Seven days in Ubud, Bali.
Today is a happy day at the Alam Anda Homestay. It’s their teenage daughters birthday and she invited all her girlfriends, they are celebrating in the backyard just now. It’s funny how everything in this home is so different, but then again so familiar. Just like back home, those girls sing along to Katy-Perry-Songs, giggle all the time and talk about boys (I know that because they were kind enough to fill me in on the nuts and bolts.)
As for me, I’m pretty sure Kedek thinks I’m a weirdo at this point. And I can’t blame him. I sleep until noon, ask him kindly every day if it’s too late for breakfast, then go out to eat some more, come back and lock myself up in my room to write. But I love it. It’s one of those things I always dreamed of doing, but never actually did because people might think I’m weird. But noone knows me here, so I don’t care. By the way, I’d like to share my favourite Indonesian word with you today. It is “Hati-Hati”, it means something like “careful-careful” and I use it whenever I can:
Anyway, I still haven’t found out about Balinese religion, but I’m meeting a Canadian friend of mine tomorrow, provided that we actually “do stuff”. So I hope I’ll be a lot smarter by the end of day five. At the Art Café my favourite thing happened today. The waitress regognized me and asked me how I was! She even remembered my order from the day before and asked me if I wanted the same thing again today. Of course I didn’t, for they have plenty more treats to try out and so I had Suri’s Shake and the Mexican Burger. But I just love it when this happens! If you keep coming back, one day you move from being a stranger to being a regular. You feel at home, if only for a little while. Same thing happened when I picked up my laundry afterwards. Walking home with the laundry bag under my arm, all of a sudden people stopped yelling at me: “Massage, lady?” or “Taxi, miss?” …Oh, she’s doing her laundry here, she’s obviously not a tourist… Bless them!
I’m back in my room now, having a bad-ass wifi-connection at Kedeks for a change, so I spend a lot of my time doing research on the internet. I found two great projects I felt like sharing with you. They’re just too great not to:
Let’s travel somewhere
Seriously, this is probably the best travel-related webpage I have ever seen. No, hold on, I think this is actually the best webpage in general I’ve ever seen. Nisa Maier, travel blogger and photographer on Cookiesound is Traveling, realized a beautiful project here, connecting photographers all over the world and telling travel stories in amazing pictures. Only looking at them makes my heart jump… there is still so much to see!
Reisedepeschen
I’ve been waiting for a page like this to appear in German - and here it is! “Reisedepeschen” by Johannes Klaus is a pool of travel bloggers sharing their best travel stories on one page. I just love, love, love the design and the colourful mixture of writers - there’s something for everyone here… as long as you speak German, that is.
(Outside my window they are singing “Happy Birthday” now with the cutest Balinese accent. I just want to cuddle them and tell them how lovely they are… But I’m not gonna do it. The’d just think I am even more weird… If only I had a little present I could give her…)
