The world’s fourth most populated country gained three more people last week.
Five relaxing days spent in Bali. Here are my ‘findings’ –
Motorbikes? Bali’s got more of these then it has cheap t-shirts. If you can picture a teeming ant colony, alive with it’s own throbbing, pulsing rhythm of organized chaos, then you can imagine the scene here.
The motorbikes may be more like ‘mopeds’ or ‘scooters’ but the tens of thousands of roaming packs of them definitely brought to mind the armies of motorized nomads from any MAD MAX movie –
Not sure whether Bali has more motorbikes or statues but either way there’s a heck of a lot of marble and granite figures standing tall around the place.
Did I just say ‘standing tall’? You bet your sweet bippy I did. The stately specimen above of Indonesia’s first President Sukarno looks like not much in this photo but up close towered to a mahoosive five storeys in height, amidst a jungle setting. As you do.
Yep, it’s true. The singer/actor had a life-long love affair with Bali and ordered that upon his death, that happened in 2016, his ashes would be scattered there.
Always wanted to appear in a PLANET OF THE APES remake. Bali was the place to do it.
MONKEY FOREST had over 1200 monkeys roaming in natural surrounds. That’s a lot of monkeys… for a lot of tourists. The baby monkeys were the star attraction. Chimps off the old block, I say.
If you listen carefully to the video below, you’ll hear me ask my 14-year-old daughter, who was filming, can she zoom in. She replies, rather emphatically, “No”. I then observe in a moment of lazer-focussed insight, “They’re not doing anything”.
In other words, our version of the Griswold family. And if you don’t know who they are, then click go the shears HERE.
Yesireee, the national flags of Indonesia and Monaco are pretty similar, apart from some slight differences in colour shade and dimension. Depending on who you believe, apparently Indonesia got in first on this design, with Monaco grabbing its slice of the act a mere five years later.
Hear those rooster sounds (in the first 30 seconds) in the background of this ‘Goodbye to Bali’ clip from the film? Two words – ClASSIC BALI!
The movie, btw, was based on the best-selling 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert.
And the final word on BALI? Australian band REDGUM will do the honors here. This clip might be 40 years old but its the same BALI we breathed in for six days last week.
There’s cringe factor galore – what music video from the 80’s hasn’t – but if you can get over that, then BALI is all yours…
And for all vacationing pet-owners, like us…
I felt like I was there, Glen. Especially viewing the ’80s “I’ve been to Bali too” video.
The crazy motorbikes remind me of the taxis in NYC and how, a few times, I found myself holding onto the door AND the edge of the seat with white knuckles, wondering if we were gonna die any minute.
Interesting about Bowie. I had no idea! He’s one of my favorite musicians due to not only a lot of his music but the fact that he was one of the only artists to tongue lash MTV back in the day for not ever featuring any black musicians. You go, David!
That Eat, Pray, Love movie–I won’t say anything in case it’s one of your favs. So in just saying that sentence, you can imagine how I felt about it, lol.
It sounds like a magical trip. Especially with baby monkeys in the picture.
The ultimate compliment to any writer/blogger – “I feel like I was there”.
Thank you so much for that!
Taxis in NYC? Well, they are world renown, so yeah, heard a bit about those myself.
And as to EAT PRAY LOVE, never seen it ’cause… you know, not my type of flick.
So yes, I can absolutely psychically pick up it’s not in your top 100, top 1000 or even top 10 000 movie list. Good, ’cause when it morphed into a kind of world-wide movement for a year or two in the early 2010’s I wasn’t really ‘onboard’, as they say.
And once again, when I respond in the Reader instead of on the blog, it says anonymous. I guess because right here it says log in is optional. And I didn’t log in, lol