Em.'s In & Outs

When I heard about Bali before I thought about Kuta, which is a huge beach resort that is to Australians about what Varadero, Cuba, is to Canadians. Browsing through the Lonely Planet did not help; it was talking about the 2003 bombings (for which a Islamic priest is now on trial) that killed some 200 people, and how Bali might because some kind of lost paradise. Not very helpful. I still had 6 days in Indonesia and figured I would go there and continue on to other more remote islands if I didn’t like it. Flexible plan, like it, let’s go.

It ended up that I would have never left Bali. This is the prettiest place I have even seen in my entire life. For sure there are palm trees everywhere, a fact which could get on my nerves if it wasn’t of the surroundings of this luxurious vegetation. Walking around in Bali is a pleasure for the eyes; many of the houses and buildings are decorated and ornamented with stone statues, wood carvings, plants, etc. The Hindu religion has developed into a very lively strain here (with no Intouchables, a more flexible caste system and a different pantheon of gods), and many people visit the temple everyday to pray and make offerings in the form of fruits and flowers in the streets. There are countless festivals, and when ceremonies happen, people dress with very colourful garnments, and the music is just enchanting. Kids are thought about their culture in community centres, and most of them are introduced to traditional dance, music and arts and crafts at a very young age. It is beautiful to see this. It is beautiful to jalan jalan (wander around).

I was based in Ubud, a town in the middle of the island, who is famous for being a nice place to learn about Balinese culture. Since I had limited time and knew there were obvious limits to what I could do, learn and figure out in such time, I thought it was probably the best place to be, rather than going beach bumming or trekking around. I found a nice and cheap homestay with a very nice owner, who prepared an awesome breakfast (in contrast to most of the places I’ve been to in Indonesia where breakfast is usually just toast or fried noodles). My neighbour, Eric, was a 42 year old French homosexual man working in the show-biz industry, and he was really nice to talk to. We would converse over a cup of tea at night, exchanging on our days, we mostly relaxing and taking short courses in dancing, painting and cooking, him on waking up early to take stunning pictures and going around on the motorcycle. We shared a common idea of going to Tulambem (in the North-East of Bali) to dive in the wreck of the Liberty, a military ship sunk during World War II who has evolved in a coral forest populated by all kinds of tropical fish. So one afternoon we left on the motorbike and drove around for about 3 hours, on some really nice roads, some neighbouring the sea with their black beaches, some in the rain forest, with pretty rice paddies, lagoons, mountains, volcanoes, etc. Very nice! We arrived at the diving studio in Tulambem to be greated by a very hot man who also happened to be young and cool and who took lots of fun in making me blush. He also coincidently happened to be the one to be our diving instructor for the next day, aiya! Anyways, we had a good night sitting with our host while listening to Punjabi music, although I got a bit pissed when Eric went to bed and he started being a bit too insisting. But anyways. The next day we had a diving lesson in the swimming pool and learned how to operate the equipment, and then first thing we knew we were in the Bali Sea surrounded by wicked marine sceneries, touching blue, orange and yellow fish (Nemo) and anemones and seeing a fish that made 1m X 1m easy (with 5 cm long teeth!)!! It was such a magic moment. Lucky me, I got the whole package, including marriage proposal. But oh well.

So that was a highlight of the Bali trip. I had some other great times; I visited a meditation centre in Ubud and met a very nice man with whom I could have talked for hours about life and philosophy. My older sister Alexandra meditates 2h per day and often goes for meditation courses, and by talking to her and seeing how hectic my lifestyle gets sometimes, I was very happy to first try meditation in such a lovely setting. However, even though, more so after taking the course in Chinese philosophy, I have been hoping to take more time to sit back, reflect and, basically, make a place for spirituality in my life, I still can not seem to ban all these ‘unhealthy’ things from my life. For example, after meditation I was looking at the menu in one café, when two girls invited me in for a beer. We hung out there for a very long time. They both earn a living dancing in clubs in Australia (but clean clubs only, I am told), and make a lot of money to finance their trips around the world. So crazy! This time they were on a two-weeks vacation just out of Ubud, they had their private swimming pool and an assigned driver and they were doing lots of shopping and partying in Kuta. Ah, crazy! That night we had of ajax, the local spirit, and talked about some crazy stuff regarding to drugs and sexuality in South-East Asia, it was really cool! I guess I have to become at peace with living such contrasts in juxtaposition, and eventually after taking and leaving some I should reach some kind of healthy compromise between all the things I enjoy.

I also have to come to terms with the fact of being a ‘tourist’, which was not easy on my ego. In the past couple of years, Bali has now switched to appeal more and more to middle-aged European families, so that was very strange for me whose used to be either anonymous, either among the few foreigners, or either with other young backpackers. But it was interesting, I met some nice Swiss and French women in a cooking class (in which we were took to the market and were explained many things about Balinese spices and ingredients, and then we cooked some 6 very yummy dishes which I shall try to emulate once I get home – wish me luck!). This experience made me realize how fragile an economy based on tourism is; even if Bali attracts the bulk of the tourists to Indonesia (in my view, and unfortunately, because it’s not Muslim…), it has greatly suffered from market forces and it is a common view to see decrepit hotels or pushy shopkeepers in towns that are now neglected by tourists. It was also a good test to realize how I feel about being a lone female traveller. The only time I actually travelled alone was in the Canadian Rockies, the Yukon and Alaska, which really doesn’t compare… But I think it was a good time to do it, before spending a year in Burkina in which I’ll probably have to deal with similar issues again on a more frequent basis. I think the main issue here is that I really don’t know what I want so I’m not prepared to face, say, marriage proposals, in a decent satisfying honourable respectful way. I’ve got some work to do there. It may be childish and immature but even as time goes by and I meet people and experience a number of things, I still don't know how I feel about dating or having one night stands while travelling. I must admit sometimes I have to hold back to not judging people I know who do it each time they travel, although I don't have anything against it per se. I guess I'm pushing the whole race-class-gender analysis too far sometimes, but I must admit that really make me struggle. One last thing: this trip reconfirmed how important culture is to me. It seems like each time I get busy, sport and culture are the first things to be put aside, unfortunately. But by being completely spoiled in Ubud with watching dance performances (resembling those in Baraka!), chilling in museums and strolling around markets and arts boutiques, I was changed. It made me realize that, although this is probably a very selfish act of pure leisure, and even how hard I would try to be focused on one thing (i.e. development), I need arts in my life.