Surprises Abound

On Day Two in Bali I awoke to the endless sound of roosters crowing from 3:30am on and I knew I would not last long at that particular spot.

So I used a friendly Balinese man’s cell phone to call up Wayan (my spiritual teacher/ taxi driver from the night before) to see if he could help me find a new, quiet place.

“Hallo, Kristeen, you want to go on a tour today?”

“No, Wayan, I need to find a new place to stay.”

“You no happy with place you stay?”

“Too many roosters.”

“What you mean ‘roosters’?” He asks me.

“RRRR-RRRR-RRRR,” I say making my best rooster crow sound.

“Oh, you mean the chicken. You no like chicken?”

“I like to eat the chicken, not the RRRR-RRRR-RRRR. No sleep,” I say.

He laughs.

“Many chickens in Bali, Kristeen. Everywhere. You no find a place no chickens,” he says.

“Maybe not so many chickens,”  I say.

He said he would pick me up at 9:30am.

Even the shirt he wore had wise words for me: Cultivate Curiosity and Interest.

When I commented on this he said, “What that mean, ‘curiosity’? What that mean, ‘interest’?”

I explained and he smiled. “Easy to be curious in Bali, no?”

We drove to about 20 places and I was starting to express my dismay at not finding the right place.

“You no have the patience, Kristeen. No patience means the mental illness.” He points to his head.

“We find a place. You no worry. Relax, Kristeen, ok? You no in a hurry. You have the patience.”

“Okay.” I’m sweating from the lack of air-conditioning and my stomach is growling.

Finally we find the perfect, quiet spot with only a few roosters.

It was more expensive than I was planning on spending (it is about $50 US dollars) but it is comfortable, exquisitely beautiful, has a pool and will enable me to sleep a mostly rooster-free sleep.

Wayan helps me bring my backpack up to my room.

“You want to go for a swim, Wayan?” We are both sweating from driving around for 3 hours without air conditioning.

“Yes, I go for a swim with you.”

While we are swimming he tells me about Balinese love.

“There is a bigger love in Balinese, bigger than love between most man and wife. You know about that?”

“No,” I say.

“It is the powerful love. Man gets married to first wife, is to be expected, get married, maybe he young. But then maybe he not know what he want in love, you know what I mean, Kristeen?

When older he know more what he want, bigger than the how-you-say, Kristeen? Bigger than the love of man for good-looking, beautiful girl.

That is the kind of love I talking about. Bigger love. From the heart. Big heart. Bigger than the mind, yeah?”

We swim and I think about the Big Love.

“You want to go on tour of the Bali island, Kristeen?”

“Yes, Wayan, but today I want to relax at my hotel, maybe walk around town a bit.  Maybe later this week, ok?”

“Okay, you call me, I come pick you up. Take you on a tour. Only 350,000 rupiah for all-day tour. I give you history of island. Show you my village.”

The next day (yesterday) I wake up early and am noticing a sense of loneliness at the expanse of unplanned time that lies ahead of me.

Here is what I wrote in my journal yesterday morning:

Even though I had those sweet connections with the taxi driver and Gary, I am still feeling the intense desire to go home and it is only Day Three. I have about 75 more days traveling alone in this vast world and already I want to go back to what is familiar!

I have absolutely NO plans today. I don’t know what I want to do. I feel aimless and lonely. Is this what it feels like to live an unleashed life? I’m starting to want the leash back. This void of nothingness feels too scary.

I’m so used to doing. And when I’m not doing I know what I will soon be doing.

I had my second dinner with Gary last night but then no more plans with another person for the rest of my trip! And no plans at all until I take the plane out of Bali to India on February 10. What the heck do I want to do in this beautiful place? And if I can’t be happy with myself HERE, where the heck can I be happy?

I decide to go explore the streets near my hotel.

The first shop I enter I buy flip flops. My leather flip flops have succeeded in giving me blisters and I need some new ones.

“Hallo,” says the shopkeeper.

“Hello.”

“Where you from, miss?” the shopkeeper asks.

I tell her and she says, “I Fia. Short for Fiatika. What your name, miss?”

“Kristin.”

“Hallo Kristeen,” she says.

She asks me more questions and pretty soon I’m inviting her for a swim at my hotel.

“I come to swim on my break at 5:00, yeah?” she asks.

“Sure,” I say.

Here is a picture of my new friend, Fia:

“You want to go to a party with me tomorrow? Big birthday party. 80-year old woman.”

“Yes,” I say.

“Okay, we go swimming together today at 5:00 and then tomorrow I pick you up at the hotel at 7:00 and you go with me to the birthday party. Friday you come with me on the motorbike to look at Bali, ok? It’s my holiday that day. No pay, you my friend. No pay.”

“Okay,” I say.

This trip is about saying YES.

I walk around town and then come back to my hotel.

A staff member says, “What you do for work, Kristeen? You writer? You writing the book?” (He’s seen me tapping away on my laptop.)

I tell him about my work with animals and business owners and he says, ” I am Ketut, Kristeen. I have friend from America, helps the dogs in Bali, you want to meet her tomorrow?”

“Yes,” I say.

“Okay, tomorrow at 5:00pm I pick you up on motorbike, take you to my American friend who helps the dogs.”

“Okay.”

I’m suddenly feeling the need to pick up an appointment book on my next trip to town.

Tagged as: Bali retreat, solo travel in Bali, travel in Bali