Bali – So this is
Indonesia….
Bali is a very beautiful island, at least geologically
anyway. There are the requisite
mountains, beaches, and tropical rainforests.
There’s plenty of sun and it’s more than warm enough. But, if you’ve ever read Karl Marx (or at
least heard of the struggle of the proletariat), Bali will really help you
visualize what he was trying to say. Up
from the midst of abject poverty, real corrugated tin shack sort of stuff, rise
gaudy monuments to the bourgeois. The
Hard Rock Café Complex in Kuta is perhaps the most visible of these, but there
are several other resort compounds that locals aren’t, for all intents and
purposes, even allowed in (unless, of course, they’re working there). There are places there that most Balinese
couldn’t work their whole lives to save enough money to even spend a weekend
in. And I don’t really know what the
mainstay of the Balinese economy is, but from what I saw it’s catering to
foreigners, either during their visit or by hand-crafting various woodwork
items for export. Don’t get me wrong;
I’m not condemning the system. To the
contrary, I paid my 8 bucks or so to splash around in the Hard Rock pool and
even more for mixed drinks at the in-the-pool bar. But still there was something that seemed a bit, well, colonial
about the whole thing. It probably
didn’t help that we stayed at a luxurious villa complete with a full
staff. Rule Britannia, I though,
sipping my rum punch under the villa’s pavilion. I found myself wondering “would a nice sugar plantation fit it
that field over there?” It was a bit
unsettling. But each little family’s
shack we passed along the roadside helped put my station in life just a little
bit more into focus.
This was the Villa we stayed at. Quite a humble façade, isn’t it?
Once inside it became inordinately beautiful and luxurious. The pool had a nice view overlooking some hills down toward the ocean.
More of our own private backyard. That’s the open center pavilion on the right.
Again, it was a perfectly designed and sculpted setting.
The bedrooms were also rather well appointed, considering the tropical location.
Dig the open-air bathroom! A bit unsettling at first, but you get used to it very quickly. The fancy marble floors help….
Needles to say, this chap did not live in the Villa next door. His accommodations, not far from the rice field, were somewhat less luxurious. Rice farming is big on Bail.
A picturesque, and very tenacious, temple to the ocean gods. Most Balinese are Hindu, which is a rarity in the mostly Muslim islands of Indonesia.
Sunsets, sunsets, sunsets! This is on Kuta beach, which sadly gets better looking the darker it gets. It may be an island paradise, but it’s got New Jersey’s water quality….