Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 9

The rich and powerful have descended with much fanfare on beautiful Bali for the G20 summit, which is being hosted by Indonesia for the year 2022. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, as your humble travel correspondent has embarked on a five week adventure to this wonderful part of the world at the same time. Mind you, the massive carbon emitting convoys I bear witness to on the streets every day as the elites shuttle from the G20 venue to their five star accommodation in Nusa Dua is something to behold, and doing wonders for local traffic conditions at the same time! I'm sure it comes about at the conclusion of another exhausting day emitting copious carbon from their lying mouths, as the elites insist on pontificating in a superior tone about what they have in store ... read more

Things are amazing on Gili Air. We have had a bit of rain in the afternoons with amazing rolling thunder! We have met a few locals and are having dinner with an expat from South Africa tomorrow. We are trying to learn the Indonesian language and it seems to be appreciated. People are amazing, food is amazing, vibe is amazing. We have gone snorkelling a few times, took a cooking class and continue to chill. Really appreciating getting to know more about Gili Air and the people. The motto here is ‘slowly slowly’ and moving through the days like this is so freeing. We have so much stress around us at home. Things are pressured with full calendars, and I am seeing how much of life I am missing by being so fully booked. Hoping to ... read more

We have decided to stay on Gili Air for another week because we love being able to stop and breathe in the beauty. We have gotten to know a few of the locals and found an amazing and well known warung (restaurant) off the main streets here and it is amazing food! Local and fresh made to order. And cheap. We are living our days with the question, ‘what shall we do next’. Not what’s the plan. Just one moment at a time. We have watched 2 thunderstorms over Lombok. One in the evening and one midday. It is quite something. We sat under our grass hut on the beach having a snack and beverage and watched the storm clouds move over Lombok. It was such an intriguing thing to see. There was a ring of ... read more

The Lempuyang Temple. (East Bali on Mt. Lempuyang) This place really is a marvel. It is one of six main temples in Bali and massive. Tourists are only allowed to be in the gathering areas, and the wait to have your picture in the infamous gateway was about 4 hours, and this was a slow day. I appreciated the beauty of this gateway, but not the tourism and social media atmosphere. We turned our attention to the stairs up to the inner prayer part of the temple, which we were not allowed to enter. It has 3 doors. 1 is for entering, the other for exit. The doors in the middle are only open during main/big ceremonies to let the spirits or Gods come in and out, but public do not use this access point. From ... read more

Before I go into any further detail, it is worth pointing out that the original blueprint for the stay in Indonesia was radically different from how it actually turned out. In the original draft, the idea was to explore Sumatra along with Kalimantan, the Indonesian area of the island of Borneo, however, various factors are responsible for this mutating into a visit to the resort island of Bali. For whatever reason was behind it, I was heading Bali-wards, with the intention of staying in 4 different areas over the spread of 12 nights, and the first portion of the stay was a couple of nights in the island's capital city of Denpasar, though hardly bearing any firm relation to the kind of tourist-oriented areas found elsewhere on the island. Denpasar, as I rightly recall, is an ... read more