A happy holiday weekend to you, and a lovely, easy beginning to the year.

Ah Linda, you are so kind. The beginning of the year has been extremely difficult for me. Thank you for the encouragement to post just pictures. I have taken you up on it, and it was easy for me to do… no pressure! Thanks for being supportive and loyal – I appreciate you.

I’ll be right over!!!

It was easy to take pictures there, Carl – everywhere I looked was so beautiful. The jungle, the water, the people…. sometimes I just gaped and totally forgot I had a camera with me!

On a more fun note, oh, that villa! It looks gorgeous and your meal sounded divine. I have loved every minute, every word of these posts. They take me to a spot I’ve never been, will probably never be, and yet I feel as though I’ve been on your journey with you. (Although I’m glad not to be in the sweaty room!) And all that blue! Oh, my — I love the water so much and to see it through your eyes.

Finally one other thing that I’ve loved about your journey. That’s how you met and had so many interactions with the people who live in Bali. I had some of that in Japan, but they were people Rick or I already knew. And a bit of that in Paris, but only a bit. You have done it to the max, and the result, I think, is an experience you’ll never forget.

You can keep posting anything you want about Bali anytime and you’ll have at least one eager reader in me!

Hi Jeanie. Nice to hear from you – thanks! The start up for my year this fall has me a bit overwhelmed…. but I do have one more post I want to do about Bali. The end of the trip! This past Sunday I cooked a Balinese meal for family and friends, and it was a HIT!! Hot peppers and all.

You are right – meeting people while traveling is really the cherry on top. Meeting locals, and also getting the perspective of other travels from other countries really made the trip double interesting. It was quite an experience. Now I have to decide where to go next year!!

Suko, thank you so much – for the compliment and the visit. I can’t tell you how much fun it is to share my experiences, and to have people interested enough to comment is definitely double fudge frosting on the cake!!

Oddly, one of the things that resonates from this recent entry is the fact that there are people on the move, traveling, and strangers meeting one another and deciding to travel together for awhile, like the surfers you mention. Good grief, how energizing and mind-expanding is that? Meeting people from everywhere is, to me, as important as finding new places is. It all goes together … It’s frighteningly easy to be provincial.

And now, on a mundane note – I agree with you about my stupid blog template. I wanted something new, clean, but with stuff to read. It’s cramping my photo style, though, as you also noted, and well, I will have to do something about it. Even if it’s returning to the “old” look. No, I haven’t time to go create my own right now. Rats. (oops, sorry, shouldn’t say that given your rat experiences in Bali!) Anyway, stay tuned…

I agree, Oh; it is wonderful meeting people native to wherever one is visiting, and it is equally fascinating to meet other travelers. So interesting to exchange impressions and ideas and views of a place foreign to both of you. Interpretations of a people and place are compounded… exponentially.
I’m glad you change to template on your blog – the bee photos are wonderful now!

I could feel every bit of your experience with the snorkeling. I’d never done any diving until going to the Virgin Islands, and it took me a bit of time to get accustomed enough to the techniques to really enjoy it. Our water was much more placid, although in some places like Thunderball Cave you had to watch the tides. It always amazed me that something as fragile as coral could be so hard and sharp!

Now, for another of those special little small-world moments – I’d already seen photos of Ko Lanta, where your acquaintances have their dive shop. Friends from Austin whose boat I worked on left here years ago for a circumnavigation. They did it all, and then started over, and they’re still out there cruising.

I learned about Ko Lanta and Phi Phi Islands from them. They were in Phuket the day of the tsunami. About 50 boats had gathered for a Christmas dinner on Phuket beach, and then, on Boxing Day, they were anchored out off the beach. They were lucky – they felt the wave on its way in to shore, hauled anchor and then hauled themselves to deep water and weren’t harmed. But when they finally left Phuket, headed across the Andaman sea on their way toward the Red Sea, they had to constantly be on watch for half-submerged debris – washers and cars and refrigerators and….

You have to tell about the last photo! Your beach art? or found art? Is that a word done in stones across the top? Are the black stones volcanic? Is it an offering to the Great God of Vacations? I could ask even more questions about it, but I’ll stop!

Wonderful entry.

Hi Linda…. it is a small world sometimes, isn’t it? I love these kinds of coincidences. Suzanne, of Ko Lanta, had coincidentally met my cousin last year at a party. Not so surprising, as expats do tend to hang out together, but still…..

The beach art – not mine. There were various children at the beach all week, but I didn’t notice anyone hanging out on this corner of the beach creating anything. I think the black stones were volcanic… there was that nearby Mt. Agung. It appeared to be a name across the top, but the stones had been kicked about, and it was no longer legible. It was clear that the first letter was a K……. certainly in reference to my name!! I believe it was an offering to the Great God of the Sea – for giving me back