Return to the Spice Islands

I awoke in a bungalow, surrounded by tropical greenery. On my way to the (included) breakfast, I spied a most fetching swimming pool. I took my pocket bilingual Indonesian dictionary that I had wisely purchased in Singapore and began to look up high frequency words. It began to come back to me.

After breakfast I headed out to the beach, which, Bali being one of the most spectacularly beautiful places on the entire planet, was simply exquisite. I could barely believe that I was finally back, and had made it to a place that had escaped me during the year I resided in Jakarta. The temperature of the water was of course perfect, and best of all, there were no waves, which is just the way I like my beaches.

A stroll on the boardwalk got me into a conversation about Hinduism and Buddhism, and sufficiently schooled in the Hindu pantheon from eight months in India, I was “invited” (for about $3) to be taken to a Buddhist temple. As a demographic aside, Bali is an island of Hinduism in this vast archipelago of Islam, and it certainly adds to its uniqueness.

The ride took me across stunning views of mountains, tropical vegetation, terraced rice paddies, until finally we got to the temple, which was also beautiful in itself. I sat in the sanctuary and did half an hour of Vipassana meditation. Walking around the temple grounds, I began my first real conversation in Bahasa Indonesia, with the driver of the scooter. And back it came. The language. I still got it! Wow, it is SO MUCH EASIER than Hindi!!

The following day I resolved to spend tanning by the pool. I took the dictionary with me and brushed up on more vocabulary, while tanning. It actually is a surprisingly effective way to study. I still have a tan from Kovalam, so now I can deepen and darken it, along with the language.

As it turns out, Bollywood is quite popular among the Balinese locals, and as a result, Uncle André’s Great Box of Wonders, with the Bag of Media, has made me very popular among the hotel staff. Naturally, I have used this to my advantage to have more conversations in Bahasa Indonesia.

Being so far from the big tourist centers, I find myself very much alone. It has taken a while to adjust to, but now it fits me well. Although I’m traveling for a year, this still seems like something of a holiday. I guess that’s what Bali is for.