Reporting from Ubud, Bali

This morning, I got on a flight for Denpasar Bali and made it to Sri Sunari Inn, a homestay inn that I found on tripadvisor.com.

It's backdrop is rice paddy fields. Ducks muck about in the mud and everything is lush and green. Bali is different from what I imagined. It is beautiful but in a very raw, globalized, human way. Davey (in Japan) and Theresa (in Singapore) had warned me that Bali is very much a part of a developing country, not just some resort haven. I was a bit naiive and thought that since multitudes of expats are flocking there, it must be something akin to a cozier, cheaper Hawaii.

Instead, poverty is very apparent and stray dogs wander around everywhere. Many buildings seem to be in mid-construction.

For the first few hours of my arrival, I sat by the pool and looked out into the distance thinking, what was Elizabeth Gilbert thinking? In her Eat, Pray, Love book, she talks about how after a while of being here, she began to see that the Balinese were real people too with real problems underneath the contented smiles and their joy in working and serving. They weren't some pseudo godlike people who happened to strike the perfect balance between pleasure and work after all.

I could tell that as soon as I looked out my airplane window. It doesn't take much to recognize poverty and the effects of globalization. Anyways, the lack of awareness boggles me. I would have never mistaken the Balinese for some kind of perfectly balanced people. It's obvious it's a hardscrabble life here.

It's a bit far from the center of Ubud so Wayan, the nephew of Nyoman the manager, took me for a scooter ride to Nur Salon mid-afternoon. I treated myself to a traditional javanese massage--2 hours of massage, body scrub, and flower petal infused bath. I lay in the bathtub and looked up at the sky through my semi-open air room thinking, "My life feels the most random it has ever felt. wow."

Perhaps random is good. I don't know how else to describe being in tokyo, Singapore, and bali within the span of 3 days. It feels really bizarre and thrilling all at the same time.

My goal on this trip to Bali is pretty simple. To enjoy every day, to read a lot, to write, and to discover more of who God made me to be. I think it will be an interesting time.