Bike rentals in Bali

In Bali, you can rent bicycles with steering wheels (this one, from a Nissan) mounted on top of the traditional handlebars; it keeps you more upright while riding, which makes the ride easier, or at least more comfortable, which sums up life in Indonesia: comfort over efficiency, always.

Bicycle with steering wheel.

#9: Coral Garden, Tulamben; Bali, Indonesia

I preferred today's second dive, Tulamben's Coral Garden, to the first, the USAT Liberty shipwreck.

There were no other divers outside of our small group, and the dive was a leisurely pace at a modest depth of only 12 to 15 meters, which means you use less oxygen and therefore dive for longer. And although there was no shipwrecked boat, we did see a sunken plane, about the size of a private jet. Seeing a shipwreck underwater is cool, but seeing a plane underwater (or even a vintage bicycle standing upright, like I saw in the Gilis) was even cooler. It's just so unexpected, and because of its smaller size you can appreciate its original use, whereas the shipwrecked USAT Liberty is more a massive wall of corroded metal than it is a boat.

The plane's skeleton remained intact, albeit covered with coral and sea life, but its cabin was full of new passengers, the occasional larger fish (~one meter) and many schools of smaller fish, seemingly suspended motionless, drifting with the current and amongst the coral.

Shortly thereafter we arrived in slightly shallower waters, where we saw a blacktip reef shark, nearly identical to the whitetip reef sharks I saw in the Gilis. It was about five or six feet long, and I was able to get much closer to this shark than others I've seen. I shadowed the shark for a minute or so, probably less than 10 meters away but sometimes it's tough to tell because being underwater distorts depth perception. Because blacktip reef sharks prefer shallower waters, there are rare occasions where they'll bite, unprovoked, but the victim would almost certainly be wading through shallow waters, as opposed to diving at deeper depths. The blacktip reef shark was no more intimidating, and probably less so, than the baracuda was saw on the same dive.

In addition to the plane, shark and baracuda, we also saw a few poisonous lionfish, a big puffer fish, and a blue-spotted stingray.

Scuba diving at Coral Garden, Tulamben; Bali, Indonesia.

#8: U.S. Liberty, Tulamben; Bali, Indonesia

Today I did my first dive on Bali, a shipwreck off the northeastern coast. The USAT Liberty was a transport ship torpedoed by Japanese forces in the early 1940s. It's 125 meters long and originally sat on the beach at Tulamben, after having being hauled there to salvage its cargo, until 1963 when a nearby volcano erupted and pushed the vessel about 50 meters into the ocean.

It's a popular dive site, and therefore quite crowded, although today didn't seem too bad. There were definitely other divers around, but not so many as to be distracting.

About halfway through the dive I found myself inside a large school of giant trevally. There were a thousand fish or more, schooled and circling slowly, almost like a friendly and lazy tornado. I found myself right in the middle of it all: all around, and up, nothing but giant trevally.

We also saw dozens of garden eels, smaller spotted ones and larger dusky eels, similar to those I saw at the Busan Aquarium a few weeks back while in Korea. The eels reminded me a bit of Kevin Bacon's best film, the 1990 gem: Tremors. They emerge from out of the sandy ocean bottom, peeking their heads out, and when you get too close or they're spooked, or maybe if they just feel like it, they retreat back into their holes. They're like little periscopes on the ocean floor.

Overall, today's diving (two dives total) was not as good as in the Gilis, but it was still great; it was also my first shore dive (i.e. entering the water from the beach as opposed to boat).

Scuba diving at U.S. Liberty, Tulamben; Bali, Indonesia.

Gili Meno transportation: horse-drawn cart

Vehicles are not allowed on any of the Gilis (Gili Meno, Gili Air, Gili Trawangan) so if you want to get around more quickly than walking, your only option is a horse-drawn cart. I was wandering through some of the villages on the island's interior when this cart rolled past.

Turtle Sanctuary; Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

Giant sea turtles are relatively common in the waters around the Gili Islands, but they're still endangered. At least two of the Gili Islands, Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno, have locally run turtle sanctuaries, where baby turtles swim in circles until they grow strong enough and large enough to be released into the ocean, where they'll have to avoid poachers seeking turtle meat and eggs.

The sanctuary on Trawangan is larger than the one on Meno, but the sanctuary on Meno was full of more, and larger, turtles. Here is the turtle sanctuary on Gili Trawangan.

Lake on Gili Meno

In the video I say that the lake on Gili Meno is in the middle of the island, but it's actually much closer to the western coast, from where it would take about two minutes to walk to the lake instead of the 10 or so it takes from the eastern shore; Gili Meno really is that small.

Making friends in Indonesia

It can be a bit too easy to make friends on Gili Meno. There is not much to do, and almost all of the people who live there are originally from nearby Lombok, moving to Gili Meno only to earn money for themselves and their families. When work is slow, they get bored pretty easily.

Naeteets is the guy on the left, 20 years old. He has never been to school, ever, and works for about a dollar per day (16-hour shifts). He loves anything colored black or white, so when I showed up wearing a ratty black-and-white-checkered hoodie, he befriended me immediately, and more than once asked if I'd give it to him. Had I had more than one sweatshirt with me, I might have (although to be honest, probably not, because, of all the hoodies I've ever worn, it's my favorite). He also wanted my boardshorts and sunglasses. Instead I bought him a bracelet.

He invited me to go to his hometown of Lombok with him, to climb trees and find coconuts, but I was ready to get back to Bali. Maybe another time. It sounded fun to travel to Lombok, where 'I will get you 50 coconuts, 100 coconuts, 500 coconuts, all the coconuts you want!'

Naeteets: Tree-climber and coconut-gatherer.

Are Indonesian people friendly?

I've met only one or maybe two unfriendly Indonesian people, and even those came across as more desperate than truly unfriendly. My experience is that Indonesian people would rather smile than work, and would rather do most anything than start conflict. Of course, it's the world's fourth-most-populated nation, with thousands of islands, of which I've seen only three.

I've been told that when Indonesian people snap, they snap. In a blink it goes from everything being all OK, to somebody getting stabbed. Maybe that explains the vacant eyes, subtle smile, and large machete on the Rp 1,000 note. In the United States, it's no different, except that maybe nobody is smiling at the beginning, and at the end maybe you're getting shot instead of stabbed.

(To be fair, the machete in Indonesia is used to clear fields, not kill people.)

Rp 1,000

Gili Trawangan vs. Gili Meno

It didn't take an entire week on the Gili Islands to realize Gili Trawangan (the largest of the three Gilis) and Gili Meno (the smallest) share little in common besides their surrounding waters.

Gili Trawangan is busier, dirtier, and full of too many locals harassing you to buy mushrooms, marijuana, cocaine, or whatever else it is they have for sale. They don't take no for an answer until you tell them three or four times. By my final day on Trawangan (and I spent only one night and two days there, and even then only because I needed to be there for the boat back to Bali) I'd respond to every compliment or passing remark, with, I don't need anything, because I knew that, after, Nice tattoo, the next thing out of their mouth would be, What do you need?

Gili Meno is a quiet paradise. Unfortunately it runs the risk of being in a few years what Trawangan is today. But for the time being it's wonderful. When people speak with you, they're nothing except curious and complimentary, and maybe occasionally a bit clingy if they're older kids interested in something that you have. Many of the local kids asked me if they could have my boardshorts and plain black t-shirt. They wanted to buy them, trade for them, have them outright, whatever they could do to get their hands on them. Same for my cheap sunglasses. When I explained they were my only ones, they offered to trade, and when I laughed and said no thanks, they laughed and usually let it go, at least until I saw them again an hour later.

When I walked through the village on Gili Meno, strangers would offer me drinks of fresh water, or invite me to sit with them and share their food, their drink, or just their time. I never bothered to walk the villages on Trawangan. Mostly I tried to avoid the drug dealers, who were obnoxious, and the party-minded travelers and ex-pats, who often were even worse. I met a small handful of longtime Trawangan residents, ex-pats who could afford the Rp 20,000 public boat to hop from island to island, who had never left Trawangan because, paraphrasing, There is nothing to do on Meno. In every country I've visited, I'm amazed at the number of travelers I meet who are interested in little more than the next happy hour. Why would you travel all the way around the world just to go to the bar, considering every bar in every city in every country is pretty much exactly the same: from Busan to Bali, Shanghai to San Francisco, they're all the same.

#7: Shark Point, Gili Trawangan; Lombok, Indonesia

I had a few hours to kill yesterday morning while waiting for the boat back to Bali, so I did one final dive, my seventh: Shark Point, off the coast of Trawangan.

We didn't see any sharks, but we saw a large sea cucumber that reminded me a bit of a crocodile, cuttlefish, and three or four giant sea turtles (one of whom was feeding quite vigorously on the coral), plus a few different types of rays (one spotted). I paid much attention to the fish feeding on the coral. It's interesting to watch fish dart toward the coral, pick it apart, and repeat.

There was hardly any current, but I found myself struggling to conserve my air. When there is a current, it gives you an appreciation for just how impressively fish can swim through the ocean.

Scuba diving at Shark Point; Gili Trawangan; Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

Gili Cat: Bali, Gilis, Lombok

I took the roundtrip from Bali to the Gili Islands and back. If I were to do it again, I'd probably fly, or maybe even take the public ferry if not pressed for time (takes about 12 hours).

The Gili Cat does the trip in about 90 minutes. When they say it's a fast boat, they're not lying. They run full speed, despite the winds, despite the current, and at times it feels like you're in a shoebox being shaken by an angry giant. Things were falling off the captain's console, breaking on the floor. More than a couple times the jerk was so strong you were lifted off your seat, full into the air. I never felt seasick, per se, but even without any nausea I still felt sick, with a headache from all the jerking around. For a good 10 minutes or so, it was so rough I held onto the seat in front of me, tightly, afraid if I let go I'd get bounced around and smash my face into something. I had this vision of me losing a third of my teeth. The Gili Cat is quick but unpleasant.

#6: Meno Slope, Gili Meno; Lombok, Indonesia

My second dive today, to Meno Slope, I did alone, with two dive instructors. It was nice to have no other divers, which meant that I was able to dive until my tank hit the red zone, almost 50 minutes (because there is no practical way the instructors would run out of air before me).

At Meno Slope, we saw an eagle ray (about one meter), another whitetip reef shark (again, about five meters) and plenty of other beautiful fish and coral. The current was slow and steady, and mostly I just drifted along, which was great; there was no fighting the current or trying to slow myself down. Apparently it is somewhat unusual to see sharks there. It was no less exciting than the first shark I saw, a few days ago. There was also a sunken pontoon wreck, intact, and a bicycle on the ocean floor, which was great: It was interesting to see the ocean take control over what it was given.

I'm back in Gili Trawagan, on the deck of a bar overlooking the ocean. It's about to rain, perhaps downpour, or so it feels, but fortunately I'm under cover and I almost hope it does rain. It might quiet some of the more obnoxious hustle on Trawangan. Tomorrow I take an afternoon boat back to Bali, but in the morning I have time for one more dive: Shark Point.

Scuba diving at Meno Slope; Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

#5: Halik Reef and Andy's Reef, Gili Meno; Lombok, Indonesia

The scuba center where I got certified offered me a free dive, so instead of taking the public boat to Gili Trawangan (en route to Bali) this morning, I waited until this afternoon, which meant I had time for not only one but two dives: Halik Reef and Meno Slope, the first off the coast of Gili Trawangan and the second off the coast of Gili Meno.

The Halik Reef dive was a bit short because my dive partner used up his air quickly, whereas for the first time I felt a bit more controlled in my buoyancy, which meant I had plenty of air left when we surfaced. Which was fine. Yesterday and the day before I was the one running out of air first. The current was strong today, so we started out at Halik Reef and ended up at Andy's Reef, a neighboring dive site. My dive guide today was fantastic, better than my original instructor. He brought a metal rod to tap his tank and alert us to interesting fish, etc.

Scuba diving at Halik Reef and Andy Reef; Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

Villagers of Gili Meno; Lombok, Indonesia

The past two days I've had time to explore Gili Meno, not just its beaches but its villages.

The island is small, so it's easy to navigate from one side to the other, and it's almost impossible to get truly lost. Walk straight in any direction and you'll hit the beach before too long, then it's a simply a matter of turning right or left, and if I had to guess I'd say you could walk around the perimeter of the island in maybe an hour.

The villages of Gili Meno are full of chickens, beautiful stray tabby cats, some larger livestock (e.g. cows, maybe a goat or two), and of course villagers.

There are only about 200 villagers living on Gili Meno, and most of those with whom I've spoken are originally from the mainland of Lombok, which is itself an island. I've only met a small handful of people who were born on Gili Meno, although of course I haven't spoken with 200 people.

Everyone here is incredibly friendly, as was everyone I met in Bali.

Indonesian people are fantastic.

They are warm and welcoming, lazy at times and a bit forgetful but who can blame them considering their low wages. I met one worker, Naeteets, who commutes from Lombok and stays on the island for one month, earning only Rp 300,000 for 30 days of work. That's $35 USD for workdays that begin at six in the morning, and end around ten at night. Granted, a workday consists of smoking about 40 cigarettes, kicking the soccer ball around on the beach, taking food orders here and there and maybe forgetting a few here and there, but even if you're only working half the time, or even less, that's still basically one dollar per day.

But even with terrible wages, Indonesia people are some of the happiest people I've ever met. They remember your name, say hello to you when you pass, and not only when they're trying to sell you bracelets or coconuts or massages or sarongs, and so on. They're friendly always.

Men, women, children, Muslim or otherwise: all of Gili Meno has been fantastic.

All of the villagers I've met have been excited to have their photograph taken; the children want to say hello, and hello again; the older kids want to know where I bought my boardshorts, where I got my tattoo, where I got my plain black t-shirt, and where I'm from, at which point many of them sing the chorus to Hotel California; the older generation usually wants to just share a smile, often minus a few teeth but never minus sincerity.

#4: Meno Wall, Gili Meno; Lombok, Indonesia

PADI-certified open-water diver ID.

Today I completed my open-water scuba certification. I passed the final exam (94%) after my final dive, which was to Meno Wall, a.k.a Turtle Heaven. Turtle because it is home to many giant sea turtles, and Heaven because it is home to much dead coral.

We saw two giant turtles, one which I came upon unexpectedly. I'd turned around 360 degrees, trying to get my bearings and find my dive partner, and when I completed my turn and turned back toward the massive, rising wall of coral reef, I was only a few feet from the sea turtle. Giant sea turtles are beautiful, elegant when they swim.

Meno Wall is a massive wall of coral, some dead but even more still alive. It stretches from near the surface, maybe six meters down, to twenty meters deep or more. There was an upcurrent if you drifted too far away from the wall, meaning if you don't stay close enough to the wall you are liable to rise. Controlling buoyancy has been one of the more challenging aspects of diving for me, although it's getting easier with each dive.

Scuba diving at Meno Wall; Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

Map of the Gili Islands, off the coast of Lombok, in Indonesia.

#3: Sunset Reef, Gili Meno; Lombok, Indonesia

I'm not a certified open-water scuba diver yet, but I'm close. One more dive today, followed by an exam. This morning was my third dive, to Sunset Reef, off the coast of Gili Trawangan.

Today I saw a whitetip reef shark (about five feet) and two giant sea turtles, plus so much coral that there was no sandy bottom of the ocean, just forests of coral.

We dove to a depth of 19 meters, for about 45 minutes.

Scuba diving at Sunset Reef; Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

#2: Hans Reef, Gili Meno; Lombok, Indonesia

Today I went on my second scuba dive, at the same reef as my first dive: Hans Reef.

We saw Emperor angelfish, Red Sea bannerfish, trumpetfish, mantis shrimp, giant trevally, and a poisonous scorpionfish that did an impressive job of camouflaging himself on the coral.

Tomorrow I'll go on two more dives, to hopefully sea giant turtles and sharks.

Scuba diving at Hans Reef; Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

Buying property: Indonesia, Gili Islands

Today after my second day of dive class, I visited a construction site, where my only other classmate, Kique, is building a resort property. He got tired of being part of the "consumption culture" in Spain, so instead he brought property in Indonesia. From what I saw today, it seemed like a wise choice. Property and labor here are cheap, and Gili Meno is beautiful.

Gili Meno Island: Construction workers who commute from nearby Lombok (another island) earn about $6 USD per day, 50 percent more than they'd earn per day at home.

Gili Meno Island: When finished, this two-story home will have cost about $15,000 USD to build.

Gili Meno Island: Construction project, about 200 meters from the southern beach in Gili Meno.

Gili Meno Island: Kique (Kee-Kay) is a Spanish lawyer and economist who got tired of the daily grind in Europe, so he's building a vacation property in Gili Meno. The land is about the size of a football field.

Gili Meno Island: One of the construction workers taking a break.

Gili Meno Island: Construction workers on Gili Meno.

Gili Meno Island: One of about eight or nine structures currently being built. The raw materials for the bricks are shipped by boat, then transported by hand and horses to site location, where the bricks are then made by hand.

Gili Meno Island: This will be about the average size of the many structures being built: a modest one-story bungalow, which can be built from scratch for about $6,000 USD.

Gili Meno Beach

The beach in front of my bungalow, on the smallest of the Gili Islands, Gili Meno, this morning at about six-thirty or seven. The island in the distance is Gili Air, one of the three Gilis.

#1: Hans Reef, Gili Meno; Lombok, Indonesia

Today I began scuba diving training.

It will take four days to get my open-water certificate (as opposed to one day if you want only a scuba certificate, which is good for one year and allows you to dive up to 12 meters when accompanied by a professional; an open-water certificate allows you to dive up to 18 meters, lasts for a lifetime, and also allows you to dive without a guide).

I expected it to be cool, but was blown away when we got into the water. Frankly I didn't even expect to go for a dive on our first day of training. But we dove for 37 minutes and I went down to a depth of about 14 meters, which was actually a couple meters deeper than we were supposed to go, I think. But I was just following our guide.

There were lionfish, Emperor angelfish, Red Sea bannerfish, snake eels, starfish the size of frisbees, crabs, and all kinds of coral and other sea life I can't name. There were hundreds of thousands of fish, and also hundreds of different varieties. The fish mostly ignore you, but they also don't swim away from you. Once or twice I found myself with dozens of fish only inches from my face, and hundreds more above, below and behind. There was also plenty of coral life.

Before the dive, I wasn't sure if I'd go for only one day, or if I'd do the whole four-day program, mostly because the classroom and pool sections of the training are both pretty dry, but after doing the first dive I really am anxious to get back in for another round.

The dive school, Blue Marlin Dive, seems OK, but I was disappointed to see my instructor once or twice intentionally touching coral reefs, which is a no-no by any standard; also, the dive pool was overcrowded, which made learning in the pool difficult, especially swimming with gear, and managing buoyancy through breathing and other devices. Fortunately the basics of diving are easily enough learned, and those things that absolutely must be learned before getting into the water (e.g. equalizing pressure) can be learned in theory and put into practice easily.

Scuba diving at Hans Reef; Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia

Some more photos from Gili Meno.

The beach in front of my bungalow, at about seven in the morning.

The view from the restaurant where I ate lunch, and where I'm writing this.

Another view from this morning in front of my bungalow.

My current beach read: Under The Dome by Stephen King. So far, so good.

Gili Meno, beach and bungalow

I'm enjoying Gili Meno more than Gili Trawangan, which to be fair is also cool, just not as quiet.

I'm staying in a bungalow directly on the beach: not near the beach, not across the road from the beach; there is not even so much as a walkway between my front porch and the sand.

Also, there are no mosquitoes on the island, so you can sleep with the windows open while the sounds of crashing waves drag you toward your dreams. It's fantastic. When I woke up this morning, the beach was entirely empty as far as I could see, in both directions.

Below is the stretch of beach in front of my bungalow, and below that the bungalow itself.

There is no fresh water on the island, so showers are salty and either lukewarm or cold.

Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

Gili Meno, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia.

Gili Islands: Magic mushrooms for sale on Gili Trawangan

Fly me to the moon, but please, wear a sarong.

It makes no sense that hallucinogenic drugs are so encouraged, but bikinis are so discouraged.

Gili Trawangan: Please, no bikinis! 

Gili Trawangan: Magic mushrooms for sale.

Gili Trawangan: Magic mushrooms for sale.

Gili Trawangan: Magic mushrooms for sale.

Gili Trawangan: Magic mushrooms for sale.

Gili Trawangan, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia

Some photos from Gili Trawangan, the largest and most populated of the three Gili Islands.

Gili Trawangan, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia: Mother and son.

Gili Trawangan, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia: There are no motor vehicles allowed on the island, only horse-drawn carts.

Gili Trawangan, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia: Local boy.

Gili Trawangan, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia: Local man.

Gili Trawangan, Gili Islands; Lombok, Indonesia: Lombok is Muslim, so bikinis are discouraged.

Gili Cat + Gili Islands + Trawangan + Meno + Air

This morning I took the Gili Cat (local high-speed boat) from the southern coast of Bali to the Gili Islands, which is a bit of a redundant misnomer considering that Gili translates as, Small islands.

I've arrived on the largest of the three islands, Gili Trawangan, and am waiting for the afternoon public boat to Gili Meno, the smallest of the three islands, which is so close it would be easily reachable with a fresh night's sleep and a pair of flippers.

The third island is called Gili Air.

Unlike Bali, these islands are Muslim and not Hindu, so bikinis are strongly discouraged in the village, although, strangely, hallucinogenic mushrooms are widely available at local restaurants and bungalows, prominently advertised and de facto legal. Gili is a beautiful place, but the priorities seem a bit out of whack: In what world are hallucinogens safer than bikinis?

Gili Trawangan is the most popular of the three islands, but without having visited the other two islands, I suspect it's my least favorite of the three: too many terrible dance remixes polluting the air, and some of the horse-drawn carts that serve as taxis are a bit out of control, as though they own the walkways, but it is pretty cool that there are no motor vehicles on the island.

The Gili Cat boat ride was surprisingly pretty rough. Nobody got sick, but one girl appeared to be on the brink for the entire 90 minutes. It was a wild ride, with large waves pounding the fast boat. This morning's and last night's rain might have had something to do with that.

Swimming in Sanur; diving in Bali

Yesterday I took a swim in the ocean. I turned around more quickly than I expected. Better to overestimate your skills on land than in the water. I wouldn't have been quite so conservative had I not been warned by a handful of people that the waters out past the reef are littered with sea urchins, not exactly the kind of thing you want to step on. So after growing tired of treading water and fighting the current, I turned back.

Today I'm off to the Gili Islands, three tiny islands on the northwestern coast of Lombok, where for the next three or four days I'll take an open-water diving course before returning to Sanur and exploring some of the shipwrecks off the coast of Bali. Sea life occasionally creeps me out, so I'm a bit apprehensive about diving, but I've never met anyone who has dived and didn't enjoy it.

Black-and-white photos: Sanur, Bali

After breakfast I took some photos while walking to one of the many local dive shops.

Sanur, Bali; Indonesia: Wayan, security guard and groundskeeper. Along with the food, Wayan has been my favorite part of Bali. I told Chris, if you could find someone twice as efficient for half the price, I bet you still wouldn't replace Wayan. He is at times unreliable, but polite with a fantastic sense of humor. The day after he dropped his mobile phone into the pool, he responded to a question of whether or not it still worked, with, Yes, seventy percent.

Sanur, Bali; Indonesia: My friend and local business owner, Chris Benz, eyes my morning Balinese coffee.

Sanur, Bali; Indonesia: Local drug store and film shop. 

Sanur, Bali; Indonesia: Balinese garbage truck.

Sanur, Bali; Indonesia: Local Balinese woman.

Sanur, Bali; Indonesia: Local Balinese man.

Sanur, Bali; Indonesia: The main drag in Sanur.

First day in Bali

My first sampling of Balinese food was impressive: whitefish rica rica. Rica comes from the Manado Malay language, and its word for spicy, or chili. The whitefish rica rica was local whitefish topped with a spicy sauce made with onions, and served with white rice and green beans.

Before arriving in Bali I had heard that Indonesia people have a reputation for being a bit relaxed with their work ethic, perhaps a bit lazy and unreliable, perhaps not so efficient, albeit friendly. My friend's brother described it to me as, They're certainly not German.

At the end of my street in Bali, toward the Bay not the Ocean, there is a sign for the German Consulate, which is on the same street. Across the street from the sign for the German Consulate is Swastika Restaurant. The swastika has long been associated with different Eastern religions, but it's bit disconcerting to see Swastika's across the street from the German Consulate.

Sanur, Bali

I arrived in Sanur, Bali at four-thirty this morning, just in time to hear the roosters crow.

Bali is apparently the only Hindu island out of more than 17,000 islands in Indonesia.

I'm staying at my friend's villa, a half-block from Sanur Beach, which is where the Dutch invaded in 1906, and where the Japanese invaded during World War II. I heard that when the Dutch arrived in 1906, the Balinese knew they had no chance against the stronger force, so many committed suicide en masse while others were slaughtered by Dutch gunfire.

I haven't been down to the beach yet, but I don't expect to see any Dutchmen smoking spliffs. Here in Indonesia they might lock you up and throw away the key. Or hang you.

The villa is spacious and gorgeous: two stories; two bedrooms with a third bedroom in the guest house; a living room with, on three sides, floor-to-ceiling sliding wooden doors that open up to the grounds, which include a pool, plenty of native plants, and traditional Balinese sculptures.

Sanur, Bali villa; main house.

Sanur, Bali villa; guest house where I'll stay, near the front entrance, which is off to the left.

Pool in Bali.

Black-and-white film photography from Beijing, China

Kodak B&W film (T-MAX 100, Tri-X 400) shot with a Leica MP and Leica Summilux ASPH.

Tri-X 400: Beihai Park; Beijing, China.

Tri-X 400: 798 Art Zone; Beijing, China.

Tri-X 400: 798 Art Zone; Beijing, China.

Tri-X 400: man playing harmonica, northeast of Tiananmen Square; Beijing, China.

T-MAX 100: Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan); Beijing, China.

T-MAX 100: Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan); Beijing, China.

T-MAX 100: Temple of Heaven; Beijing, China.

T-MAX 100: Human maze, and Walter with Leica M3 and vintage Leica Summilux, at the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan); Beijing, China.

T-MAX 100: Temple of Heaven; Beijing, China.

T-MAX 100: Temple of Heaven; Beijing, China.

T-MAX 100: Human maze at the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan); Beijing, China.