August 14, 2015badfish

ONE LAST WEEK IN PARADISE: FOOTPRINTS ON THE ROAD

PART ONE:     BENEATH YOUR FEET IN BALI

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IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS IN PARADISE THAT YOU DON’T LOVE THE MOST. Like, say, when a monsoon dumps a hard rain overnight, and you’ve got your towels and just-washed-in-the-sink underwear and T-shirts on the drying rack in the bathroom, and the bathroom has an open-air ceiling that you love, but rain pours in through a hole like that, and your stuff gets wet. Or when the giant wood spider with the wicked three-inch leg span weaves a web during the night and connects one end of it to your chair. Or when the two-foot-long, red-spotted tokay gecko who you love to watch eat mosquitoes poops out the remains of some of those mosquitoes and drops them on your daypack in—granted, small and hard and easy to remove, but—annoying little turds shaped like elongated American footballs, black, except for some reason, one pointed tip is white.

Note to self: research gecko poop…what’s up with the white tip?

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But one of the most annoying things to love the least about paradise is the furniture. There are two odd issues about the furniture: One, it is made of bamboo, or wicker, or rattan, or wood, and it is never comfortable (and they didn’t name them “giant wood spiders” for nothing). Two, if your accommodation even supplies cushions, they always put tacky, bright-colored and usually huge-flowered material on them as though that were normal or cute or proper furniture material in paradise. Try this: go on Airbnb or Trip Advisor and search photos of places to stay in, say, Hawaii—you’ll find flowers on all the furniture. It’s like the Mafia controls the furniture-material market in paradise, and you MUST use their material (or swim with the fishes), and it’s all got flowers because that’s what the Mafia is all about since going legit. I’ve seen five-star hotels go all gaudy with that crap. Fine, there are a lot of gorgeous flowers in paradise, that’s part of what makes it paradise, but do we need blown-up versions of them woven onto our furniture, too…is all I’m saying.

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But perhaps the worst problem regarding furniture—I guess this makes it three annoying things—is that there are different standards (or perhaps, just no standards?) for height in furniture, like the height for a table and the height for a seat of a chair. The chairs never match the height of the tables. One of my favored mottos—right up there with “I’ll do that later”—is “Never say never.” But here, the furniture never matches. Either, you hover over your plate because your chair is almost the same height as your table. Or, you feel like a munchkin sitting at a dining table because the seat is so low. You have to put a couple extra cushions on your chair to put you high enough to feel comfortable eating at the table. Maybe another cushion, if you want to use a laptop. But fine, we’re learning to accept “what is,” and there is good and bad in everything—when you wake up in the morning and ease your way out from under the mosquito net, you find yourself staring out at all those real flowers in paradise, natural jungles of trees full of them. Grow a set, dude, and please quit complaining about paradise.

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But let’s just say you get to Bali, and all you really want to do is chill. And you do just that for a month. But then, you must vacate the house you’re renting because some other lucky creep has it reserved. And you’ve got a week left until your plane departs for home. What to do?

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All you still really want to do is pull a Badfish version of Elizabeth Gilbert, and Eat Pray Chill: maybe eat mango bagels from Bali Buddha Bakery, lie in a silk hammock listening to sounds of silence, get another deep-tissue massage at Iman Spa. However, you harbor this feeling that you should do something else. You are in Bali after all, everyone else is doing everything: visiting the bird park or Botanical Gardens, riding the elephants, snorkeling with dolphins, white-water rafting the Sungai Ayung, hiking to the top of Gungung Batur for a sunrise view, photographing temple dances at night, dining on gado gado and fresh-caught tuna.

But say you are notoriously weak at decision making. You get this last-minute, desperate idea to have your blog readers vote for what you should do. You imagine, or openly hope, that they will empathize with your desire for chilling and vote for your continuing to chill. They know you want to chill. They only want the best for you. The first few votes are thrilling; these first few really cool readers vote for you to carry on chilling. But get this—almost everyone else (72%) votes for you to get that lazy butt off the veranda and out into the land of gods and demons and experience the damn travails of traveling, possibly crash that motorbike into a rice paddy, again, so they can read about it while sitting on their comfortable and appropriately-sized furniture, and laugh. So much for expecting empathy for a chilling, bagel-eating, douchebag veranda sitter.

A few readers offer other options. One says to “let the gods and demons decide” (which isn’t really a proper vote because obviously, that’s exactly what is going to happen). One says to “follow your bliss” (very Campbellian, but why couldn’t she just have voted to chill?). One wants you to go all the way “to Komodo Island” and risk your life at the hands claws and teeth of the resident and legendary dragon there (the Komodo Dragon will eat you, and they are not behind bars in a cage, they run wild, and you must walk out into the wild to see them eat a goat, or their young).

These are the results of the poll:

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You still really only want to chill. However, you have put this thing—this someone else making your choice for you—out to the universe. You’re beginning to think you can’t just ignore a message from the universe after requesting it. There are always consequences to your actions, and non-actions. Some might call it karma, or cause and effect, or luck, or mere coincidence. You might be feeling a little miffed at Krista Stevens and the Blogging 201 course you took that required you to make the poll in the first place. On the other hand, since making rationalizations is becoming de rigueur for your days lately, you begin to imagine possible reasons why you might not actually be required to heed this as a message from the universe—like, it’s just an online course you didn’t even pay for.

But yeah, you know better. You begin to wish there would have been a lot more really cool readers who would have voted for you to lie in your hammock, watch the Bali starlings clustering in the rice paddies, chop off the top of another young coconut and drink the juice before heading off for today’s deep-tissue massage.

Note to self: in the future, cultivate more really cool (that is, empathetic vote-for-chilling) blog readers before offering another poll.

The trail that leads from your house.

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The bamboo bridge that crosses the river.

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You wander past some grass and rocks and lichen.

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The roots of an orchid.

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You pass the orchid tree, as usual, where you park your motorbike.

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You imagine making art like Georgia O’Keefe.

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Tomorrow and the next few days, you will head off to see parts of Bali you have never seen before: Tampak Sering, Padang Padang, Gitgit and Sekumpul Falls. And some, you have seen before but not for many years: Jatiluwih, Ulu Watu, Lovina. Part of you is excited to get all Kerouac on the road in Bali. Part of you is glad you made a decision (okay, okay, a decision was made for you, a decision you would not have made yourself). Part of you still wants to chill. One of those times we must accept “what is.” Oh, the heavy burdens we all share in life.

Who’d a thunk: in case you are actually interested in the scatological nature of geckos, I just found this below online:

“Lizard droppings have white tips due to the process of reptile elimination: Both feces and urine exit their body through the same opening, the cloaca. Lizards are very water-efficient, and their urine is quite concentrated. The white tip on the droppings is uric acid crystals.”                                           Source: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/

You can find other photos for the DP Photo Challenge here: Beneath Your Feet

You can find other patients in Dr. Lucile’s Photo Rehab here:  Photo Rehab

You can find more mundane photos at Trablogger’s:   Mundane Monday

120 comments

  2. I missed that poll and now in retrospect it’s so hard to assume what I’d vote for.

    I am very impressed that you actually googled that shit thing.

    You’ll get far.

    Also: when starting reading this post, I perked my ears at the sight of green rice fields and something whispered: “baaaaaadfish post”. I’m learning!

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    • Watch out Manja, it goes like this:
      read one badfish post, laugh out loud, read two, read the post out loud to anyone you can find and insist they laugh out loud also, read three, and you’re hooked.

      You find yourself already addicted to Badfish posts and start looking forward to them, as the highlight of your week! ……baaaaaadfish post alert…….

      dont say you haven’t beeen warned!

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    • So…let me know when you figure it out what you would have voted for, so I’ll know whether to allow you to take the next poll!!!
      I know…after I’d finished writing, something just said to me…google that shit thing.
      Baaaaaad is right!! You are teachable!

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  3. That was basically a rant right? Because it was the most chilled out rant I’ve ever read! Kudos for that alone…
    Also I had no idea I was interested in lizard droppings but turns out I am apparently…

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    • James, please get your terminology straightened out. That was not a rant, that was a Badfish post. You see, he has this innate ability to get people hooked to the most bizarrest of things – you see, already you are becoming fascinated with gecko poo. Ahem.

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    • A rant…right! If it sounded chilled, it’s because I’ve been chilling in Bali all this time doing nothing but chilling, sooo…a rant should sound chilled!
      Turns out, a lot of people are more interested in poop than they actually realize!

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  4. Cool! Now I know how to insult someone, lizard-style:
    “You’re such a cloaca”.

    Great post. I don’t think that I’ve ever had a poll in my blog… Flower furniture? Unbelievable tacky: “Please let my eyes rest!!!!”

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    • Cardinal, and, indeed, Badfish outa Water, i come from the tropics, and yes, there are beautiful, wondrous, multicoloured, fabulous flowers everywhere, every time. who needs autumn and spring when you are evergreen? Tropical people like their flowers, and they like them everywhere. including on: cushions, dress fabrics, curtains, in vases, on the roadside, in their gardens – even in their paintings on the wall.

      You know what they say, Baddie – if you can’t stand the heat, get outa the tropics! 🙂

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      • Nobody doesn’t like paradise, and the tropics, and ever green. And flowers on your wall and everywhere…fine. But on your shirts, and all over your couch? No. There is a line a Badfish just does not cross in paradise. And Debbie, the saying goes like this: if you can’t stand the heat, get aircon.

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  5. Oh, Baddie ~ either you are an aging hippie who hasnt quite come to terms that we dont live in the 60s anymore, and thus, cannot make decisions, or are an expert marketeer for the new age and knows that asking your clientele will bring you committment and blog followers. all, of course, to give you plenty of people to market your up and coming book Badfish does Bali, which now obviously has a new title, Eat, Pray, Chill.

    just think, Baddie, now you have to follow your followers ideas’ for your trip ( I mean to say – WHO does this? only our Baaadfish) and youre a tad – well – pissed off – just think, the trip will give you plenty of new opportunities for more delightful writing and we’ll all be so hooked we’ll be begging you to write that book!

    Of course, I am a bit peeved that you didnt mention one cool readers thoughts – I mean, asking Mount Agung – doesn’t that count as cool – or did you put the sacred mountain in the category of “gods and demons”?

    If all this is sounding a trifle sarcastic, truly, its not meant to be! You know I am a fan – Badfish and Chips rule, okay?

    Now, we do expect, dont you know, A POST A DAY whilst you travel. Think of it this way – in preperation for the book. All those fans voted because they want to vicarioulsy experience Bali through Badfish eyes, instead of dropping over themselves. ( apart from trablogger, who is obviously making considered plans.) (while im namedropping other bloggers, if our blogger friend Curtis over at the Blogvelist https://curtisbausse.wordpress.com can get his book published, so can you!)

    Now please stop procrastinating, get that Badfish does Bali book finished already, so that you can plan on really going to CUBA next year, and do the sequeal, Badfish out water in Havana. ( So I can be the comfortable armchair traveller, since I have always wanted to get there, and quite probably never will.)

    Okay? Got it, dude?

    🙂

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    • WAIT JUST A MINUTE! Are you actually saying we do not live in the 60’s? And just so you know…I could NEVER make decisions. Not in my DNA. And when I do make a decision, it always turns out wrong. And MISSY, I wish I could say I was hip and new age marketeer, but that whole idea of a poll was from the 201 course, and I was not going to do it (because they don’t MAKE you do everything in the course).
      I have to say, I’m glad I did get out and about in Bali, to see some things I hadn’t, and to just move a bit. It gets boring in paradise when all you do is photograph flowers and lizards and chase away big spiders all day.
      Caveat: DO NOT EXPECT A POST A DAY. I’m a postAweek kinda fish. I’m a slow swimmer.
      CUBA! Did I tell you they had Cuban cigars in Bali?

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  6. Another post full of magnificent photos and yes, I can even see your conundrum…..to chill or not to chill…

    I would’ve voted to go and see more sights but only sights that had a “chill” factor after you got there!

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  7. Just an observation… You sound plainly conflicted. Why let other people call the shots for you? No matter about a poll. Just say it was a blogging exercise. You’re a big boy. Do what you want. It’s your last week, after all. Maybe your spirit really NEEDED to stay in one place? {{{Fish}}}

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  8. I too missed the poll but I feel like I would have voted to keep chilling out. That’s what holidays are for. I have faith that you’d have gone out when you were ready. And I thank you for the reptilian biology lesson – that was ace!

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  9. Before you throw your readers out with the fish water, keep in mind that you asked us to vote based on some random means of selection. I don’t even remember which way I voted or how I came up with my choice, but rest assured it was completely random as requested. So maybe there is a fate/karma thing to pay attention to. And whether I voted to chill or roam, I can wholeheartedly assure you that I am, indeed, a really cool reader, and I have nothing floral in the house (except real flowers). Enjoy your week of travel!

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  10. Git your lazy ass on that bike and go exploring. And no whining! There’s no whining in paradise.
    Your gecko is 2 feet long! Wow. In India (and other tropical places) we’ve loved them all for their insect catching prowess, but they’ve all been tiny, ie a few inches.
    Sending a Turkey itinerary today – be prepared to go exploring 🙂
    Alison

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    • It is not, I assure you, about being lazy. OK, maybe I’m wrong about that. And you are right about no whining in paradise, too. I’ll try to do better.
      Gecko…yeah, most are tiny things. But I’ve seen some even bigger and longer. Scary even. But always cool. I love them for some reason. I’m a lizardophyle. Turkey…haven’t seen the itinerary (offline mostly lately, just catching up today).

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  11. Yes, I think you should “chill.” Look at all you have learned about gecco droppings (did I really want to know?) and mis matched furniture. Paradise is certainly interesting the way you describe it. I’m sorry such happy days are dwindling. 🙂

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    • THANK YOU for voting to chill. And yes, when you sit and watch things, you learn good stuff sometimes. Never too old to learn good things…even about poop. And yeah, everything comes to an end. There is always a next time.

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  13. Well, not to brag, but I voted for you to chill where you were at…cause that is how the universe told me to vote…but apparently I misunderstood the universe..I’M supposed to chill while you go travel around so I can read about it later…Now I get it!! Thanks!!…back to chilling for me!

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    • Finally…A REALLY COOL READER. You have the right to brag. You are cool. People know it! And I’m so glad you are chilling, too! It is easy to get mixed messages from the universe, easy to misunderstand. Happens to me all the time.

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      • Wow…I haven’t been called “cool” in, well, a long time!! Thanks…needed the ego boost. As for the universe, I have been in a misunderstanding the universe mode for a couple weeks now….it has not been a good look…HA! Here’s to getting back “in tune”!

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          • I’m always awesome!! Hee hee! In all seriousness I am not sure what I want from the universe, therefore it has been throwing me mixed signals because that is what I have been putting out there. Soooo…this week I am simply asking for what is best for me to be happy and fulfilled..we’ll see how it goes…I’ll write a post about it soon. Keep on keepin on!

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          • Well, maybe awesome is the new uber-cool, even if you were “always” awesome! Yeah, you gotta be careful what you ask of the universe. And if you give it mixed signals, be prepared to duck when it replies!
            Let us know what happens!

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          • I’ve been laying low…cause I got clocked a few times these past couple weeks! HA!! All good, getting back into balance… Hope your trip was well, look forward to more stories and pictures!

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  15. (brrrr…I need to grab my hibiscus print jacket and curl up under my plumeria print blanket in my perfectly designed reading chair. I feel a CHILL coming on)

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  16. As I laugh, lounging oh-so-chill in my appropriately sized furniture, I wonder…Gee, what can I do to be cool now that I’ve fallen from Badfish grace for the temerity of casting a vote for exploration!?
    Ah well….

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    • There is nothing you can do! Nothing you have to do, a badfish easily forgives things like this. You just have to sit there in that fine furniture and know that karma is waiting for you. You may have to do some exploring of your own! Or chilling.

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  18. My first impression here is that, minus the flowers, your description of the life in Bali is reminiscent of mine in Northeastern Brazil — especially the part about the furniture, which is very similar except they imbed floral tiles in everything. I slept in a hammock for three years to avoid the mosquito netting, giant ants, and anything else that might lurk in a mattress. I would awake to see geckos all over the walls — I considered them pets.

    As for what to do, not being one of your ‘cool’ readers, I would have gone looking for people to teach me how to make local dishes. I usually found them by asking the maids/housekeepers. In fact, I was in my place for a year before I discovered that my maid, about 4.5 feet tall, had been the housekeeper to the British Consul at one point and could make Cordon Bleu fare as well as the local stuff. It was a revelation.

    Meanwhile, those photographs should be in National Geographic. Do you have a Flickr page? They are gorgeous. Lucky you, BF!

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    • Brazil!!! I have never actually been to Brazil. I was on my way once, but ended up on the island of Komodo in Indonesia instead. Long story. I did stand on the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls and LOOK across at Brazil, and when in Peru, looked across Lake Titicaca to Brazil. So I’ve SEEN Brazil, but never been there.
      ICK!! I hate that things might live in my mattress! Especially big bugs. Although, yeah, I’ve stayed in places where the mattress was questionable, and not fun. But lately these days, I’m staying at places that cost considerable more than those $4 a night places that I loved, but did have certain drawbacks. Cost was not one.
      My housekeeper in Bali was about 4.5 feet tall, too, and a great cook!! Bali food, not Cordon Bleu. But mean banana or coconut pancakes.
      I do not have a Flickr page, my Instagram has about three photos up. Just haven’t got into that yet. Thanks again for tuning in!!

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  19. There will be lots of time for chilling when you leave this world my friend. Then you have no choice. Imagine what wonders lie ahaed, perhaps larger spiders and geckos that poop purple. You would hate to miss that !

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  20. Hi BadFish, you might be around the island by now, collecting stories for the new bestseller to-be “Eat, Pray, Chill”! Make sure you post this as soon as you’re back home.

    I hadn’t expected that a quasi-cool-assertive guy like you, would use his followers’ willingness and eagerness to participate in the poll to justify his final decision. Worse is, that although not liking the ‘verdict’, you decide to comply to it, and blame them for that. And the final drop…call them non-cool!

    I am afraid I agree with Debbie when suggesting that….”either you are an aging hippie who hasnt quite come to terms that we dont live in the 60s anymore, and thus, cannot make decisions, or are an expert marketeer for the new age and knows that asking your clientele will bring you committment and blog followers. all, of course, to give you plenty of people to market your up and coming book Badfish does Bali, which now obviously has a new title, Eat, Pray, Chill.”

    Anyways, we are still here as we love your posts. I could have lived without the cloaca thing, though. Too much information before breakfast.

    And what’s wrong about the flowers and the height of furniture? Isn’t that a good way to witness culture differences? Relax, man. Think of what the Balinese would say if they had arrived in the USA and stayed there a few days…ok enough! I just want you to have a great time there and write heaps of words for our delight.

    Love the photos and look forward to hearing about your new adventures.
    Cheers!

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    • WAIT, wait. You’ve got it wrong. I did not call any reader “non-cool”! The ones who voted to chill are “really” cool. The others are merely “cool” is what I would have said! Except for some, who are uber-cool just for being who they are, and DOING what they do.
      And let’s get one other thing straight: I am not an aging hippie. I am just a hippie who could never make decisions. But is it really not the 60’s?
      Does gasoline cost more than 25 cents a gallon? And what’s up with all those tattoos?
      Right…I will try not to write about the cloaca thing ever again in a post. I don’t even want to know how that all works in the alimentary canal of a gecko.
      A Balinese in the USA…I don’t think they would like the coffee, nor price of things.

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      • Did I? Ok, what you meant is that I’m über cool and that you don’t hate me anymore? Now I got it!!
        So you’re a hippie without tattoos, riding a Harley Davidson and carrying a gecko on your shoulder as your mascot?
        I got all figured out now. Thanks for providing so much clarity.
        😇
        Where are you now by the way?

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        • You’ve got it wrong again…I hate you because you are uber-cool and DO stuff.
          I’m home, trying to get started on the second installment of my Bali last week! Do not seem motivated. And all these comments!

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          • Oh man, I so know how you feel right now!! We finally agree on something. All those comments!!
            I almost feel like betraying my principles by bringing the ‘like’ button to the blog and removing ‘comments’, next time I go on vacations and schedule posts.
            It was a humongous amount of comments to reply to. I’m not yet done with it.
            But hey, we also agree that blogging’s best is the interaction with people, so get that Starbucks coffee, chillax and take your time to write your second installment instead of commenting. Do this later my King of Procrastination.
            I think it’s about time you stop hating me because that’s not good for your health. All this hatred is like a venom! 😉 and as I’m
            Über cool I forgive you.
            Hang in there!

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          • Exactly…all that above.
            Here’s the deal with the hating thing: I will stop hating you when you stop DOING all that stuff you do!!! Or at least start doing it not so good…

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          • It sounds like a normal deal but with the wrong premises. First of all because I don’t do all these things you say nor do it as good as you imply. You need to read more blogs and see what you will find. You will truly find lots of excellent doers, talented doers, plenty to hate.
            Read my about page. I am not a writer, and I am not a photographer. Not even aspiring to become a professional in any of these things.
            I just blog. Go with the flow.
            Do whatever comes to my mind.
            I’m perhaps having the typical post-corporate hangover, when people try and experiment to everything they never had time nor guts to do.
            Even that I’m not doing well as I’m not following the script. I haven’t gone to an ashram in India or a temple in Tibet to find my true self. I haven’t gone to Bali to write the ‘eat, pray and love’ book nor have gone there either just to
            chill out.
            I do yoga and meditate but I still live in the past, present and future.
            And this list can go on and on…
            So it’s really time to stop hating me as you’re doing much more than I do! 😉

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  24. You are clearly distressed about having to go back to work soon … as am I. Hope your last week of activities against your wishes, uncomfortable seating, and lizard droppings was still vacation-like and that you head into a new semester refreshed! I am not ready at all and will squeeze one more teeny tiny trip into this week before I go back … sigh.

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  25. I forgot what was my response to your poll. I think i was also telling you to travel in Bali 😉
    Even i have seen many flowers on furniture. But I never gave it a thought. Now I am also curious, why everyone is after the flower. Maybe it is easy to carve out ?

    And thank you for joining the challenge.

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  26. As Maxwell Smart used to say, “Missed it by that much”. Again. A few weeks ago was the Close Up challenge. That’s when you needed to get your macro lens out and dig into (so to speak) the gecko gift graciously given to display the beauty of uric acid crystals, http://usmlepathslides.tumblr.com/post/19094585594/uric-acid-crystals-this-slide-shows-scattered. Next time, just think of those crystals as, diamonds in the roughage.

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  27. Having a good laugh reading your post as usual (and sitting in my comfy chair fitting the desk perfectly, yes!). You’re some character – too bad I missed the poll!!! Letting others decide for you usually makes you feel better what YOU really want 😉 Hope the rest of your holiday went fine and did you good! Let’s see if I can find more stories about it… Oh – regarding the poop – it always amazes me what new thing you can learn every day… 😉

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    • Please quit bragging about your appropriately sized furniture, please! Yeah, always a good thing to learn something new every day…even if it’s about poop.

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  28. Always late, that’s me. SO, what’s the decision? It’s three days since you wrote the above, so I’m thinking that maybe you have four days left. Any thoughts on where you’re going, and what you’re gonna do? You know, we’re not gonna make that decision for you, right? You do know that. Even if we all said for you to do such much, you’re still the one making that decision… No putting off on us your eventual journey. We can’t make you do anything. But you already know that.

    STILL, it’s been a great ride on this post. I want to sit and chill, and having nothing more to do than eat, sleep, and sit and look at the rice grow. I can’t, so I’ll do it through you. That’s what this is all about.

    Next time, no polls. Or, if you do one, let it be, should I do a poll or should I not. I’ll tell you my answer here… NO.

    Question: Did you enjoy your time? Sure looks like it. What did you like about it? The sitting and doing nothing? And just why do you think you should be doing something, if nothing is really what you want to do. Haven’t you been around Bali enough times that just chilling is the only way to enjoy yourself right now?

    I’m sitting back and watching to see where you end up next. But either way, it’s been great, as always, to be along for this ride.

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    • OK. Got it, no more polls. But I have to say, it actually did get me out and into Bali. I felt obligated. Really!
      YES. I enjoyed my time. Especially the part where I did nothing, and chilled. And right…why should I do something. I think I thought I should be doing stuff, because that’s what travel writers do. They do stuff, and write about it. Maybe I’m not a travel writer. Maybe I’m a chillax writer.
      And yeah…I don’t feel the need to go see Bali, because as you say…I’ve done it all. And that’s what I like about Bali, I don’t feel the need to go see it and run myself ragged and then need a vacation after my vacation. So I chilled and took some trips.

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      • YAY! @ enjoying your time, and especially @ the doing nothing. I’m thinking it’s hard to travel and write at the same time… Way harder than, say, chewing gum and whistling Dixie at the same time.

        Thinking about it, this whole vacation was really about taking a time out. 🙂

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        • It is hard to travel and write. It is much easier to write when all you are doing is chilling. Once I started traveling, I stopped writing, as you can see by the dearth of new posts on my site!!
          And right…this time for me was exactly that–time to chill, not see things and “vacation” things, but just to chill. Sooooo….no more polls for me in the future!

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          • I’m really glad you got to just hang out. In this day and age, people are always busy. Nobody stops to smell the flowers anymore, or to watch the rice grow. Perhaps every other year can be a chill-out vacation, and then you get on the read the next time. I think giving ourselves time, is being nice to ourselves; treating ourselves well.

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  29. It is good to see that you got out and did some exploring, even if you didn’t go to Komodo as one brilliant person suggested. Those are some nice, colorful photos. I like the bamboo bridge. Abu Dhabi is going to look brown and boring after a month in the green paradise.

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    • That “one brilliant person” almost had me buying a ticket to Komodo, really. I actually thought: yeah, that would be cool, go to Komodo again. But no. I like the way that bridge turned out, too. And, AD will be bleak by comparison, but I do have a view of water!!

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  30. Your eloquence never ceases to entertain me Mr Badfish. And the images in this post are AMAZING.
    The first totally cracked me up. I adore the Rice girl walk, and the beauty of the walkways and flowers make me want to sail to Indonesia now (sadly, I have to wait a season or two).

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  32. Enjoyed all your photos. I thank god for the white tip (which I knew was urine – the same as birds) because without the white tip I would know I had mice or worse rats. Your online poll sounds like a modern version of throwing the dice, where you would choose multiple options and have to do which ever the die turned up. I could put options that I really didn’t want to do but I never put options that I knew I wouldn’t do (which you were supposed to). I bet you had fun though not chilling. Loved the exits from your room.

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  35. Really enjoyed the poll results and your humor – and learned stuff from this post – like the gecko droppings (who knew) and cool bamboo bridge and orchid tree – and is that a mailbox that has he flowers around it?

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