The word that keeps coming into my brain over the past day or two is, "perspective." I've been in Bali now for about eight days. This is the first place on the trip that I haven't previously been to. It is also the first non-colony country. Seriously how did such a small country rule so many people at one time!?
More notably Indonesia is the first country with a majority religious preference of non-Christians. The Balinese are traditionally Hindu yet Sumatra, Java and the other islands are majority Muslim. I was surprised by how Hindu Bali really is. Its not that people are all that different. Physically I'm truly a giant here. Most people seem we see who are Javanese or Balinese are of a smaller stature than Aussies or Americans. Its interesting to observe the people and their normal everyday habits.
We've spent our first five nights in a lower budget accommodation in Legian. I cannot be more thankful to have had that experience. We were able to get our feet on the ground and really figure out how the structure of the country works. What costs what? Where is what? The whys? Wheres? Hows? All of these things were so needed since we don't speak the language and are in a country we're unfamiliar with.
I keep coming back to this with Paul about how excited I am about the sense of familiarity I'll have with so many places after this trip. I can already see that Bali is a place I'd be interested in bringing my family or significant other to in the future. Now that I have a lay of the land, understand the culture a bit and just get how the tourist culture works here I'd be much more interested in returning. Actually I can already see how much I'm going to want to come back to Indonesia.
Did anyone out there know that Indonesia has over 200+ million people? I didn't! We met up with this sweet American Coloradan yesterday who is living here permanently working for a pearl farm on the non-tourist north coast of Bali. He did a stint in Indonesia a few years ago and has picked up the Balinese and Indonesian languages. It was really great to be out with an American who could converse and more importantly negotiate with the local Balinese. Anyway he was telling us a bit about his perspective of Bali before he got here. It was something like "yeah its this island nation below Thailand and China and has some sweet beaches and is known for resorts…" Honestly my impression of Bali was probably worse than his. For whatever reason I was thinking Bali would be like Fiji. I couldn't even have imagined how large of a country Indonesia was before I got here. I didn't even get it until earlier today when I was finally looking at a map of all of Indonesia and not just Bali. GOOD GOD there are a TON of people and a TON of islands in this country!
So we've been tooling round with our local Coloradan Balinese guide and I can't help but just keep thinking about the word, perspective. This trip to Bali has really put my trip into an entirely different perspective for me. It has put my life and the decisions I've made into a new perspective. I've been able to think outside of the box about lifestyles I hadn't encountered, situations I hadn't thought of, points of view I wouldn't have been able to begin to understand. I guess spending time with an American in Bali has been good because it helped me put myself in his shoes. Could I work abroad? Am I interested in really immersing myself in a culture for a few years? Could I live this far away from home? Would it be lonely?
I've thought about working internationally for the past few years and actually being here and spending time with someone who is doing it has been able to help me understand some of the good and the bad. The verdict is still out but it has been really great to begin processing a bit of this.
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