I have been in Bali for 21 days now and am beginning to relax! It was difficult at first because of the manic state I was in before leaving home. And I was thrown into the Ubud night life by my next door neighbor from Canada, Maxine. She is 68 years old and has been coming to Bali since 1986 for 6 months every year! If she wasn't introducing me to another Balinese Dance Performance (these are held several times a week throughout the area) it was another jazz café or blues bar! She returned to Canada June 2 so she crammed all her favorite things in the last few days, especially since she had a new awestruck person to show it all to!! There is no doubt about it, I have had fun! But I am exhausted. Actually I ended up a tiny bit sick and slept pretty much all day (and night) for the better part of three days. I will settle into a quieter space now. After all, this is one of the primary reasons I came to Bali, for a personal journey without AND within.

The first 10 days in Ubud (I spent my first 4 days in the quiet comfort of Susan Spilman's home!) I went to 3 Traditional Balinese Dance Performances, to the Jazz Café 3 times and took four 2 hour bike rides up into the rice fields at 7:00 in the morning. The 68 year old ran me ragged! This in addition to meeting new people, walking all over town every morning and afternoon to familiarize myself with the area...anyone who knows me understands I am a bit directionally handicapped. (I don't want to count the number of times I have been in a store in the mall and gone left into a store and come out and headed left to get back to where I was!) So my best technique is familiarity. I start in a small perimeter and moved out from there. I keep a business card of Gandra's on me at all times and am considering writing on the back "if found please return to Gandra's House". One of my habits has always been walking in a spacey kind of way, just looking around at all the sights. (I hear my daughter Robin saying, "Yep, that's her.") Here that mode of walking is perilous! To call the sidewalks uneven is such an understatement. Apparently there is a drainage system under the sidewalks and they must pull them up occasionally. This creates 6-10 inch drops in the sidewalk plus an enormous amount of breakage and the drains look to me as treacherous as an open pit. Therefore, I walk with my head down, who knows what Ubud really looks like! Actually I frequently stop and just take it all in, and I am still fascinated.

Little by little I am beginning to absorb the atmosphere and the beautiful energy here; friendly, peaceful and unhurried. Many of the women still carry most everything on their head and walk in a carefully measured way...beautiful to watch, especially when they are dressed for a special occasion. The men also, walk slowly and have an open and ready smile to give. Even people on motorbikes wait patiently with no yelling or even an impatient look on their face if someone is in their way. Amazing!!

I am beginning to understand why people find it hard to either leave here or to stay away! The magic of Bali, I think, happens gradually and you are lured into this beautiful energy. However, I am a little disconcerted at how difficult it has been to settle into this pace. Apparently I was busier than I thought in my previous life!! Just sitting and watching the rain or doing absolutely nothing has proved to be as difficult as the 3 day meditation I embarked on in March which I thought was going to be a piece of cake...(wrong!) Maybe Bali is an extension of that small beginning.

An unexpected and totally enjoyable advantage for me of staying in a Guesthouse is meeting travelers from all over the world; I wouldn't have wanted to stay anywhere else...As opposed to a hotel, most of the living space is outside, on the porch naturally, since the room is just a bedroom and bath. Breakfast is served on the porch along with a thermos of tea. Being in a compound with gardens throughout leads to people just wandering around as well. When someone new arrives a conversation is started immediately and travel questions and advice begin soon after. You pay when you leave and are free to stay day to day with no limit since there are no reservations.

There are the typical 25-35 year olds traveling alone or in pairs, and the hearty retiree free of obligations and the fears that often plague middle age!! But also there are families; right now we have a French woman and her 13 year old daughter who have been traveling for 9 months throughout Southeast Asia. And another couple from France traveling for a year with an 8 year old daughter whom they are home schooling. She speaks 5 languages now and absorbs things faster than I can pronounce them! A few days after I arrived Ben, 28 from England and Emmi, 28 from Finland arrived on a 2 week holiday. Then Marko, 26 from France is traveling Bali and Java for "just a month" he says "because I have a job." Poor Euro guy, only a month vacation his first year on the job!!

Photo above and right - Emmi and Ben, packed and ready to go. 

Then, my favorite, a 70 something year old woman from Holland, Janneke, traveling alone, first time in Indonesia. Unlike me, she didn't just settle into a safe cosmopolitan place like Ubud. No, she took planes trains and boats all over Java and the surrounding islands. I was fascinated with the exotic names like Yogyakarta, Serabaya, and Sulawesi. She actually caught a cargo ship, (with passenger cabins) from somewhere to somewhere for a 3 day journey to some island in the Java Sea!! I wanted to ask from where to where but my mouth was stuck in the drop jaw position! And she was such a sweet soft spoken lady. Former teacher of handicapped adolescence in Holland and a member of a performing choir. She looked like the typical white haired grandmother but when a taxi driver in Java tried to charge her $70,000 rupiahs instead of the $17,000 they had agreed on (she had made him write it out...$17,000) she folded her arms and refused to exit the taxi!! The police finally came and she paid the $17,000 with the policeman standing there laughing! She said "I knew $70,000 was just too much! Right. Of course, I would have handed over a $100,000 rupiah bill and said "keep the change!" Just let me off in front of the hotel!! By the way $100,000 Rupiah is roughly $10 American dollars!

All, regardless of age here at Gandra's, are friendly backpackers with travel guides and a sense of wonder and wanderlust!! Everyone has their own personal space but a strong sense of community is present too. Someone is always sitting on a porch and welcoming one more person to the conversation.

Just to let you know the type of travelers I am around every day, besides Grandma Excursion, the little French girl, 8 year old Cloe, came up as I was scrutinizing a map of Indonesia and trying in my head to pronounce S-u-l-a...and she immediately looks at the map and says "Oh, Sulawesi, I have been there." Sure you have...how do you say brat in Indonesian...ha...ha.

Photo left- Cloe far left with traveling friends staying at Gandra's House

Of course I am only kidding. Right? See, I am not really a traveler. I have hardly been further than Atlanta by myself. And here I am in freaking Indonesia around people who rattle off names like Laos and Bangkok and Sulawesi like I do Ybor City!! When I say "where is the best beach around here they look at me like..."don't you read Lonely Planet? What are you looking for? Snorkeling, coral reefs, surfing, diving?" Ahhhh, just sitting on the sand and watching big waves???? Maybe catching a sunset?? So they smile and wander off to discuss with the other "Travelers" where the best Warung in the neighborhood is. Warung, local café just a step above a street cart, personally I only go to places that have the blackboard in English outside and feature a white wine.

I am quite sure I stick out like a big white thumb but I make no excuses and I refuse to pay $35 for a new lonely planet guide when I can just use the 15 year old one here. Most of the places still have the same name. Anyway, anywhere I go will probably be on a bus. With air con. With other lily livered westerners. And a destination with a return to my guesthouse. How do you say gutless in Indonesian?

So to pass the evenings, since most of the adult trekkers have pretty much found out all there is to know about me...(porch sitter) I have been playing Rummykubes with the 13 year old French girl, Clemance. (Looks and acts 18. See the dangers of traveling, premature maturity!) and Gandra's niece who is 9. Maxine started her on Rummykubes who knows when, the thing is, at 9 years old and with limited English, she is a killer Rummykube player. Very strategic and serious but with the most infectious laugh ever when something ticks her. Usually winning. Her name is Anna. Precious.

As much fun as all the people are and the activity is at Gandra's, now, I am in the mood for solitude. So I am at one of the internet cafes sitting at an Asian style table cross-legged on a cushion having a glass of Balinese wine, ($1.90) and some prawn & veggie spring rolls ($2.30) with a beautiful candle burning in a bowl of oil and a waiter with a frangipani over his ear!...For me in Bali, Life is Good.

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