Bali Island

I recently wrote a review on Bali Island, and decided to put it in my blog. Bali was probably my favorite vacation spot during me years as a JET. Thus, I recommend Bali as an inexpensive vacation location rich in culture and things to do.

Flying there:
Flying to Bali is not very expensive. It costs about 5 man yen / $500US, or less. If you don’t get a package, you can stay for a week and a half. Tour packages might be less expensive, but you are limited to 3-7 days, and the longer it is, the more expensive.
So my recommendation is to get the chapest flight you can find, and then stay in hotels. This will allow you the greatest freedom.

Staying there:
Hotels range from extremely cheap to expensive. I stayed in nice hotels, which included breakfast, for 300 to 400 yen / $3-4 per day. Get a Lonely Planet to get a list of hotels and prices. Once you are in the country, you can find more places to stay. For 2500 yen you can stay in a VERY nice place.

Traveling Around:
The best way to travel around Bali is probably by Taxi. You can rent a taxi for about 1000 yen / $10 per day. They will not only drive you around, they will recommend hotels and restaurants, and be your own personal tour guide. It was a great experience to rent a taxi. The way to do it is to ask the concierge at the hotel for a taxi, or to look for one on the street. You might even just ask at a little market. The whole feel of Bali is very small, so you probably won’t have problems finding one.

Omiyage-Souvenirs:
Hmm. I would have to say that in my experience, the Japanese school teachers are very picky about their omiyage. I don’t see it disappear very quickly from the break room. The best things to buy them are things with individually wrapped candies or things like that. I found an energy drink, in powder packets that was so good and you can’t find it here. It was a hit in Japan. Sorry, I can’t remember the name. For your own souvenirs, I recommend that energy drink, and Balinese coffee mix in packets (delicious!).

Places to Go, Things to Do:
Dolphins
The most fun I had was in Lovina, in Northern Bali. My taxi driver insisted that we go see the dolphins. He said “The dolphins like it! And for $5 you should really go.” I had read a bad review in the Lonely Planet. The review said that the boats chased the dolphins, and that the poor dolphins couldn’t get away. This review was obviously written by someone lacking a few brain cells, or at least someone who didn’t think for themselves. As far as my observations went, the dolphins are free to roam where they wish, they appear when the wish and the leave when they wish. It seemed almost ritualistic, and if dolphins are as intelligent as they are famed to be, I am certain that they are conscious of their interaction with the observers. We left the beach at about 6:30. We waited in a certain area. 45 minutes later, the dolphins appeared to one side of the boats. I assume that these are their morning feeding grounds, if not, they are just there for fun. We would chase after their leaping forms for a while and then they would disappear, reappearing in a different area. There, they would begin leaping once again. We would chase them, they would swim with us for a while, and then hide again. This happened several times in a matter of an hour and a half. Then they were gone, they did not resurface. I suppose that they went to go about their daily feeding in some other area. Apparently, they appear in about the same place every day. I would assume that if they were fishing, the fish would be seasonal. If they didn’t like it, they would find another place to fish, as they are free to come and go. But the dolphins appear every day of the year at the same time. I can only assume that they are playing some sort of hide and seek with the humans, who get very excited and happy when they see them. It is a wonderful experience, and if this kind of tourism begins to dwindle, the dolphins might lose their playmates. So much for animal rights. Well, that’s what I think, anyway.
Massage
Traditional Balinese Massage is really nice. It costs about 2,000 yen / $20 per hour, but its good. Even better, get lessons! I spent two days studying with a woman who taught traditional Balinese massage, and it was fun. I would like to study Thai Massage, too…
Durian
Eat durian. Get it from a fresh fruit vendor, preferably with someone who knows what the tastiest ones look like. A bad durian is very bad. But good durian is a flavor you will never forget (so is a bad one!).
The Volcano
I ate at a buffet overlooking a crater lake. It was beautiful and though the buffet was about 800 yen, it was really tasty, and the view was awesome.
Shopping
There are great things to buy. Barter, barter, barter!!
Kechak
Watch the traditional dances. I saw a wonderful rendition of the Kechak Dance at Uluwatu, where the surfing is famous. It was an amazing place, on cliff overlooking the ocean.
Ubud and Sightseeing
Ubud is a beautiful art town. I highly recommend it for shopping for art and textiles. Also, the surrounding area is very picturesque. The ancient temples are amazing, too.

Immigrants' Stories

We have been watching The Sound of Music in the JHS 2nd grade class. First, I would like to say that I think this movie is amazing. What a great film. It has a bit of everything very well orchestrated into it. It is funny, sad, happy, elegant, down-to-earth, and very well composed. The directing, acting, and camera work is great. And the plot is really good. I saw this movie when I was about seven, but I was too young to know enough about life to appreciate it.
It constantly reminds me of my father in Mexico when we watch it. He is Austrian, and the movie is about Austrians. It shows us the culture before the second world war. It is a culture that I know he yearns for, a beautiful culture of elegant waltzes, classical music, quiet mountains, and many other things. I am sure, if I were to see a movie about Cuba, the same thing would happen with regard to my mother.
It makes me realize that I have chosen the same path. The path of the immigrant.
The other night I had a dream. I was in the mountains somewhere in California. I had met some people at the store. A young woman, a young man and an older woman. They were laughing and talking in the checkout isle. The man began to sing a short song, an addition to what we were talking about. And then the young checkout woman said to me "Why don't you stay here? It is fun, the people are nice. You would probably be happy here." I began to cry, and I woke up crying. It had been a long time since that happened. I realized how much I still missed being in the US, the way the people so freely greet strangers, and treat people like they are important, even if they don't know them, how easy it is to make real friends. But all of these feelings and this nostalgia are meaningless. The fact is that I am an immigrant. I have married a foreign man and moved to a foreign land. No one understands or cares, why should they? They didn't leave their homeland. I have chosen a lonely path, perhaps. Or perhaps it takes years to build a life, and most people have started from childhood, but I started 5 years ago, as an adult. I am not lonely with my husband; he is a lovely man, and very masculine and very proud. He is always at my side, if I should need someone, he is there for me. So I have the seed of a life here, and slowly, little by little, am meeting people and learning the language to a point of semi-literacy. And I am learning what it means to be Japanese, not in the obvious ways, but the ways that I am sure the Japanese Immigrants miss so much when they have left their home to live abroad. The quiet nature of homelife. What it means to be proud of yourself because you have really tried and prevailed at something, and then to keep going. Patience. The art of focus. And littler things... that I might not notice until I left, to go back to my homeland, and then looking back, realized how they had struck me so deeply. This may also be the plight of the Immigrant. That time and space always move forward, but that your become a part of that moving sphere, and once separated, are lost, in some part, forever. We can never go back. To where we were born, or to the place where we lived for some years.

Immigrants never forget their homeland. They never forget the way that people interacted. They never forget the little things, like how the place looked, the shapes and styles of things, when people smiled, when people connected, the sounds, the smells, the tastes. Those things may fall away with the years, changing, but for the immigrant, and perhaps, for the elderly as well, the nostalgia of a life never goes away. It lives forever in their hearts.

I am planting a garden. There is a Pineapple Guava in it. It is a rare ornamental here. I am also planting all sorts of citrus fruits, which are very popular here. I hope that my garden will flourish. It resembles my hopes.

Reforestation Worldwide

The problem of deforestation (loss of trees => desert) is occurring worldwide at a rapid rate.
In developing countries, people cut down trees to sustain their own lives, but in the end are worse off than before, because nothing will grow in a desert.
When people remove the trees from an area, the area becomes dry, and seed dispersing animals dissappear.
The plants that are there already cannot live in a dry environment and die under the dry heat.

There are two inspiring stories I'd like to share, one that I learned about for the first time today, and the other I learned about several years ago.

I heard about the story of Toyama many years ago. He is an old Japanese man who is planting trees in the Gobi Desert of China and Mongolia. He has been doing it for 15 years, since he was 80. He is now 96, but is still trucking. You can read Toyamasan's story here.

The other story is of Jane Wynne, at Wynne Farm in Haiti. I first read the article on Haiti today on NPR. Haiti is suffering from severe environmental degradation. She is one of few people who is preventing it at her farm. She also educates Haitian children about how to prevent deforestation, and teaches them how to plant. Here is the Wynne Farm story.

Related to the issues that face rural areas, is the heat issue that faces cities. Cities are technically deserts, more or less. There is an ocean of rooftops reflecting the sun. Something called the "Heat Island Effect" affects cities where there are not enough trees. These cities are very hot. For a long time, I was really interested in becoming an architect, and designing "Green Roofs" to help with the environmental issues that face cities. You can read more about Green Roofs at my website, http://www.spaz.org/~sofia/greenroof.html

Recently my JHS students have been studying about Mother Theresa. She was like Wynne and Toyama. She focused her energy on helping, and was successful in saving the lives of many homeless children in Culcatta.

Today I realized that anyone can help with global problems if they try.
I also realized that most people don't want to step out of their little lives to help the world. They feel too busy, there are too many issues in their own lives.
But there are problems everywhere, even in our own towns, like homeless issues and orphaned children, and hot, dry asphalt in our cities. If I think about myself, I don't really do anything to help, I have dreams, but I don't act upon them. How to plan, donating time, and other issues get in the way...but really...

If everyone stepped out and acted like Lynne and Toyama, we would have a wonderful world.