One Down 4 to Go

One down and 4 to go. We’ve just returned from the jungle mecca that is Bali, completing one fifth of our journey. The time spent in Bali was just 12 days but seemingly filled with months worth of experiences. Bali was a very pleasant first stop on our journey…easing us into the backpacker’s lifestyle. Every morning we were awoken by the sun shinning and the sweet smell of incense burning from the offerings that were made every single day in exchange for safety and prosperity by the Hindu Gods. Sweet tea, fresh fruit, and banana crepes were brought to us on our patios which most guesthouses in Bali have.
I’d like to say that every morning was a stress free beginning to a leisurely escapade in a tropical paradise but most days were not quite such. Often times the day began with us waking early to study the Lonely Planet guide to find a better guest house to stay at; one with better electrical outlets and lighting so that we could work more efficiently at night. It was only when we had stayed in a guesthouse for an evening that we would then find out that the electrical outlets were dodgy where sparks would fly when we’d plug in a power strip or we would start to notice an odd tingling sensation in our fingertips as we were typing on our laptops because of poor grounding. We were effectively being mildly electrocuted which didn’t make for a very productive work experience. After finding a new room and settling in it was then on to the conquest for the day, be it meeting up with a local instrument maker to learn more about gamelan instruments or navigating the narrow winding roads on a motor bike to get to one of Bali’s ancient sights. After a days adventure it was on to the less difficult of task of finding something delightful to eat and then back to our room to edit video, download the recordings and photos captured that day, sketch out a song idea in protools and finally collapse on our bed to get some rest for the next day’s adventure.
Leaving Bali was a waving goodbye to a beautiful island paradise, rich in culture, tradition and inspiration. It was impossible to walk more than 5 minutes without seeing some sort of edifice built for spiritual devotion. Bali is predominantly Hindu and from their deep devotion to their faith comes the warmth of their spirit; which was ever present in their genuine smiles and willingness to help travelers if they accidentally wandered off the beaten path (which we did plenty of times). Rarely did we ever come across a local who was too busy or uninterested in talking with us. Bali was everything good that we had thought it would be….almost. Like many of the worlds beautiful places, if it’s a place to be then that’s exactly what it will be…a place where LOTS of people want to be. Bali is a major tourist destination and with that comes the exposing of an ugliness, which peaks out from behind the seemingly perfect lush and inviting tapestry of which you see at first glance. Being of any white skinned nationality marks you as being a tourist and to the locals this means you are a walking $ sign. One thing that won’t be missed much is the barrage of hawkers trying to sell us a mountain of postcards, carvings, transport, necklaces, marijuana, hash, cocaine, women and the list goes on. On one particularly strange occasion, we politely declined the wares of a seller and saw the once smiling face turn to one of indignation, and were demanded to give up something of value…which in this case was our shirts!! Why they wanted our shirts still leaves me clueless. Partially because of situations similar to that, it was hard to want to be the smiling visitor in their country to show that not all westerners were rude and unfriendly when at times the only way to make your way through an ambush of hawkers was to look straight ahead and walk through them as though you were blind and deaf to their urging you to look at whatever they were selling. The difficulty was in knowing that this is the means that these people have to make a barely livable income to feed their family. Buying a postcard for a dollar is very little to me but could be a weeks worth of groceries to them. There was a constant push and pull between wanting to be free and giving of our attention and our Indonesian Rupee, while at the same time feeling the need to be as wary of every penny spent for fear that we were either being ripped off or that we were spending money which we needed to last us for the next 3 and a half months. So as our skin thickened, our hearts softened; as we tried to find the balance between being shrewd backpackers and generous guests in an impoverished land. Each day our eyes and minds were opened to take in the vast heights of beauty and richness, as well as the depths of squalid poverty; both of which were necessary to embrace to fully gain insight and appreciation for the amazingly rich and diverse island of Bali.