Bali Backroads and mind massage

Whatever happened on super Tuesday?
Has another snow storm hit Cleveland?
Is our house still standing?
Do I have everything in order for school next Monday?

Thoughts of elsewhere dart into my mind like now you see ‘em now you don’t geckos. Not the geckos on commercials who casually offer tea and jam with insurance quotes, but the real little green lizards that are treated like royalty here because they eat bugs. I don’t know if it is the lingering jet lag or just the spiritual magic that hangs heavy in the rain forest, but its hard to think here, there’s too much to experience.

We drive as fast as possible past the morning and evening sunset beaches to a spa owned by Jakarta teachers Hugh and Rita Collett. Well, to put that a little more accurately, a driver from the Alam Sari Spa drives us. Only tourists who have a mad desire to get REALLY in touch with the spirit world would venture to drive out of the airport where traffic lines are for sissies and every four wheeled vehicle is orbited by satellites of motorcylces. There is a fair amount of horn honking, but I notice that it is not aggressive “get out of my way” honking. More like, “hey, I’m over here, don’t hit me,” honking. Lots of speed bumps, everyone gets cut off regularly and there is zero road rage.

The above picture is the corner of our private bungalow for the week. Our bed is decorated with flowers and we look out on a temple that receives offerings from staff 3 times a day.

Having just read Eat, Love, Pray (highly recommended) I know that Bali is a spiritual place, but nothing prepares you for the ubiquitous temples that rise on every corner and rice paddy. Each of the mailbox shaped structures here in the rice paddy is a temple made for offerings to enhance fertility. By all appearances, the offerings seem to be working as Bali ia one of the most fertile places on the planet. A balsa tree can grow 12 centimeters a day! Plant such as bamboo and rice and sweet potatoes are just broken from an exising plant and tucked in the red earth.