BALI

Julie wakes up at 5 am, hops on her motorcycle, and drives to the stable where her horse, Lenny, waits to gallop with her on the beach. She returns home at 8:15, loaded with energy, and waters her garden. Her cats, Lulu & Nia, wait impatiently for their breakfast of fresh sardines. By 8:30 her workers show up ready to make the beautiful handbags Julie sells to boutiques on the island & beyond. The ladies sit on the large shaded veranda weaving macramé bases and sewing on shiny coconut shell bangles, while Julie, clad in nothing but a narrow sarong around her hips, supervises production, does her office work, and work-out stretches in between. At noon they put down their needles & take a nap.

I sleep late. It’s so HOT & HUMID outside the a/c bedroom I have little desire to step into the busy, crowded streets. Bali has changed since the last time I was here 15 years ago. There’s a crazy building boom raging outside; cranes & cement mixers working everywhere; the streets lined with wall-to-wall boutiques, cafés, restaurants; loads of tourists walking about, & thick undisciplined traffic—cars, motorcycles, buses—fills the roads so it’s hard to cross. Not quite like India – nothing could be that bad—but Bali is not the island paradise it used to be.

Fortunately, Julie’s house is an oasis of peace & quiet, set behind high walls, on a tree-lined, private cul-de-sac with flowers & birds. I hope to get out into the country side, to the rice paddies & fields, and see what changes are there, but meanwhile, I’m happy staying home in the clean, cool a/c bedroom where my laptop is set up, using the wi-fi network from the hotel next door. (I just walked over & asked for the password, and they gave it to me.)

Balinese are kind. I went to the beach yesterday & waded in warm water with plastic bags, bottles & other visible garbage swirling around my legs. Julie says this only happens in the beginning of the rainy season. Well…. I’m here now & have no desire to get back into that again. Plus the surf is so strong there is only about an hour each day when the tide is low enough for the likes of me to get in. Walking home the quarter of a mile or so, the heat felt so daunting I asked what appeared like a young woman to give me a lift from the beach to the top of the road on the back of her motorcycle. It turned out to be a young man, who was happy to oblige. Balinese men are beautiful & the women are gorgeous.

Julie, who is the greenest, most earth-loving, conscientious ecologist on the planet, cooks up delicious vegetarian meals; we eat tofu, tempeh, sunflower seeds, chives, parsley, feta cheese, avocado, spinach, tacos and pasta—her favorite things. I’m easy, as long as I can add a few fresh prawns to my plate. By 8 in the evening we turn on the a/c, lower the mosquito net (just to be sure), and turn on the TV. She loves Seinfeld, Friends, Frazier, Mad about You, and pirated DVD’s of current movies. She wakes me up as soon as I begin to snore…. and so the day ends.

Sorry I didn’t write about Hyderabad and Singapore—wonderful adventures indeed, with good friends, music, mutton biryani, curried lady fingers, yellow daal, chicken rice, roast pork, chili crab and other goodies. Maybe later….