Chronicles of an amused human: Gratitude

After the best wedding I have ever been to (my own!), my brand new shiny husband and I were off to our romantic paradise-like honeymoon in Bali!

Colleagues, friends and family alike had all informed us of how wonderful this Island is. It's affordable, fun, great weather, beautiful, cheap food, markets, you'll love it they said, it's paradise.

We arrived at Den Pesar Airport at 10.00pm, where we were ushered out and into the humid and extremely crowded carpark where were advised to wait in broken English. My husband and I did as we were told and silently stood, clutching our bags while dozens of porters offered through waving gestures and big smiles to take our bags. We politely declined, as Cam and I aren't great in crowds, we clutched our bags and each others hands a little tighter.

A shiny new Suzuki pulled up with our Villa name Kayu Raja (Wood of the King) appearing on all sides. Breathe.

What a sight is Bali traffic? Once we had climbed into the people mover, the doors locked! Through our heavily tinted windows we witnessed hundreds of heavy passengered scooters and small motor bikes, some carrying babies or toddlers, even dead/sleeping chickens.

Yep, that's a chicken on the bottom left...

One moment I shall never forget about our first evening in Bali, was when were in our first traffic jam, surrounded by a sea of heavily clad two wheeled family movers and locked people movers full of bemused or seasoned Bali travelling Westerners. While we we stopped in said jam, we heard a gentle tap on my car window. "Do not open the window." piped the driver. I glanced through my dark window to see a young girl all of nine (my daughter's age) peering back at me. "They want money, do not open the window, they all come." stated the driver. Behind the young girl, amongst the sea of bikes stood many other children and young women.... They want money....

Paradise.Tears.

We arrived at Villa Kayu Raja after driving through unsealed pot-hole covered back streets, with our locked car doors and the image of someone's daughter, begging for money. 5 star accommodation didn't feel right.

Wood of the Kings

The following morning after our 5 star king size bed, air conditioning and weird "where the hell am I?" post sleep in new bad panic, my shiny new husband and I ventured to our breakfast. This is where my view on holidays and experiences altered.

Nengah.

We met him the previous evening when we had our lonely meal in the Kayu Raja restaurant. Nengah was our waiter, he was in his thirties and was married, travelled over an hour and a half each day to and from work. He had a seven year old son who he could afford to send to school. His son was learning English because as part of 210 million odd Indonesian population with no Government assistance, speaking English will get you a job in Indonesia.

Our new friend Nengah!

That single conversation with Nengah altered my initial shock of Bali's in your face poverty, streets in disrepair, overcrowded motor bikes and visible waste.

He looked at life with love, positivity, opportunity and gratitude.

Personally, I had wondered in those very short twelve hours what impact the introduction of tourism and Westerners to Bali, whether it was negative based on the visible rubbish and Westernisation of such an ancient culture and what that could possible mean for future generations, whether like in Western cultures, albeit mainly through tourism, the rich will get richer and the get poorer. Or is tourism having a positive impact in Bali? Creating jobs and futures for families with each new generation thanks to the strong Western dollar and accompanying lifestyle.

Opportunity for work through tourism

Gen Y Balinese boys working in tourism!

Understanding that Nengah felt grateful for tourism and visibly took his job seriously helped us enjoy our holiday, but in a different way. We offered gratitude to all who made our holiday so wonderful. We had an acoustic foursome make a point of singing popular songs for each culture, a ditty by Crowded House for the family from New Zealand, a Bob Marley song for the Jamaican couple and R.E.M. for us.... We didn't dare inform them that us pasty folk were from Australia!

An acoustic foursome playing R.E.M in strong Balinese accents

Sweet sweet harmonies


I loved his symbol on a stick!

Throughout our vacation, we continued to bare witness to the love and gratitude from the locals, whether it be from offering extra tips and not bartering down to the last 10,000 Rupiahs (1 Australian dollar). We were happily offering extra, and thanking merchants.

One particular shop assistant was outside her boutique clothing shop with one of the many stray dogs in Bali. I asked her if it was her dog. "No." she replied "I feed her chicken meatballs every morning because she is a new mother.".


Beautiful shop assistant and her stray canine friend

We watched a traditional Balinese dance, which when mixed with Western culture, morphed into a pantomime, complete with overacting and I can only assume a lot of improvisation. It was hilariously confusing.

Beautiful traditional Balinese dancers

The pantomime begins...

They were so well rehearsed, they could play with eyes closed

These wonderful chaps were in the crowd!

We took the opportunity to thank the performers and have a quick picture taken with them!

The cast!

A sombre moment was captured when one of the performers was taking a breather. It occurred to me that the performers worked seven days a week, four shows a day. No days off. No sick leave, holiday pay, over time.

A sombre moment

We met and rode on a Sumatran elephant Gigi with her trainer Suwandi. Suwandi has been Gigi's trainer for ten years. They are both originally from Sumatra's Elephant rescue sanctuary and moved to Bali's Elephant Safari Elephant Rescue centre. Suwandi stated that he will always stay with Gigi "She is like my wife!". We were a wee reserved about visiting the Sanctuary, however the treatment of the saved elephants warmed our hearts.

Suwandi and his wife, me and my husband!

Magnificent Gigi

So after our initial shock of the poverty and crowds of modern Bali, we thoroughly enjoyed the moments we shared, with eachother and the locals, animals and scenery. The gratitude, love and respect we witnessed.