The End of One Journey, and The Beginning of Another
Greetings,
I am now in Bangkok for a two day layover, before my trip comes to an end as I
hop on a Korean Airlines plane on Oct 15th and fly back to San Francisco.
The past three weeks were spent on the island paradise of Bali, although it took
me a little while to learn to appreciate what the island has to offer.
When visiting the more remote islands of Indonesia, the Lonely Planet guide
mentions that many visitors suffer from "Hello Meester" fatigue. This
is in reference to the incessant assault from the locals who always want to
initiate a conversation and figure out where you are going, although lacking the
english speaking skills to even understand your response.
On the other hand, in the tourist areas of Bali, tourism is business and is
treated by the Balinese as such. The only locals that generally approach you are
the ones trying to sell transport, and in many of the shops prices are fixed and
the keepers have been trained to not hassle you while browsing. Gone are the
little family run restaurants, replaced instead by large western run operations
with often impersonal staff (albeit also with the best western food I have
tasted since leaving San Francisco).
In addition, the visiting westerners tended to be couples or groups on short
vacations and with long and hurried agendas. While tourists in most of the other
destinations I have visited tended to seek out other travelers, Bali tourists
all seemed too busy.
For the first time on my entire trip, I actually felt a little lonely.
Combined with heavy non-stop rain, I found my first few days to be incredibly
depressing. If it wasn't for all the good things that others had to say about
Bali, my stay here would have been a very short one.
Instead, I persevered, and began to discover some of the paradise that Bali has
to offer.
I visited a colourful and hectic cremation, climbed an active volcano complete
with a large glowing red cave that blew out gale force hot winds, rode a bicycle
through small dirt roads for a glimpse into some rural Balinese villages,
witnessed numerous Balinese ceremonies and dance performances, dined on amazing
food, and enjoyed some decadence in my little two story bungalow in the rice
paddies outside Ubud while being lulled to sleep by the croaking of the frogs
and geckos.
However, the most interesting part of Bali for me was that for the first time on
my trip I started thinking seriously about going home, and it marked the
beginning of the re-entry process.
My emotions have swung all over the map, ranging from sadness and depression
that it is all coming to an end to excitement about the journey home and the
opportunity to let the past eighteen months all sink in. It may take another 18
months just to look over the 3000+ slides that I took!
I am really exited about returning home to friends and the familiar, and
enjoying luxuries like red wine, cheese, hot showers, cool air, more than one
change of clothes, and silent evenings with no roosters or mosques to wake me up
at 5AM.
I will be flying to Wisconsin on Oct 18th to meet up with Zen before she returns
to India, after which I will return to SF on the 27th and will plunge right back
into work in early November.
When I get a new home address, I will send it out in what will probably be the
last email to this mailing list.
