I am doing well. I am happy to be here and not in Jakarta anymore... I want to say that my email access is quite limited right now and so please please please forgive me if I don't write back to your personal emails -- sorry mom, dad, and Isadora -- cause it is difficult. BUT I really do appreciate hearing from you!

And my tummy is much better. Yesterday people kept telling me that I was looking so much better... then I wondered how I had looked when I was feeling awful and they said under my eyes it looked rather black. Oy. Well, I am happy to be doing better. I feel pretty relaxed. The flight went well.

Sending lots of love from Bali!!

i slept really well last night, under my mosquito net, in an un-air-conditioned room, actually a little hut all of my own in this hotel thing. it was quite interesting. there was no sink and no proper shower (but a western toilet with toilet paper!!), so i had to shower with the shower head in my hand, just on the tiles of the bathroom floor. My bathroom had a 'mandi' which is basically a tile box a couple feet deep, but you are not really supposed to stand in there and shower. at least, i don't think so, cause there is no drain in it. anyways, it was relatively cheap (i guess), there were friends in a room close-by, and i slept well.

the parts of bali i have seen so far are quite intense. so many shops. so many 'hawkers.' in case you are not yet familiar with the term, hawkers are people (mainly balinese here) who come up to you and talk to you trying to sell you things. sitting on the beach there were these women who kept coming up to me offering me manicures or offering to braid my hair. if you talk to them then they won't go away. so i kinda learned to say uh-uh and ignore them. seemed effective. but i read somewhere that it can be interesting also to start asking them about themselves. maybe i will try that sometime. ;)

last night i actually saw a little accident but nobody got hurt. it was this guy on a motorbike whizzing by to the left of a car that decided to make a left turn (with or without a turn signal?)... somebody honked shortly before it happened. and the biker just kind of got bumped aside. but everybody was fine. but really, traffic is sooo much better here than it is in jakarta! even when people complain about traffic being bad in a certain area it is still a million times better than jakarta. wow. and no clouds of smoke trailing every other vehicle.

this is definitely a hindu culture. when you walk along the sidewalk you see little offerings everywhere on the ground. just little boxes, maybe 5x5 inches, made of corn husks or some sort of leaves... and little goodies (plants and flowers) inside. you have to make sure not to step on them!! right outside my hut this morning this woman was making an offering and it was interesting for me to watch. there is actually a little gated area where there are statues and it is sort of a mini-temple thing. she had incense type stuff.

i don't like the fact that everybody here speaks english. i have to remember that i am a guest here. and the whole tourist thing seems to be a real love-hate relationship. what i mean is that the tourists are the reason that bali is the wealthiest place in indonesia. and yet they have totally changed the place. it is strange to get into a taxi and find my friends expecting the driver to speak english. and then he does! this would have been so unusual in jakarta...

last night my friends and i had a bad run-in with a taxi driver. it was an unmetered taxi and we had agreed on a price beforehand. i did not really think taking an unmetered car was a good idea, but there were five of us (I was the only woman) so it did not seem that bad. well, the driver was supposed to take us to 2 different places. and when we got to the first place he said that he had understood only to take us to this one place, he did not know where the second hotel was. so one of my friends started explaining our case and the driver was arguing. then suddenly the driver said something about taking us someplace and so we all got scared and got out of the car. we had not paid him by this time. we started to walk away, it was a little scary... and then the driver came after my friend who had been arguing about it. they were pushing each other a little bit and yelling. my friend told passers-by to call the police. in the end we gave him most or all of the money because really the money wasn't a big deal -- it is amazing how picky you can get about 50 cents out here!! -- and so it was ok. and i think we were safe all along. it just was such a stupid situation to be in. it is so easy to be given a big run-around and to get cheated as a foreigner here. but i think i have to remember that i am a guest in this country and that even when i get cheated it is cheaper than it would be back home. please don't get scared by reading this story. afterward we just caught another cab, a metered one, and went back to the hotel. the only reason we didn't get a regular cab to begin with is cause we had dinner out at the beach where there weren't very many cars around at all. but it was a VERY delicious dinner. :)

bali sure is an interesting place!

It sure is beautiful out here. I am getting the chance to see lots of familiar faces and that is really nice for me. There is such a great contrast between the two parts of Bali I have seen so far and certainly between that and Jakarta. And so many people just see one little side of it. I know that I still have not seen very much of it at all... and I expect other parts will be really different too...

The air is clean. It is pretty cool out here. A nice breeze. Yeah, I can see why there are more tourists here than back in Jakarta! :) It's also more expensive, but c'est la vie.

My server seems to be down and that is annoying. So this message will probably be posted after the fact. Oh, well, that's life too! Especially when it comes to dealing with computers. At least the shift key works properly at this internet place... Oh my gosh! They just played this really very cheesy, very enthusiastic German love song: "Du... Du bist alles..." something like that -- such CHEESE!!

So... Bali... I feel like I have been going through a major change that really has been going on since I have been in Indonesia. Basically I have been dealing with how to be calm and not do too much. To not feel bad about missing out on things, not need to be doing everything. And really I would love to be doing everything. But I need to take care of myself! And that means I need quiet time to myself and not to be running around all the time. :) Not that I have been manic or anything. Actually I have become a lot more relaxed out here.

One thing that bugs me about this place is how I feel so constantly like people are wanting to get as much money out of me as they can and this makes me really feel defensive. Taxi drivers are constantly asking me my name, my age, where I am from, if I am married, if I am a student, etc. From now on I am just going to say my name is Janet (Jackson?), I am 17, I am engaged to be married and I am a student. Or something like that. Anyways, the drivers are always also tour guides or know tour guides who can show me around. And where there is an opportunity to make extra money people seem to want to take it...

What else... People drive much faster out here. And there are so many people zipping around on motorbikes. Whole families on one bike. It looks so hip. It looks like fun.

Another nice thing is that I met my dad at the airport last night and it was great to see him again after being in Indonesia for a while. Yay, my family! :)

I feel pretty healthy. Life is good. I hope to write again soon. :)

First of all I want to say that every single sunset here has been just beautiful -- so colorful! It is amazing. No wonder they get all the tourists...

And if you have images of Bali including women carrying big items on their heads as they walk down the street then you are right on. They are not all over the place but you do see them as you drive down the road. You also sometimes see people in those straw cone-shaped hats. And there are rice paddies. But you will not end up seeing the rice paddies if you just stick to resort areas.

When I went to the mall for internet access the other day, I found myself feeling like I was in Indonesia again. In the mall there were few tourists. Stuff was really cheap. 25 minutes on the internet for 2000 Rupiah (which is less than 20 cents!)... Anwyays, as I rode in the taxi on the way back to my hotel, I found myself looking in the streets and feeling like maybe I could be back in Jakarta. Why? I think it was mainly the narrow streets without proper sidewalks, and the sewer canals. Yes, sewer canals. But not that disgusting really.

One thing that has been challenging for me out here has been independence. I am a very independent person and I sometimes need to just go off and do my own thing. Out here for some reason I have felt really wrong doing this. I say this having just come out to Legian on my own and feeling good about it today. But on many occasions I have gotten into a taxi on my own here and felt like I am breaking some sort of rule. I am not talking of feeling unsafe, cause I have always felt safe, just that what I am doing is somehow inappropriate. And that is a little challenging for me because I do like to be on my own.

Just wanted to talk about money more. Last night I had a conversation about it with friends and we agreed that when we get into money situations where we disagree with a taxi driver or feel like we are getting ripped off, it feels VERY unpleasant for us. We end up becoming untrusting and money becomes too much of an issue. And it is not the money so much as the principal. Sometimes I think I would rather pay a little more than have to bargain. There is always this feeling that people want to get as much money as possible... and you always need to figure out what the fine print is. You get a great price -- but what is the catch. Last night at dinner, for example, we got 10% off. We got the bill and the amount taken off was less than 10%. Turned out the 10% was only on food. But in the end we felt really bad because there was all this mistrust between us and the restaurant. Very unpleasant...

Having said all that, I just bargained for a saron and a pretty dress and it was actually fun! It was really easy because they invite me to bargain. It is really quite straightforward. If I just don't worry about the fact that I could have gotten a better price then it is ok. The only thing I need to watch out for is that I don't end up buying things I don't want just because I can bargain down to a good deal! It is so tempting. I ask how much something is... I look at it... they start bargaining and before I bargain I need to decide if I really want it or not. Otherwise I will get really good deals on things I don't want. What is the point of that??

Anyways, I think that is enough for now. :)

There are loads of funny sounding frogs here. Very funny. They sound computer-generated and unreal. I just hear them at night.

Yesterday this guy caught a little baby lizard and it was sooo beautiful and so I carried it around for a while and showed it to my friends. Then I started to feel bad for it though I would have loved to have kept it. So I let it go.

I have to run. Forgive me for not reading nor writing back to emails! I am doing well and wishing you all the best!

So... I am still in the land of motorcycles. I have gotten some more photos developed but am still trying to sort out getting them scanned... And what else is going on in my life?

The other day I had one of the most incredible performances of my life. I sang Amazing Grace a capella to a most wonderful audience. It was so powerful! It was exhilarating.

Bats. There are loads of bats here. I only will see one at a time, but they fly pretty low...

This evening I went for a walk on my own. I got lots of people saying "Hallo. Hallo. Hallo." Of course they were trying to sell me something... Sometimes I would surprise them with some Indonesian and other times I would just keep walking. I felt very safe.

I am quite tired. I am doing well. I have been for the most part just hanging out in one place so I don't have that much to say right now... but that is how it goes... :) Oh, yeah, it was really hot today. And I have been going through a lot of stuff, but all for the good I am sure.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to play music (improvised guitar and voice) while a young Javanese woman performed penca silak (something like that!) which is a Javanese martial art form... it was soo neat!

Can you tell I am tired and a little bit scattered?

One last big thing. I have been learning a wonderful lesson out here. Sometimes it can be just sooo good to say no to things! Since I have been in Indonesia I have been in two distinct situations in which I was asked to do something, felt that I did not want to do about it, stressed out a little bit, and then said no in the end. In both situations I found that guilt was absolutely unnecessary as everything worked out so well! Somebody else took care of each task and did a much better job than I would have ever been able to do! In both cases I saw that because I got sick or went through my own stuff, I would not have been able to do the job well. Whereas things turned out beautifully and the people who took over the tasks enjoyed them and benefited greatly from it all! I don't think I am explaining it that well... but really all I am trying to say is that by saying no to something I can be giving a gift to someone else and just generally doing the right thing. And it is not a good idea to say yes out of a sense of guilt or pressure. It usually just leads to more guilt and pressure! As my dad was telling me yesterday, with every door that you shut, another one opens... Something like that. :)

Good night. Selamat tidur.

The classic line in bargaining is that the price I am asking for is going to make the person bankrupt. They know all hte most important English words. Like bankrupt. Isn't that the first word you learn in another language? Anyways, the point is really that the Balinese have got to be some of the best sales people ever! So pushy and good at it! I constantly find myself almost buying something I don't want... Buyers beware!

Today I was in a restaurant with my friends and there was a little MONKEY climbing around in the tree right by us!! I was so excited because it was my first real-life not-in-a-zoo monkey. Really neat.

It is drizzling.

One more thing about bargaining... apparently it is bad luck to not sell something when the bargaining begins, or something like that. I hope to find out more about it before I leave. I think I will have the opportunity to improve my Indonesian out here. Already I have seen myself using it a lot more today. For example, the place where I am staying they don't speak any English. Yay!

Oh, one more thing about bargaining. Yesterday I bought a gorgeous, big drum. It required a two-day bargaining process through which I brought the price down from 1,000,000 Rupiah to 300,000. I was pretty happy, though I could have probably brought him down even more...? That is how I always feel though. I guess it comes from the way you bargain hard for something, and as soon as you have bought it, somebody else offers you another one for half the price! Too late...

So I climbed out of my mosquito net and into the cold shower... as I was in the shower my friend asked what I wanted for breakfast: an omelet, a pancake, or a sandwich? (This was the free breakfast at my homestay...) Uh... Sandwich please. A few moments later, me still in the shower: Egg, banana, or pinapple sandwich? Then I just laughed. How funny to be here!

Today I went snorkeling for the first time in my life. On the way there we had a gorgeous car ride through hills and with beautiful views of rice paddies... Wow! Wow!! And I got to see this place where they make silver jewelry... and we watched them working on the jewelry -- the silver was on fire! I took a couple rolls of film today.

Snorkeling was really neat. At first it was scary because it was hard to get past the waves and coral. And I had to pay attention before it became more natural for me to breath in through my mouth only. I only ran into problems when I would try to say something to my friend, forgetting I was snorkeling, or would laugh about something. I did much better on my own.... The fish were just gorgeous! So many VIVID colors! I followed around a couple of fish for a while... Hung out with these blue iridescent fish that had all sorts of rainbow colors too... And they were about a foot long each. Wow. And there were those yellow and black zebra striped fish with the really long crest type thing... What an amazing day!!

Not only does the typical Indonesian seem much more limber and adept at SQUATTING than the typical "westerner", but they are generally willing and happy to put up with all sorts of conditions that we are not accustomed to... all of this out of habit.

However, I have my own habits. For example, back home in L.A., I am quite used to driving 40 minutes to see some friends or do something else that might be quite ordinary. 40 minutes simply is not a big deal to me when it comes to travel time. And I am also in the habit of being quite independent (and especially out here I can afford, financially, to be that way). But I found myself making perhaps a faux-pas out here through following my habits. I took a trip to Denpasar area, only to return a couple hours later to Ubud, only to return tomorrow, early in the morning to Denpasar. I fear that I have been quite insensitive through my seeming wastefulness. Honestly, if I could have known how things would turn out I certainly would have preferred not to be so wasteful. But sometimes in order to be spontaneous one gives up on some efficiency. Sorry I am being so vague about this. I hope it makes some sense.

Tomorrow I am heading off with a bunch of Austrians to go on a 2- or 3-day trip to the north and esat of Bali. I am looking forward to it. I don't have to be alone. :) And I get to see loads of things in an efficient way. Actually I am quite happy to follow along with other people on what they are planning because I am happy to see just about anything and don't have to see anything in particular (though Gunung Agung, the huge volcano, beckons me!)...

So, good night. And plesae forgive me if emails are sparse or absent in the next couple of days! Selamat malam!

Today I took a GORGEOUS drive through central Bali. Bali is so small. And now I am sitting in Lovina. Next door to this internet cafe a live band is playing "I Will Survive." That is at least the third time I have heard that song played live in Indonesia. Perhaps it is their national anthem? Wouldn't that be somewhat appropriate? (Maybe I should actually listen to the lyrics first!)

Anyways, today I visited a couple of temples and then the Gitgit Waterfall. The water was just pouring down with so much power! The mist went quite far. It was gorgeous. Loads of Indonesian boys playing in the water and then a couple of very precarious but lovely bamboo/wood bridges. The only bummer was that the nice little path to the falls was lined with desperate sales people. "Sarong. Nice Sarong. Only 15,000 Rupiah. Ok. 10,000 Rupiah. Good Price. 5,000 Rupiah." As I am walking by. The most depressing were the little kids, maybe 5 to 7 years old, trying to sell little necklaces for 1,000 Rupiah. And they just say "1,000," or something simple like that, over and over again.

Anyways, I am staying in a quaint room right by the beach. There is supposed to be great snorkeling here, and time to be spent with the dolphins. But last time I went snorkeling I got scratched up and now I am debating whether or not it would be a good idea to go again, especially as my scrapes are not yet healed...

Other than that... I am trying to take it really easy because I can feel myself ont he verge of getting sick. Or maybe I have a little cold and I want to keep it from getting bad. So I am just going to enjoy sleeping a lot. :)

The place I am staying has loads of ants and mosquitoes because the walls are not solid and I guess something must be attracting the ants. They are all over the toilet seat. The shower has hot water but absolutely NO water pressure!! There are maybe three tiny little strands of water that drip rather than pour. Incredible. The bathroom is actually has no roof. It was neat because when I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night I looked up as I was washing my hands and there were sooo many stars!

BUT I am very close to the beach. And the neatest thing for me was hearing the insects (crickets) as I was falling asleep, along with the quiet crashing of the waves... wow...

This morning in Lovina I had an adventure. I got up at real early so I could meet my friends and our guide at 5:30 a.m. to take a boat out to watch dolphins at sunrise. It was so beautiful! We got into this funny little boat... and off we went, into the sea, motor all a-buzz. And let me tell you, our boat was definitely the fastest. Not a single time did another guy manage to pass us! Anyways, imagine tourists sitting in these boats, always with an Indonesian man sitting atop the back, driving the thing. At first everyone is just rushing to get out there, going in seemingly random directions. Then suddenly this mob mentality starts and The Hunt Is On.

Maybe somebody points in a direction, or maybe boats just see other boats going that way, but suddenly you have loads (44 when I counted!) of these little boats all in one area, each one hoping to get the best view of the dolphin that just made a very brief appearance.

There were way too many boats! The dolphins (only one at a time on four occasions...) had no chance. No sooner did a dolphin surface than it was surrounded by these little boats who were all trying to get a closer view.

Well, anyway, it was beautiful and it was a lot of fun. That is what these photos are about. I have also included a photo of a temple we visited on the road a couple days ago. It is a temple that is on a lake. Very beautiful.

Oh, yeah, I thought it was worth mentioning that yesterday I went to a restaurant with one of my friends. And when he wanted a second drink, the waiter asked if he wanted a magic mushroom something-or-other drink. I was kinda surprised but apparently this is a widely-served drink out there?

...

WELL WELL WELL... I was wondering why the dollar now gets so many less Rupiah than it did three days ago... And in a store today I heard a woman on the phone say "President Megawati" but I tried to ask what this was about and unfortunately my Indonesian vocabulary is just not good enough yet... So I was totally clueless about the fact that Megawati became the President of Indonesia! I am really quite surprised because the Balinese are such big Megawati supporters... how is it that I failed to see any celebrations or other signs of a new president?!? Anyways, it sure is easy to be totally ignorant when you travel. And especially when my main way of keeping up is by reading "The Economist", and I am more than a week behind! Well, well, well... I am just glad I followed my instinct and checked out CNN.com and looked at the Asia section! Congratulations to Megawati.

Well, that may all sound a bit negative, but I did actually do some interesting and even nice things today. :)

I got up and went to the market first thing, trying to get those good "morning price[s]." "Good for you, good for me." And when I did buy something they would take the bills I handed them and tap my purchase and lots of other things in their stalls with my bills... saying something about good luck as they went along... But when I did not buy something they would get openly mad at me. Today I thought about how some of the things people here do work against them. For example, I am no longer willing to "just look" at things in a store. I have to do a fast survey without the people noticing that anything specific caught my eye. If I do go into a shop and then decide I don't want anything... or heaven forbid I try on something or ask about the price... well, then there is this great disappointment on the part of the seller. And while people in their stalls are encouraging me to come in, saying "just looking okay", the pushier they are the less likely I am to go in because the more likely it is I will have a hard time getting out without hard feelings...

The exciting things I did today (other than get totally frustrated with hotmail and the internet in general) included going to the monkey forest and having a massage!! :) The monkey forest was really neat, there were just loads of monkeys. And I bought some bananas beforehand to feed them. There were these TINY baby monkeys hanging on to their parents, nursing, and being dragged by their tails by their parents... This one baby monkey in particular was dragged by the tail and could not keep up so it was just skidding along the ground (ouch!) and it started squealing. Much better when the parents have the babies clutching to their bellies as they walk along. Anyhow, it was all really neat.

Then the massage. I went to this place called "Zen Body Holiday" and just had a 25 minute shoulder and back massage... WOW! I think I was the only customer, and the place was so neat! As I walked to the massage room I walked across these beautiful mosaic stepping stones with water between them... and they had great relaxing music playing... I felt like I was being treated like a queen! It was sooo good. I am going to go back. (It was only about $3!)

Anyways, departure date approaches, and I am quite ok with that. :)

I found out that I cannot change my flight unless I get a doctor's note, so scrap that idea. So I had some lunch, got a cream bath for my hair and scalp (wow, what a treat!!)... and just kind of passed the day away. When the time came, I went to meet my friend for dinner. I was going to be early but I could not find his place... So I went up and down the road for such a long time, trying to figure out where he was really staying. In the process I ran into another couple of friends, which was also a relief. Then finally I figured out where to go (and it had been misspelled)... the woman at the place said the group had just left 5 minutes before.

I did not get frustrated. I started walking and thought I would keep an eye out for my friends in the restaurants I passed... I was walking down a street when I decided to kind of get a feel for which direction I should go. I decided to turn around. I got to the corner. Should I go right? No. Should I go straight? Uh-uh. No. Should I go left? Ok. So I went left. I stopped in a couple of restaurants, vainly trying to check for my friends. I continued on to another corner where I would decide again which way to go... Suddenly I heard my name and it was yet another group of friends! Well, they were headed off to dinner but waiting for others. In the end I went with them to a place where the people I had been looking for all along were eating! So I found the people I had been looking for and I had another group of friends to have a fun dinner with.

The Dinner. Well, I waited more than one-and-a-half hours for my food. I was the last one at my table to get it. And while everyone was fussing about it and complaining I found that it just did not bother me that much that I had to wait so long (even though I had been hungry for hours!). Indonesia really has had a great impact on me. Back home I would have been just furious. Anyhow, the meal was DELICIOUS. I had "Balinese Village Food". Specifically, I had rice with fern and coconut slivers. A very nice light but filling meal. Very mild. Hit the spot. :)

Yup. What a day it has been!

The other day I went with a girl to get honey-cucumber facials... It was so hilarious! There we were, lying on these tables, with cucumbers laid out neatly covering our faces... Slipping off as we were unable to stop laughing. The ladies who had laid these cucumber slices on our faces were sweetly saying "sleeping... sleeping..." for directions. I wish I could have had photos!!

I have to pack. I have to get a ride together for tomorrow. I head off to the airport. I have a few more things to buy... and today I mainly am going to try to do this all in a relaxed and enjoyable manner.

I look forward to showers that are not ice cold. I look forward to walking down the street without having to watch my every step (so I don't break bones by tripping over something or missing a sudden dip or crack in the sidewalk!)... I look forward to having conversations as I walk down the street that are not interrupted by "transport, miss?". Clean air will be nice too. This morning when I woke up I could smell that stench of burning trash. In my room! No wonder I have been waking up all groggy and congested and allergic feeling. Yuk! Oh, yes, and the sounds of roosters will be replaced by barking dogs.

Home sweet home. And yet I will miss this place. Should I buy that CD of traditional Balinese music that gets played EVERYWHERE? :)

It is always the little things that make the biggest impressions... like the massive sprawl of cement that is a parking lot -- such a waste of space... getting our groceries put into 3 bags when one would have sufficed -- such a waste of plastic... the impatient driver behind me this morning... just THE WAY people talk... The air here feels so different. I feel tight, all the pressures are coming back. In Indonesia people don't seem to care so much about how successful you are and how much money you have. They just aren't that focused on it. (It would be too depressing?) There are so many pressures out here to do this and that, be this and that... and all I am thinking is that I don't see why I should care and I feel like I can't keep up with it. Well, I guess it took me a while to acclimate to being in Indonesia and it will similarly take me a while to adjust to being here. And some of the changing and growing I have done will wear off and some of it will show its marks on me forever. How exactly this trip has impacted my attitudes, my values, my life -- that still remains to be seen. Isn't that the way it always goes?

At least I have seen and tasted this little bit of Indonesia, which at times might as well be another world.

Welcome back to LOS ANGELES! I hope you have enjoyed this trip, with all its ups and downs as much as I have. :)

Part 1: Jakarta

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