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| The large expanse of the river one door from our home on the beach. |
“Bali Sightings on the Beach”
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| This was moving in the river next to our house. Must be some kind of peculiar fish. |
It’s Saturday. The WiFi is slow today. It took almost two hours of trying off and on to download today’s photos. With many workers off for the weekend, they may be spending time online having a serious impact on our ability to connect.
In the event you don’t see a post on any given day within three hours of the usual uploading time, please accept our apologies and know we’ve been unable to get online and will be posting as soon as possible.
As mentioned in yesterday’s story about the culling of dogs in Bali, life isn’t always as easy as it may seem living on a tropical island. Of course, we’re grateful for the conveniences we have, the wonderful staff, and the overall comfort in our everyday surroundings.
 The mouth of the river close to our house which many locals use each day. Compared to anywhere in the world, there are inconvenient aspects that one can’t help but notice; the mosquitos day and night; the flies, particularly while dining; and the constant heat and humidity.
Bali is located 8.65 degrees south of the equator, which translates to 960 kilometers, 595 miles. As a result, it is hot and humid every day, raining occasionally, although it isn’t the rainy season at this time.
When most tourists travel, they stay in hotels often with air conditioning in many common areas and dining halls. For us, with no AC on the main floor, there is no air-con (other than in the master bedroom). As a result, we fully experience the heat and humidity.
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We stay outdoors from early morning until after dinner when the two Ketuts close the glass and wood accordion doors to keep the dusk-time mozzies out of the house as much as possible. We keep the bedroom door and windows closed at all times for this reason.
Do we get used to it? A huge portion of our travels consists of living in ultra hot/humid weather conditions for most days and many nights without AC in the bedroom, only a ceiling or floor fan to blow the humid air over us.
Used to it? I suppose we are since we keep finding ourselves in similar locations, well aware of the weather conditions long before we travel to a new country. Oddly, we don’t consider it an obstacle or a sacrifice, certainly no more than the reality of the cold climate, we tolerated in Minnesota; for Tom, all of his life; for me, over 40 years.
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| Side yard at the house, lush and green. |
In this past week since our arrival, we’ve lived entirely in swimsuits, handwashing them at night. The suit I washed last night at 7:00 pm, is still on the clothes rack, remaining soaked in the high humidity. Luckily, we each have enough swimsuits to get us through in hot and high humidity locations.
With no English-speaking TV, we have no reason to ever turn it on, other than to plug in the HDMI cord to my laptop to watch our remaining downloaded shows. Downloading more movies and TV shows is nearly impossible with a slow connection.
In the evenings, we watch a few shows, but most likely will run out before we depart at the end of June. We’ll find other sources of entertainment once that occurs. As always, we’ll figure it out.
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| Fluffy white spring flowers beginning to bloom. |
Some of our readers have written inquiring as to how we’re managing the food situation. Over two years ago while living in Morocco, we had a full-time cook, Madam Zahra, who adapted the starchy, sugary, grain-laden Moroccan meals to my way of eating.
The cooking seems to be even easier here in Bali as the two Ketuts aren’t having any trouble adapting the meals to befit our diet. Since the house rules stipulate that all guests are served the same dishes at each meal, Tom is surprising me by eating everything they make.
When we’re cooking our own meals, I often adapt items that he prefers within the framework of our dietary restrictions. Here, he has no such choices and we eat what’s put on the table, all appropriately modified for us. It’s working better than we expected. The meals are comparable to those we’d discover in a high-end dining establishment. Need I say, we’re loving every meal.
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| The rocky end of a point while on a walk on the beach. |
Tonight, I’ll finally take photos of our meal before we dig in. Other nights, we’ve been so distracted by the beautiful food put in front of us, I’ve failed to take photos.
Tomorrow, we’ll post the photos along with the menu offered to guests (without dietary restrictions) from which they’ve improvised most of our meals. Please check back for the exciting offerings.
Regardless of some necessary adaptations common in most locations, we are content and relaxed in Bali. The daily swimming in the pool is keeping us active and hopefully fit a degree. Once Tom’s sunburned feet are totally healed, we start walking again. It was a fluke that happened and it won’t happen again.
Today, we have several tasks to accomplish; booking future flights, applying for a visa for Vietnam (for the upcoming Mekong River cruise in July), and a new visa for Australia that soon expires (good for one year, which has almost passed). Hopefully, we’ll manage to accomplish these tasks online with the slow wifi. But, if not, we’ll save it for another day.
Sometimes saving a task for another day makes sense, especially when we plan to accomplish these tasks well in advance. Keeping stress at a minimum is always our goal thus we avoid waiting last minute for anything (if we can help it).
May your day be low-stress as well!
Photo from one year ago today, May 7, 2015:
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| Tourists stopping to read a sign on the Kauai Path. Notice the cross on the shore, most likely as a memorial to a swimmer’s death in the sea in this area. Please click here for more photos. |