And so I'm back...

Strange coming home to ... Japan. Nevertheless, here I am, the land of rain and humidity, downloaded television, and kind but shy people who don't speak much English.

As for Bali, I'm really glad I went. It's not always easy travelling alone, but I think I'd prefer that to hitting the road with any of you jerks. HA! Just kidding about that. Really.

Bali is a strange place ... lots of happy people live there, and lots of sad and desparate people do as well. The stark poverty line seems to be the main thing that separates Balinese/Indonesians from their (mostly Australian) guests. This economic disparity creates a strange kind of relationship dynamic whenever two people from opposite sides of the wealth distribution scale meet, but I wasn't there long enough to grow accustomed to it. Thankfully.

I did learn four things:

(1) Japan Airlines is easily the greatest carrier I've flown on. Seats are bigger, the cabin's cleaner, the attendants extremely kind (not surly). Plus, video games! I'm gonna try to fly JAL everytime I can. Their slogan should be Air Travel will always be awful. But with us, not near as awful as with anyone else. Actually, that's a pretty damn clunky slogan. There goes my career in advertising.

(2) Al-Qaeda, and even their apologists and sympathizers, suck. Universally. There's no conceivable excuse or justification for the lasting economic horror they inflicted on Bali. Part of me reminds myself, this isn't something new you learned, dummy. You already knew this--you've always hated terrorists, particularly those of the Islamic Fundamentalism stripe. But the truth is that, in the five years since 9/11, I've been growing soft. But going to Bali brought the fury back: these terrorist assholes are the worst monsters since the nazis, and forgetting that fact is foolish. The annihilation of Al-Qaeda and violent Islamic Fascism would be a tremendous boon to humanity.

All the locals told me the nightclub bombings have seriously changed Balinese culture, and not just for the better. Now they have excessive security for everything, and can look forward to regular shows of force put on by the military, such as this one:



(3) The Balinese are kind and wonderful people. Sure, most I met wanted to earn a few hundred thousand Rupiyah in nearly any conceivable fashion, but they behave this way because their culture accepts and expects it, and their economic situation (see #2) demands it. But make no mistake: shrewd and aggressive merchants, yes; lying and theiving cheats, no. It took some getting used to, but when I left I discovered I'd grown quite fond of the Balinese.

(4) Their island is quite beautiful, both in terms of scenery as well as culture. Here's a gazillion pictures I took. Click to enlarge.

My hotel: Melasti Beach Bungalows. Not too shabby.

Here's the Hindu cemetary separating my hotel from the ocean.

All the paths of glory lead but to the ... beach? Sounds good to me.

Aw! Wook at the cute widdle monkeys!

Nothing disrupts the Discovery Channel-watching experience like mysterious PSAs warning of "POTENSI TSUNAMI." Wonder what that might mean.

Ah, the sun sets over motor scooters, the vehicle of choice in Bali. Bali's kinda like Sturgis in the sense that the roads are clogged with these beasts. I once saw a family of four traveling on just one.

Bali kids playing soccer on the beach at sunset. I call this style "action photography" and proclaim myself mysteriously gifted at it.

Two more shots of the same sunset. I love sunsets, particularly on coasts facing west.
Here's some sunset footage:



Bali is 80-90% Hindu, so each morning you can find these offerings scattered all over everything: stairs, shops, roads, even taxi cabs. They're little baskets made of grass, and inside are flowers, burning incense, and quite often a Ritz cracker. From what little exposure to Hinduism I've had, I have to say I kind of like the religion. Ritz cracker offerings reflect prudent religious thought and good taste.

This is toward the middle of Bali, high up on the mountainside of an inactive volcano. That body of water is a lake.

Much of Bali is covered with beautiful, stepped rice fields.

Most of the silhouettes seen here are Balinese merchants who have likely spent all day trying to sell t-shirts, beers, fake tattoos, surf boards, or massages to Australian tourists. I think it's a nice picture.

Another sunset. I'm a sucker for sunsets, and Bali's rollicking Indian ocean makes for ideal wading leisurely digital photography.

Here's a funeral procession winding around my hotel to the cemetery that lies between hotel and ocean.

After the funeral, mourners gather and chant, meditate, and watch the sun set into the ocean. It's difficult for me to imagine a better way to say goodbye to a loved one.

After I tired of gawking at the funeral attendees, I wandered off to a deserted stretch of beach and watched my last sunset in Bali. I was on a plane a few hours later.