I could not sleep last night, not really surprising considering, so if this does not make much sense then that’s what I’ll blame it on rather than the usual narcissism and lack of talent. I was sitting in my office at home and pulled out some slides (as in photo slides) of a trip I took in ’92 to South East Asia. I’ve talked about this briefly before; the short version is I was traveling through South East Asia for a few months accompanied by a Swiss girl, Lili. It was a wonderful time, having the chance to fully indulge a passion and just what people in their 20’s should take the opportunity to do.
This all happened in late March, about 10 days after we watched sunrise sitting on top of an active volcano. We traveled across the Bali Straight from Java to Bali and down to the tourist resort of Kuta. We spent a few days there before heading up into the mountains of Bali and Ubud. The mountains of Bali are just beautiful and I really need to find a way to get some of my slides scanned. After Ubud and the Elephant temple, Monkey forest and just wonderful scenery we ended up in Lovina. It is a stunning place, 5 miles of unspoilt black sand beach looking over a beautiful, beautiful bay. Bali is a beautiful place and this was a lifetime away from the crowded beached of Kuta and Nusa Dua.
Lovina is known for two things, the fantastic beach and dolphins. And like most tourists that ended up there, we were there for the latter, but the beach was wonderful.
Throughout Indonesia there is someone selling something, at Lovina it was Sarongs and boat rides to see the dolphins. As we stepped onto the beach we were greeted with “Sarong… You buy sarong…” repeated over and over by a couple of persistent sales women. According to my diary we brought four sarongs between us as presents for 20,000 rupiah, which was about $7 at the time.
We weren’t there to shop; we were there for the dolphins. That meant we had to get up at 6am, walk down to the beach and get on a boat that motored out into the bay.
At the time I wrote, “There were 4 of us on the narrow boat and we were joined by other boats, I counted 17 in total. All jockeying for position in the bay. One of the boats spotted the school of dolphins, the call went out and off they went.”
“The dolphins were coming right up to the sides of the boats and after a couple of minutes the dolphins disappeared under the water. The boats slow until someone spots them and the chase is on again. The dolphins come right up to the boats and the whole thing was well worth the early start.”
Indonesia really was one of my top traveling experiences. Yeah, you can enjoy great beaches and nightlife at places like Kuta, but there is so much more to see like the history of Borobudur and the beauty of Ubud. It’s a vast country, and I saw very little of it, but what I did was wonderful. It was traveling at its finest, adventurous, off the beaten track with welcoming hosts and so much to experience.
It has been a weekend with a lot to get done, a lot to prepare for, drugs to be taken, house to be cleaned and thoughts to be distracted. As part of that I took a trip Safeco to watch a rather resurgent Mariners team taking on the leagues best in Philadelphia. A good Mariners win, he first I’ve seen since last May I think. A beautiful night for baseball.
Today is surgery, I’m getting picked up at 6 to head to the hospital, and I’m scared. I’ve had friends phoning and just seeing how I am, friends are planning on staying over once I’m home and I’m so grateful for all the offers of help and messages of support.
Today as part of the preparation I got my head buzzed, #0 blade all over, and it’s not a good look for me.
The distractions have been good, thanks guys.
