted me asking if i could come with him to his homestay, but finally settle for a room in a house with a gorgeous temple.
stomach unhappiness continues today, but yesterday was a fun tour with some other people from my hotel. it included two finnish women and an elderly kiwi who thinks he knows more than god. either way, i had a blast and made a couple new girlfriends in the process.
i must go. toilet calls... again. shitballs.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Indo is so different than I thought it would be. I mean I guess i thought it would be somehow be different than I had experienced but not quite like this.
At the airport they just asked for $25US and then sent me on through security. Nevermind that I brought what could be deemed as weapons into the country. Then I got gouged on a 10 min taxi ride to a hotel that I'm sure was in cahoots with my taxi driver so I went next door. Had a fab two days there and stumbled around kuta just enjoying the hell out of the madness and trying to get drunk before I ate so that I didn't freak out. It must be working because I'm not dead or starving yet. I didn't even freak out when I started crunching on chicken bones in my soup last night. Rock on, me. After dinner I went wandering the long way home but was stopped on the street by two men my own age looking for adventure and asked if I knew of any. I did not have any places up to their standards of partying so we meandered in the pouring rain for either loud music or a bottle shop hat sold whiskey.
Turns out these guys were not meatheads after all as I had judged at first by their muscles. One guy (who was ethnically chinese but born and raised in France and went to school in Boston for 5 years)worked for the Malaysian government. He got his degree in political science and his masters in modern warfare. No lie. The other guy was Malaysian and also went to school in the US for many years. Apparently Indonesians and Malaysians speak the same language so this was incredibly convenient and got us cheaper drinks. Perf. Between the 3 of us we spoke 7 languages.
We had a ridiculous time clubbing! They took turns peeling the aussies stoned on mushrooms and ecstacy off of me and carrying my purse around while we danced our faces off. Things were going swimmingly until they had some awkward argument about who would take me home right in front of me. Needless to say I had none of those same intentions and proceeded to run away from the Malaysian guy who keeps grabbing my arm a little too hard. I literally ran into a cab after threatening to palm strike his nose. A sorry end to an amazing night.
I seem to be meeting so many people who are highly intelligent and extremely well-educated. It feels good when no one looks at me strangely for going to grad school. It's so different from Newport in that way. I like it. Ah the well-traveled, educated elite. I love how they make me feel even if it isn't the real world.
I seem to be meeting so many people who are highly intelligent and extremely well-educated. It feels good when no one looks at me strangely for going to grad school. It's so different from Newport in that way. I like it. Ah the well-traveled, educated elite. I love how they make me feel even if it isn't the real world.
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