Kim Faraway

Bali is just Bali. An island full of “same same but different”… Each time I come here I kind of “experience” Bali anew. A few bits and pieces (gonna complement the list every now and then):

• The toilet paper issue: You really have to go to the toilet but you don’t check first if there’s any toilet paper around. Of course there isn’t any anyway. And of course you forgot to bring tissues. But there is a lovely bucket full of very clean water, waiting to be used. I leave the rest to your imagination. And just one thing: If you eat with your hands, always eat with your right hand, cause your left one is (obviously) veeeery dirty. Now you know why .

• The supermarket issue: You need something from the supermarket? If you want to find something, you have to roam the whole huge place. Because you might think that, for example, ALL the bodylotions should be in the same shelve.  Way off the mark! Most of them actually are on the same shelve, but some are just randomly scattered in very random shelves. And that’s not just with the bodylotion. It’s with every single item like that (I exaggerate a bit of course, but it feels like that). Happy shopping!

• My friend Barbaras garden. A quiet, green oasis in the middle of bustling chaotic Seminyak. Beautiful. Or my friends villa they rented for their holidays. A big, airy, green, open space. Magnificent. That truly is Bali. Wherever you go, you gonna find big contrasts. Where it’s chaotic, you’ll also find a little hidden paradise somewhere. If it’s dirty, you gonna find a beautiful clean place somewhere nearby for sure. Rich people, poor people, happy people, sad people. And me in the middle of all of it! The only thing you have to do in Bali is to walk around with very wide-open eyes.

• A super friendly super patient taxi driver drove me from Barbaras place to my guesthouse in Berawa. Without complaining that he had to navigate through super small tiny roads and over a hundred speed bumps and then had to wait for me and then had his car full with my board, bags and myself. He didn’t ask any surcharge. Which is unusual these days, as everybody tries to make the most profit out of everything.

• The cloths issue:  When you’re in Bali, it is just unavoidable to lay your eyes on unbelievably lightly clad and incredibly sunburnt tourists. A joy for the eye!

• The hair issue: I recently cut my hair. I like my new haircut. BUT: It needs blow drying AND straightening, otherwise it looks just awful. No problem in Zurich. Big problem in Bali. I gave it up. Not only does my hair get all curly again after the whole procedure (it takes me 45 minutes to make my hair look beautiful, and it takes another 5 minutes until they frizzle again), but I also nearly got a heat stroke and big sweat attacks. So, that’s my fate. Gonna be ugly Kim for the next months.

• Speed bumps and potholes… What can I say. Again: Just walk and drive around with WIDE-OPEN eyes. Always! Indonesian somehow didn’t figure out yet how to build a proper road and a normal sized speed bump (which is called polisi tidur – sleeping police) and they really don’t know how to fix them. Anyway, the worst bumpy, potholed street (the shortcut from Berawa to Canggu) has actually been cobbled. What a joy.

Yeah. I’m settled into my new room at a guesthouse called Brekele. A lady at a Warung (food stall) laughed when she heard that name and explained to me that “Brekele” is a fun word. A joke word.  Whatever that’s supposed to mean. But good humour is a good thing, so no complaining there.

Went surfing on Thursday evening in Kudeta. Well, surfing is a bit of an exaggeration. I tried to paddle out into the line-up with my excruciatingly weak arms. I managed, but I suffered quiet a bit and got some waves on my head. Got one wave.

Next day Berawa in the morning. Two hours of paddling around and getting one wave and a shiny red sunburn (now I definitely look like a tourist). Oh well. Afternoon: Batu Bulong. Ahhhh, that was balm for my surfer soul. A few good and long waves.