Traveling between Hong Kong and Bali is like going through the looking glass. One side is full of order, crowded, and decidedly grown up. On the other side things are a bit more free form which can be quite jarring. Especially as I am having trouble coming up with six impossible things to believe before breakfast.
Talking a taxi driver down from 200,000IDR to 100,000 (the exchange rate is roughly $1US=$8000IDR) is just one of the experiences you get right off the plane. Mission accomplished, you may find yourself in the general area of the place you are staying and having the taxi driver pull over and call the person you are staying with in order to get better directions because the home has no address. Experience #2. All in a day’s leisure.
It seems as though the population of Bali is almost entirely expats from all over the world. I’m staying with the friend of a friend who happens to be from LA as well. Her two very handsome and very gay guy friends came over (Ukranian/LA and a straight-up Australian no fishy American influences) and we all went out to dinner. That is how I find myself on my first evening in Bali: riding a scooter past rice fields while gently holding on to a devastatingly handsome gay Ukranian. There are worse ways to spend a day.
So here comes my goal for Bali – time to let go. No address? No problem. Nothing is walkable? No problem. There is nothing to do? No problem. RELAX damn it! You are on vacation! It is time for me to learn how to sit still for hours at a time, relax by the pool in the villa, and just breathe. Trust me when I say I would rather be in a city hopping the subway to a downtown district to walk in circles. But I’m working on it.
The Bali Airport.
The view from my bedroom for the next day or two.
Out the other window.
And now that I am caught up, it's time to go out and experience life.
No comments:
Post a Comment