Prologue As you may recall from my New York blogfrom July, I decided to resume limited and cautious travel when I came to realize that Covid was here to stay. Up until mid-October, I was dithering on whether and where to go. My first preference was Singapore because I hadn't seen my family in almost two years, and so I monitored whether Singapore would waive quarantine for vaccinated travelers. My backup plan was to go to Canada or Europe. In September, Singapore opened up Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) with Germany and Brunei. I wasn't holding out hope that they would add a VTL from the United States in the near future because the Covid situation in the US was awful, and vaccination rates had stalled. But, rather unexpectedly, Singapore announced a VTL with the United States. ... read more

I started writing this as an intro paragraph on my upcoming New York blog, but I soon realized this deserved its own blog entry. I've organized this blog thematically and it is not in chronological order. Please read the descriptive text on the photos for additional information. Work in the Time of Covid In early 2020, we all watched with growing concern as news spread about the emergence of a new virus. In early March 2020, my employer decided to transition all non-frontline workers to work from home (WFH). Apart from a mad scramble to obtain VPN licenses, the transition was surprisingly smooth. My company primarily uses Go To Meeting for our online meetings. Thankfully, it isn't in our culture to turn on our cameras. When Covid hit, I was starting to expand my team. I ... read more

I first visited Ubud 26 years ago. Back then, there weren’t any Starbucks stores, there were rice fields in the middle of town, and the market sold produce, not penis shaped souvenirs. Despite it becoming overcrowded and overbuilt, Ubud has never lost its grip on me. One of the hazards of visiting Ubud is that you get sucked in and you never explore other parts of Bali. In my four prior visits, I’d only made a handful of day trips out of Ubud. This time round, I decided to venture further afield. I’d heard positive reports about the mountain town of Munduk, northwest of Ubud, so we decided to head there for a couple of days. Our driver Ketut picked us up and headed north. Our first stop was the Bedugul Botanic Gardens for Trixie to ... read more

Apart from Tana Toraja, one other place in Indonesia known for its unusual death rituals is the village of Trunyan, which is located along the shores of Lake Batur, about an hour north of Ubud. This village is unique because, unlike other Balinese who typically cremate their dead, they leave their dead out to decompose next to a sacred tree. The tree is said to mask the smell of the decomposing corpses. I’d been to Bali four times before and I’ve always wanted to visit this site, but each time I put off going there because it was difficult and expensive to get to. This time round, with Trixie in tow, I bit the bullet and booked a trip with a local tour company. Our driver and guide met us near our accommodation at Penestanan, and ... read more

By most standards, The 50 Year Old Backpacker (“T50YOB”) is much more (fool)hardy than his peers. He loves to travel the rustic way because it is more interesting and fun. His peers roll their eyes when he talks excitedly about his travels; they cannot fathom why he doesn’t just want to sip mai tais at a resort. Or, even worse, go on a cruise. But, T50YOB knows that he cannot travel like he used to 25 years ago, so he makes concessions. Despite this, from time to time, he needs to get his a** kicked to remind him that sometimes, age is more than a number. Upon conclusion of the amazing time he had in Tana Toraja, T50YOB had two options to get back to Makassar for his onward trip to Bali. He could: (1) hire ... read more