Contemplations in Bali
Disclaimer: This essay is not a tourist’s guide to Bali and neither is it “hidden gems” of Indonesia.
This is an essay about my philosophical dialog while I was in Bali. You will find some social aspects in this writing, but keep in mind that I am not aiming to be sentimental. It’s purely an introspection and contemplation.
I am not an experienced traveler, so many new things I see will cause a thought chain.
Landing
As I enter the terminal, I immediately feel this warm and humid tropical weather. In need of cash for the cab, I turn to one of the vast selection of currency conversion offices where I hand in 200 US dollars, and they give me back about 2,700,000 rupiah. This is the first of many following contacts of global capitalistic disparity I am going to witness. “Terima Kasih” means thank you in indonesian (there is also a balinese language). I am given a cab after being in the line among many, it’s organized, we are awaited…
The guy picks me up and I will pay 400K rupiah (~$28) to get to the 80 minute drive hotel. He starts the friendly predictable chat about where I am from, how the flight was, which is followed by my mutual questions. This is what you want to know. His work shift is 2 days on and 1 day off. Between the working days he gets 3 hours off, rest of the time always waiting for the client. You cannot sleep less than 3h hours a day, so he will compensate it with 20-30 minutes naps in-between the rides. Somehow, he also has a girlfriend who works at a hotel. Maybe, he does have more free time and such workload only comes in bursts, although he claims this has been constant for 2 years - no holidays, no weekends. His job is by choice (just like his dad’s) and that is why he didn’t follow his earned economics degree career path. Do you see the pattern in the jobs? You will observe it more as you spend more time in Bali. A lot of them are in tourism which, I will assume, drives a big portion of income for many here.
Hotel. Enter the lobby, I hear this drum background music which will follow me the entire week. Majority of the residents are from China and Europe (didn’t notice many Americans), I am again paranoid with global wealth distribution here…
Sacred Monkey Forest
It’s a confined area for the tourists to indulge into seeing monkeys in their “natural” habitat. You will see monkey families here playing, fighting, eating with each other. They are used to people, but you are warned to not look into their eyes. My bet will be that monkeys are disturbed the same way you would be, if someone was staring at you in the eyes, except we are the dominating species and they can’t just call the police. I had finished On The Origin Of Species on the arriving flight by Darwin, and I have oceans of thoughts on observing this species. All of a sudden, you will see a bigger monkey boldly moving crossing people and other humble monkeys demonstrating its alpha.
Above one monkey is gently picking through the fur of the other, while the latter is patiently waiting. It’s interesting how carefully he is doing it, slowly going through every little inch. He is very slick, I don’t think a human can do the same without tweezers.
Temples
Indonesian temples are so much different from Japanese. They mostly consist of stones and clay. Women are not allowed to enter while having menstruation. Locals are mostly hindu. Often times passing by any local business, you will see a small chair like statue representing a small temple for luck.
A lot of them actually represent some monster looking like creature. It probably represents evil, it looks very similar to one of the local shows where nature, human, and evil battle. Speaking of the show, there are no words, just sounds and some sacred music.
Paintings
Below is some thought food for me. Seriously, I am finding myself in the paintings of the east seeing a banner on the entrance “Inspiration for Marketing 2.0”. What are all these? I am supposedly in this traditional museum of drawings depicting some historical and cultural matter looking like some naked people (inspired by hippie western tourist nudes or is it really that old where clothing was more frugal?) and taking pictures of it on my iPhone 8S. By the way, yes, there is an elevated number of nude paintings, pardon.
Butterflies
The creature below is a product of a caterpillar, cocoon and a timespan of 1.5 - 2 months. When the butterfly is out, it lives only 5 days. When I entered, I saw lots and lots of butterflies, everyday there is hundreds of them coming and going whatever that’s supposed to mean in a physical or philosophical sense.
River
This is the most memorable moment from my trip. This is the river that divides a Marriott 4.5 star hotel from a village on the other side. Right next to the river, the locals are using the river to do their laundry. Again, I don’t particularly feel sentimental, I think it’s quite practical, but I am surprised with the irony and another randevu with disparity.
