I believe that sometimes you need to take a temporary leave from your day to day life, to a beautiful place, to really realize and enjoy how beautiful, wonderful, spontaneous, terrifying, and beyond-anything-you've-ever-known life is. For me, that place was the island of Bali.

Honestly going into the trip, I was prepared to be just another bule in a mainly tourist-driven city/area. Visiting only tourist sites, and only being treated as 'that white girl'. Bali didn't sound that magical, or mystical, it just seemed like another tourist trap from what I had heard before arriving. But oh, oh was I wrong.

After a 15 hour bus ride in the central region through to the end of the eastern region of the island of Java, where I live, and a 30 min ferry ride, I arrived on the island of Bali. At this time, it was around 1 or 2 in the morning. Everything was dark, but even as I looked down at the water after getting off the ferry, that magical blue that was clear enough to see the bottom surprised me. I boarded the bus again headed to Tanah Lot, believe it or not, a tourist destination. That drive would be around 4 hours its self. As we got into the depths of the island, I looked up at the sky as our huge tour bus chugged forward. As I looked up, I automatically saw the big dipper shining bright. Never in my life had I seen stars/constellations shining as bright as they were that early morning on Bali. If anyone knows me,  they'd know that even the light-polluted stars you can see at night at field park are more than enough for me. To be seeing not only stars, but a constellation shinning like no other, I was beyond happy. At that moment, I knew some amazing 3 days were in store.

We arrived to Tanah Lot. After paying 40 cents to shower, and eating breakfast, we headed to the beach. Descending down the stone steps to the rocks and the sand, the scenery struck me. A huge temple mounted the top of a massive rock. On the bottom were hindu priests, blessing the visitors with holy water, rice, and flowers.  We then headed to the house of the President of Indonesia. A grand estate, surrounded by lush green and flowers. After seeing a balinese traditional dance, our tour bus acquired a local tour guide who gave interesting insights about the island. Finally heading to the hotel to get some rest, we had a busy day ahead of us. We had the opportunity to visit meat and nut factories. Then we headed for the beach. Shoved on to little public transport busses, we made it to the beautiful kuta beach, and I tried surfing! After staying at this beautiful place until sunset, we returned to the hotel.  Waking up the next day, we had little time before we had to start our 15 journey back to central Java. However, we used our time efficiently. First we headed to a monkey forest. Which is just like it sounds.  A lush green forest filled with little monkeys ready to jump on you, but no worries they're nice. After many photos, we headed to a lake in the middle of the mountains. This showed me that Bali isn't just beaches. The natural beauty of the island, the mountains, the forests, the lakes, rivers, flowers, trees,...everything. Before you go look at the island, there are lines of little stores that sell the local fruits. Salak (snake fruit), Jeruk Bali (a balinese orange the size of a cantaloupe), and many many others. Then you walk about 10 feet around a bend, and you see this vast, amazing, blue lake surrounded by immense mountains. To the left you see a small city, and everything else is just lush green. I was lucky enough to be able to take a motor boat through the lake. Not only was the air refreshing, and relaxing, but the surroundings became more and more interesting. We passed the city, an amazing hindu temple (which is actually the background of the 50,000 Indonesian Rupiah Bill),  and some sort of beautiful collection of buildings. After all of this, we boarded the bus again, and headed back to Java.

my t-shirt that reads..
STOP MON(K)EY POLITICS!

adorable monkeys

a photo of the temple in the background of this photo is printed on the 50,000 Rupiah Bill 

Darlene, Sabine, and I outside of the Presidential Palace

Myself, Sabine, and Darlene on Kuta Beach

Sabine's School teacher, myself, our Bli tour guide, Darlene, and another Bli.

This Beautiful orange color was everywhere. 

As you might be albe to get a small picture of the physical beauty of this island from what I said above, something that is harder to explain is how it felt just being present there. It felt nothing like i've grown to feel living on Java, and that's what was one of the most amazing things to me. From the ferry port on East Java, you can see Bali. It's literally right there, and from the ferry port on Bali, you can literally see Java. It's right there. 30 Minutes between the islands, and the way I feel on one is nothing like how I feel on the other. I've concluded this is for a number of reasons, but somethings I'm sure I don't know why. First, Java is an Island where around 98% of the population is Muslim. This greatly affects day to day life. On bali, the population as a whole is almost all Hindu. Instead of mosques on every street, you see a Hindu temple/offering space beside every single house, and infront of every store/building. Another reason is because Bali is also a much much much smaller island than Java. It can take you a 24 hours to drive across the width of Java, where as on Bali it would only take you 3-4 hours.

The reason, I believe, tourists flock to Bali, isn't because the people are really good at making effective tourist traps, but it is because the people are so proud of their land, and they know how to share it effectively. You go to bali, and yes. You have the stip of insanley high class hotels, hard rock cafe, massive starbucks coffee, fancy art galeries, etc. However, you also have the little traditional shops, warungs, and angkringans that remind you that you are in Indonesia. Knowing Bahasa Indonesia, I was able to get by a little easier in Bali than maybe your average white skinned blonde haired tourist might be able to. Bargaining for my souvenirs, cutting the price in half. Talking to the local surfers on Kuta Beach, and getting free surfing lessons.

The thing I was most proud of was talking to our local tour guide. In my host city Jogja, you call a male that is older than you 'mas', however on bali, 'mas' is translated into 'bli'. Now, our tour guide, I called him 'Bli'. Before coming, I knew a few little cultural tid-bits about the island from my friend at school who's father is from Bali. One of these is that men and women, for whatever reason, get their teeth shaven down, not all the way, but just a little bit. I didn't know much. Looking at my Bli, I noticed he had almost perfect teeth. It made sense! His teeth were shaven. I then asked him to explain it, and it turns out that around 13 years or older, once a girl or boy is 'mature', their parents shave their teeth. It's a traditional ceremony. Before one's teeth are shaven, the parents make big decisions in the child's life, such as choosing who they date,..etc.. However after the ceremony, those decisions are up to him or her individually. The pain of the process is so immense, it teaches the person to deal with pain. Maybe a way to get rid of pain and hatred in one's life. Later, we had conversations about Hinduism, why there were temples everywhere, and the differences between Hinduism in Bali, Java, and even as far as India.   It would have never had been possible if I didn't have a background in the language. Really, those were some of the most interesting conversations i've ever had.

Spending only three days in Bali, taught me so much about Indonesia as a country. The vastness of the different cultures between islands, and even within islands is so wide and so interesting. The languages and dialects of different areas are so different, but at the same time are so similar. Bahasa Bali, or the language of bali, uses similar terms with Javanese, and at the same time, has ones completely different. For example, where you hear Islamic terms being used in day to day life on Java, you may hear some words from Hinduism in Sanskrit to replace, but have the same meaning, on Bali.

When I opened,  and said 'you have to go somewhere beautiful', I don't mean you don't have to go find paradise. In saying that, I mean that the world as a whole is beautiful. Sometimes you get caught up in your day to day life, and your surroundings become less-than-beautiful because you pass that same intersection on your way to work or school, and never look past to see the beautiful forest behind it. Leaving for a while can really open your eyes. By leaving my hometown and even America, looking in to the future, I realize there is still so much natural beauty within my homeland that I haven't seen. It's always just been there, and I wasn't worried, because it was there as my America. Although this country isn't my homeland, I have found a place where day-to-day life has seemed to take over how much beauty surrounds me.

I suppose I just am very lucky, and blessed, to be so close to the definition of actual paradise such as Bali, and to realize that I'm actually living in Paradise here in Indonesia, even though it's definitely not necessary to travel to 'paradise' if you want to open your eyes.



Around two months left to go here, and there's still so much i've yet to see. I swear there's always a way to feel something new, open your eyes to a different light, as long as you're willing to take a risk, and jump into the fog.