I'm staying at a giant halfpipe
Been thinking a lot about life and living it. I can sit in my hotel today and sleep like I need, or wander strange streets in a strange city in the Muslim world when I look way too "Ah-meh-ree-ka" not to stand out. I'm going out, I gotta live life. This thinking is probably in conjunction with the Tom Robbins book I'm into. (Said book got me thinking on the fiery slip of a girl that gave me my first one... I wonder what's she's up to and if she ever made it to Egypt?) Tom's a great writer, but he's in a spiraling pit for me and suffers from the same problem I had with 80's hair bands. "Your sound is great, but I can only listen to the same song redone so many times... but I don't know if I want to hear you do any other style of music."
...
I really wish I could set pictures here, but the dead laptop makes that a problem. My hotel has a massive curved facade from the 8th floor to the first (I'm on the 9th), and I don't skate/didn't skate/probably will never skate, but if I skated, I would be out that window and into an intensive care unit in no time flat.
...
I have left Hindu Bali and entered Muslim Jakarta. I get a lot more looks here, and although I will be out on the street later (because you can't see the world perched above a giant half-pipe), it reminds me to watch who watches me. Suspicion of people in general is a silly concept when you're among them (notice that the xenophobes generally stay at home?), but when you're aware there are bad apples "somewhere" it's good to keep an eye out. ...or as the National Homeland Security guy would say, "somewhere, at this very minute, doing something, that we do not know what it is..."
...and what they're doing is bad... mmmkay? Mr. Makey should do Homeland Security updates.
Otherwise, people are mostly the same everywhere. A good goofy smile is the international credit card. For debit, you cast your eyes down and look apologetic.
I wanted to wait to talk about Bali until I left it, because being in stew is different then describing it from outside the bowl. Then again, once you're outside the bowl it's best to write quickly, before you're covered with bits of dried stew and vegetables, so I think, maybe, this is the right place to write.
Note: No, I'm not hungry. But I'll bet you are now.
The Balinese are a fun people, because they're neutral on the good/bad scale of life. They believe there are spirits that will help you avoid banana peels and those that will peal them, and so every time they start something they make an offering (to a good spirit) or a sacrifice (to a bad one) to help them on their way. When you walk around you find sacrifices all over the streets, in front of shops and homes, keeping the bad guys happy, and higher up the offerings keeping the good guys with you.
This is good to know as a tourist, because you don't want to go walking around stepping on some trickster god's breakfast of life, fire, and water.
There are two types of Balinese I met, those with resort jobs that were polite to a fault, and those without them that were polite to a fault and wanted money. You heard a good bit about my offers of "girl massage" the first day... that was a totally different world from the outgoing warmth and eagerness to help on the hotel properties. I made a guy's day by liking his banana daiquiri on this trip.
It seems, I hypothesize, that once they have a comfortable life, the Balinese are so nice they're squishy-nice. But before that, like it or not, they have to offer you things for sale to live.
I'll say something about temples and 5-across 2-lane roads later, I'm chewing up a lot of space here.
...
While market shopping near the hotel (and clucking at the 10x markup from the items I was buying the previous day in a rural zone), a cart vendor said "c'mon sir, come and look, no need to buy, just look, is okay." I laughed... "Good pitch!" I told her, and wandered up.
She looked me up and down, checked for any security guys wandering around and said, in a stage whisper:
"You want Rolex?"
Well damn lady, you got me! *laugh* Girl massage... um, no, but thank you. Fake Rolex that we'll argue about the price for a half hour, that's my weakness.
I got my first one of those in the 90's in Hong Kong. Simple elegant... dirt cheap (like two bucks). The second one I got a few years later and man, things had gone up a bit... they started at USD 40 and we had to work them down from there. A small group of world-weary travelers like these watches, and unfortunately our numbers seem to have grown to where the prices have risen. For me, it's like collecting Hard Rock shirts in the 1980's (you know, when it was still cool).
The style's gone up, the price... really wasn't very bad. She bargained in bad faith so I did too. We pulled out all the old favorites:
"You try to steal from me!"
"I can't afford that price, you too low!"
"I don't have that much Rupieh!"
"ATM right. down. there!"
I did one walk-away and she thought she'd lost, too... I walked clear out of sight. I didn't pull the "I'm calling security" trick because it was a low one and I was saving that for if she tried to really rip me off. We settled on a low price and then an ever lower price for another one.
It made for a good day. We both made it a game so it worked out well.
I'll bet UN negotiators do the same thing... you can only protest hollowly so much without getting a beer together afterward.
...
Something I've notice here at airports, in fact noticed all over Asia: people rush and push for anything involving a line. Even for an assigned seat on an airplane, they rush and push a little.
This yells at me "these people are used to standing in line and having them run out of what they're waiting for."
Not a good sign. Since we never have that happen only see that at Christmas in the US, if the world crunches down on supply, these guys have a head start grabbing things on us.
We need to plan. Quick, re-release the Cabbage Patch Kids!
...
I really wish I could set pictures here, but the dead laptop makes that a problem. My hotel has a massive curved facade from the 8th floor to the first (I'm on the 9th), and I don't skate/didn't skate/probably will never skate, but if I skated, I would be out that window and into an intensive care unit in no time flat.
...
I have left Hindu Bali and entered Muslim Jakarta. I get a lot more looks here, and although I will be out on the street later (because you can't see the world perched above a giant half-pipe), it reminds me to watch who watches me. Suspicion of people in general is a silly concept when you're among them (notice that the xenophobes generally stay at home?), but when you're aware there are bad apples "somewhere" it's good to keep an eye out. ...or as the National Homeland Security guy would say, "somewhere, at this very minute, doing something, that we do not know what it is..."
...and what they're doing is bad... mmmkay? Mr. Makey should do Homeland Security updates.
Otherwise, people are mostly the same everywhere. A good goofy smile is the international credit card. For debit, you cast your eyes down and look apologetic.
I wanted to wait to talk about Bali until I left it, because being in stew is different then describing it from outside the bowl. Then again, once you're outside the bowl it's best to write quickly, before you're covered with bits of dried stew and vegetables, so I think, maybe, this is the right place to write.
Note: No, I'm not hungry. But I'll bet you are now.
The Balinese are a fun people, because they're neutral on the good/bad scale of life. They believe there are spirits that will help you avoid banana peels and those that will peal them, and so every time they start something they make an offering (to a good spirit) or a sacrifice (to a bad one) to help them on their way. When you walk around you find sacrifices all over the streets, in front of shops and homes, keeping the bad guys happy, and higher up the offerings keeping the good guys with you.
This is good to know as a tourist, because you don't want to go walking around stepping on some trickster god's breakfast of life, fire, and water.
There are two types of Balinese I met, those with resort jobs that were polite to a fault, and those without them that were polite to a fault and wanted money. You heard a good bit about my offers of "girl massage" the first day... that was a totally different world from the outgoing warmth and eagerness to help on the hotel properties. I made a guy's day by liking his banana daiquiri on this trip.
It seems, I hypothesize, that once they have a comfortable life, the Balinese are so nice they're squishy-nice. But before that, like it or not, they have to offer you things for sale to live.
I'll say something about temples and 5-across 2-lane roads later, I'm chewing up a lot of space here.
...
While market shopping near the hotel (and clucking at the 10x markup from the items I was buying the previous day in a rural zone), a cart vendor said "c'mon sir, come and look, no need to buy, just look, is okay." I laughed... "Good pitch!" I told her, and wandered up.
She looked me up and down, checked for any security guys wandering around and said, in a stage whisper:
"You want Rolex?"
Well damn lady, you got me! *laugh* Girl massage... um, no, but thank you. Fake Rolex that we'll argue about the price for a half hour, that's my weakness.
I got my first one of those in the 90's in Hong Kong. Simple elegant... dirt cheap (like two bucks). The second one I got a few years later and man, things had gone up a bit... they started at USD 40 and we had to work them down from there. A small group of world-weary travelers like these watches, and unfortunately our numbers seem to have grown to where the prices have risen. For me, it's like collecting Hard Rock shirts in the 1980's (you know, when it was still cool).
The style's gone up, the price... really wasn't very bad. She bargained in bad faith so I did too. We pulled out all the old favorites:
"You try to steal from me!"
"I can't afford that price, you too low!"
"I don't have that much Rupieh!"
"ATM right. down. there!"
I did one walk-away and she thought she'd lost, too... I walked clear out of sight. I didn't pull the "I'm calling security" trick because it was a low one and I was saving that for if she tried to really rip me off. We settled on a low price and then an ever lower price for another one.
It made for a good day. We both made it a game so it worked out well.
I'll bet UN negotiators do the same thing... you can only protest hollowly so much without getting a beer together afterward.
...
Something I've notice here at airports, in fact noticed all over Asia: people rush and push for anything involving a line. Even for an assigned seat on an airplane, they rush and push a little.
This yells at me "these people are used to standing in line and having them run out of what they're waiting for."
Not a good sign. Since we never have that happen only see that at Christmas in the US, if the world crunches down on supply, these guys have a head start grabbing things on us.
We need to plan. Quick, re-release the Cabbage Patch Kids!