Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Bali

Yay! I made it back from Bali alive! I arrived Saturday night at like 3 am (2 pm for most of you) and ever since then I have done a little bit of sleeping and a lot of writing. Obviously not for this :( but for my Creative Writing class. We had our final story due yesterday and no one could possibly be happier than I am that it’s over. I loved the class but I hated the teacher. I’m praying I get above a 50% on this final story or I might be in some academic trouble :I well not majorly, I just might just barely pass. Ugh. Anyways! Lets not hear me complain, lets talk about Bali!

 

Indonesia is a VERY different country that anything I am used to.  Well any of us are used to really I’m sure. Because unless you are reading this and are from a developing country, you probably can’t relate with what I’m about to explain.

 

Bali. Wow. I know people say all the time that they don’t know where to begin when talking about something, but really I can’t think of anywhere to start… I could talk about the living conditions, the beaches, the people, the driving, the food, how everything made me feel. They’re all a topic that’s interesting enough because they’re all first timers.

 

Well, I think I will just start with leaving Australia and arriving in Indonesia. The night before I left was chaos for me. Really. So the fact that I had to travel by myself to an unknown land didn’t relax me any. I had also just finished all my class work and assignments for the week so by the time my plane landed in Bali, I was not the least bit relaxed. I was actually very stressed out, and continued on like that for the first few days. I know that’s not exciting and something you would expect to here because I was in Bali right? What could possibly keep me from relaxing? I really can’t say, I think it just takes my body a couple of days to calm down and I still had my ridiculous story to turn in afterwards. My mind just refuses to forget those things.

 

Geez, I keep getting side tracked with all these negative feelings. Ok, switching to positive mode.

 

The airport in Bali is very different than one I’ve ever been in. It’s definitely not as advanced or even as clean as all the ones I’ve seen. It reminds me of a smaller hometown and very outdated airport. Everything was silver and shiny, it was all brown and worn. Oh, I forgot. On the plane ride over I sat next to an older couple who were vacationing in Bali. They had been there a couple of times before so they were telling me all about it and giving me advice. They were very nice and very helpful. They warned me that when I got off of the plane that there would be men there wanted to take my things and carry them for me because they then would expect a tip afterwards. But they don’t tell you that when they offer to carry your luggage. And they were right. Even leaving the airport there are just guys everywhere standing and sitting around wanted to do things for you for money. As I was walking to a taxi one guy basically took my luggage from me. He even put his hand on top of mine to grab my luggage. But thankfully because I didn’t let go he finally did. That irked me. 

 

As I was standing in line to get my passport checked and my temporary visa I saw a bribe happen right in front of me. Remind you that Indonesia is a very poor country so it makes sense that they are very corrupt. I don’t know why but for some reason the kid, who looked to be about 15 and I don’t know why he was travelling to Bali by himself, didn’t want to pay money for a visa. So when he got his passport checked he just slipped some US dollars in there. The security guy had a manager of some sort come over. The manager counted the money, right in front of the line of people mind you!, and stuck it in his pocket. That was the end of that and the kid walked away towards the next checkpoint.

 

Bali is a beautiful country… sometimes. It depends on where you are looking. If you are looking at the beaches and the scenery, then yes it’s gorgeous. But if you are looking at the everyday living such as the shops, houses, streets then you’ll be very disappointed.  The scenery was great most of the time. The sunsets were gorgeous and a lot of things had been untouched b/c they aren’t a very industrial country. But the homes were just shacks, well some of them. The ones by the beaches were just filth for the most part. It made me sad to realize that people had to actually live in those. They probably don’t have running water in some of them and they don’t have many material items at all. I mean I think hostels were nicer than some of those homes. It broke my heart. Those were the ones next to the beach though, so I’m assuming also that they were the people who were harvesting the seaweed right off shore. They probably just work during the day and that’s all b/c there were people working there till sun went down. Bali isn’t a country that closes down on Sunday’s either b/c I don’t think it’s in their religion kinda thing. So I’m pretty sure they work all day everyday, for close to nothing. So sad :(

 

Well that’s all I got for now. I will definitely be posting more alter though.

 

Love you all <3

1 comment:

  1. Sounds a lot like Costa Rica. It's hard to appreciate America's living conditions until you visit a third world country.

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