basking & blogging in Bali

Hello, hello

This one will be a bit short - at least I think so - because it is late and I want to go to bed. But right now I am too excited. Yes, I have found a tango high in Indonesia. Yea! Stacie, Jenni, and I are in Bali while Deptan is closed for Eid/Lebaran/Idul Fitri. If we had to work from home, we might as well work from Bali, right? So, I flew in last Friday morning, very early. The only ticket I could get on Garuda Air was executive class. I had breakfast (the traditional fried rice plus some fried tempeh) in the executive lounge while a woman checked my baggage and got my boarding pass, etc. in order. I could get very used to that.

Our hotel is small and about one block from the beach. It has lovely architecture and a very nice little pool. The landscaping is beautiful - colorful and fragrant blossoms everywhere. My room has a very ornate door and ceiling but the lighting is poor, so the ceiling is hard to appreciate. The food I have had here on Bali so far has been amazing. Down the block at the beach is a fantastic Italian restaurant, Stiff Chili, where we keep finding ourselves - the manager (owner?) now just smirks and seems amused to see us again. Since here, I have had seafood curry, 2 different pasta dishes with seafood, a darn good hamburger, lots of pineapple juice, a goat cheese & veggie wrap, and the usual fried rice and fried noodles. Great food available in Bali, and cheap! Sarongs and sandals are abundant, as well.

Stacie and Jenni had enrolled in a 3-day SCUBA course. I have decided to wait on SCUBA until I have someone to go with and will have one of two friends, who are both dive instructors, teach me. I spent Friday in the sun and Saturday working and walking along the beach. Sunday was for the spa - 4 hours of complete pampering from head to toe. I felt like a jellyfish when it was all over, although I was a bit dehydrated from the hot baths (with flower petals, even), steam room, and scorching dry sauna. Tough life, indeed. I was very lucky on Monday that the diving group had one extra spot in the van headed to a shipwreck dive site on the north coast of Bali. I rode up there with them to snorkel while they were diving.

It was a lovely drive up to Tulamben - rice fields, beach, villages, temples, lots and lots of shrines, volcanoes. We arrived at a hotel that basically caters to divers. First we placed an order for lunch, then we set off for the water. The first mask supplied by the dive company fit horribly, and I could only get maybe 20 seconds of underwater viewing before the mask filled with water. The baby shampoo applied to the inside of the lenses to prevent fogging would then wash into my eyes; so much for the 'no tears' label. I could see the wreck and the lovely fish, but emptying the mask every few seconds got to be too much, so I gave up and went back. One of the dive instructors lent me his personal mask which, after lunch, was a vast improvement over the first one. I decided to look at the wreck some more because it was so fascinating! Apparently the wreck is a WWII Liberty class cargo ship that was built for WWI and outfitted with guns later for the second world war. It was torpedoed by the Japanese in the straight of Lombok and was being towed to Bali for repairs. While under tow, it was about to be attacked again, so the US Navy beached it at Tulamben. There it sat for 20+ years, until the volcano blew up and washed it just off shore. Now it is a very popular dive site. The hull is split open and the whole thing looks a bit eerie, although coral and bright fish liven it up. I caught the current that was sweeping over the wreck and was able to drift slowly over it twice. Very cool.

Today was a rest break from all the water activities. After working this morning, I went to the beach with Jenni. We are staying in Sanur, which is a quieter part of Bali than Kuta - the jam-packed tourist destination where the bombings occurred. I definitely prefer Sanur to Kuta, although everywhere is much more densely populated than somehow I had expected. The beach nearest our lovely little hotel is apparently popular with Indonesian families. Today we had most of it to ourselves until late afternoon when it was positively full of Indonesian families. The people watching was pretty intense - too many fat, sunburned bules showing entirely too much skin. We have also learned how to quickly and effectively fend off the beach ladies who offer to give massages, manicures, and pedicures right at your beach lounger. When we'd had enough sun, people watching, and offers for massages, we came back to the hotel.

I knew that there was a practica / milonga on Bali tonight, and I just couldn't resist trying to go. I haven't brought any tango shoes, so I set off towards the Bali Hyatt where I had seen some cute boutiques on the way to the spa. No one had high heels with an ankle strap of any sort. I finally came across a few ladies selling leather shoes along with the usual sarongs and touristy stuff. They helped me find a pair of thin leather slippers with a slight heel. Not what I had been looking for, but they had a leather sole and a strap around the heel to keep them (mostly) on. I bought them, trekked back to the hotel, scarfed soup for dinner, and headed off to Seminyak for the "pralonga." There were only 3 men dancing and too many women, but, as usual, everyone was so nice and gracious. It was splendid to be back among tango people, even if I had only just met them. That is one of the great things about the tango community - a worldwide group of friends, even if you haven't met them yet. I got in a few dances, got contact info for a tango instructor in Jakarta, and, most amazingly, exchanged contact info with Iris, who MAKES tango shoes. I can have a CUSTOM pair of tango shoes made here in Bali. Amazing! I can't wait to get back into tango while here. I hope it will raise my spirits significantly while I am stuck in Jakarta...

So, no photos yet, but I will get to that soon. Two more days to enjoy Bali then back to Jakarta. Things on the project are heating up and should get pretty "interesting" in the next several months. I have tentatively been assigned to cover West Java and South Sumatra. My Bogor field visit exposed me to West Java; I don't know anything about South Sumatra yet.

Hope everyone else finds their safe, healthy, 'high' for the day! Selamat malam!
Hugs, Edie