The Turntables May Wobble...

Stumbling is characteristic of most first steps. Even the first men on Studio Moon stumbled on the early takes before perfecting it for the live satellite telecast. But like Rocky says, it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward. To Sly, the first steps always involved mumbling, but he got back up, dusted off his syllables and continued to make sequels against all odds.

They say that if you sit on the fence for too long you’ve gotta expect the odd picket up your arse. Who knows who ‘they’ are that say such things. I picture a room full of middle aged men just saying things all day and night. It’s a bit like the age old question, ‘where is the internet?’ I knew a man who answered that once, telling me it was a building with countless black boxes in it.

If this blog entry was ever moving forward, I digress. But it’s not about how many points you make, it’s about how much you can digress and keep people reading.

Over the past few weeks I have set up camp on the fence. I have been pondering 2 options: Stay Here vs Go to Sydney to continue my studies. It was getting to the point where I thought I might need to dial the emergency number and get the Ambivalence Ambulance to come to my apartment.

In my hour of need I was reminded of an article I once read from Nathan Buckley – Australian Football Collingwood Legend. He talked about a hard decision he’d made (perhaps to leave the Bears) and how he had talked it through with his Dad. Now why didn’t I ever do that?

So I called my father. And it was beautiful.

Harry managed to look at where I was at, and give it back to me with at-times-brutal and at-times-touching honesty. And when I got off the phone it was clear to me that just because things have been a little rough, there’s no need to pull the rip cord. Everything is where it needs to be.

To those out there who have trouble navigating the waters on the father-son relationShip, I would suggest giving the guy the chance to be your dad from time to time. He probably knows you better than you can imagine.

Monkey Quote: Episode 9

"The strange fact is that the world goes on against all reasonable odds. A hundred years, and even unimaginable evil is just called history."

Japanese vs Taiwanese Noodles

On my first weekend here in Fong Yuan, which was only 2 weekends ago, none other than the great man himself - Richard 'Noodles' Hall - graced these streets with his presence on a visa run from Japan. I greeted him at the train station with 2 chocmilks and 2 seaweed rice triangles in my hands and we headed directly for the night markets.

Although we didn't pass go, we collected $200(New Taiwanese Dollars that is - think $6) worth of whatever the street vendors would dish us up and rounded the night out by shooting some baskets in the arcade.

The next day, a Sunday, was the best of my time here in Taiwan so far. It was performed in chapters... To the best of my memory this was the order of events...

Chapter One - Fairy Toast
When I awoke Big Daddy Noodles had already been up and raring to go for about 3 hours. We wandered down to the breakfast place in my apartment block and Noods was introduced to the lovely Amy, the breakfast lady, by my future CIA housemate, Hans. We ate something that could best be described as 'fairy toast' and headed for the hills.

Chapter Two - Ol' Browner II
On the way we happened upon a bowling alley and decided to roll a few frames. It was just like the old days at Rosemount when you could enjoy $1.50 games. I even found a bowling ball that resembled Ol' Browner - my faithful bowling ball that was damaged beyond repair by the great Sec Fire of 2001.

Chapter Three - Some Beef with Noodles
By taking 3 wrong turns, Noods and I found our way to a little family-run lunch place that served ridiculously good beef noodles and laughed raucously as we put horns on our heads and gave the 'moooooo' in lieu of knowing some kind of 'chinese words'. Delicious!

Chapter Four - Much Needed Perspective
We headed up past a winding street market, through a park and up into the hills. From the top, with sweat on our brows, we could see the whole little town that I now call home. It was some much needed perspective, offered in the most literal way.

Chapter Five - Pants
We made our way down the hill the long way and used a shapeshifting building as our guide to get back home in the fading light. On the outskirts of town we stumbled upon a shop where some all-class shopping was performed. I became the proud owner of some new pants that rival the 'classic series' that Jussy found for me in Paris.

Chapter Six - Terror on Chow Street
We ate all that we could and wasted terrifying amounts of food.

Chapter Seven - Golden Microphones
After looping the town and arriving back where we started, the guys that sold us pants took pity on us and decided to take us on their scooters to Karaoke. Here, Noodles and I went song for song for 3 hours in a room with a plasma screen, a projector and countless couches all to ourselves. Avril Levine and Elvis Prestley found their way onto our playlists as instant money. Not to mention (which is such a crazy expression as obviously it's about to be mentioned) there was all you can eat hotdog pastry things. It's an odd concept - use your imagination, or if that's a little lacking, get some weiners and donuts and combine...

And that's the end of our story about one of the world's greatest days.

Noodles' stay was only really 3 days. It was sad to see the big man go, but it makes me wonder where on earth the next great adventure of us will be.

Choice

Ever since seeing Kung Fu Panda I’ve pondered the concept of destiny finding you on the path you take to avoid it… How so much of my time and resources are spent on decisions – worrying if I am making the right ones – regretting decisions I’ve made and the doors that have been closed on me – watching life move on and mistakes become cemented.

But is any of it real?

After I finished my 10-day intensive training course in Taipei I came down to a little town called Fong Yuan to live. It’s about 15 minutes from the 3rd largest city in Taiwan – Taichung. It’s surrounded by mountains and there are several walks you can take just out of the city that make you feel like you’re way out in the countryside. The city itself has everything you could want – including 10-pin bowling, an abundance of karaoke, a 35 meter pool with sauna, steam room and spa, badminton courts… you know, the essentials.

Last Sunday I took a drive through the mountains for a few hours and found myself in an incredible hot springs where I soaked myself for an afternoon/evening and blissed out.

And yet, I’ve been in a tailspin of almost-made-decisions. I’ve been looking for something else, anything to get me free of this place. Something easier, safer and more familiar. A job that I am good at, not one that I have to learn. I have talked to so many friends and family members and every time I hang up the phone I have made a new decision. Then slowly that decision begins to erode and I am back to the land of indecisive clouds.

A few days ago I got an email from my ex-wife – a picture of her new-born baby girl… decisions.

The big impersonal force out there that some call god doesn’t seem to care about why we make the decisions we make. It just receives the orders and carries them out – regardless of reason.

And perhaps, the best way to live is to let destiny be, and get on with the journey - one pretend decision at a time.

Monkey Quote: Episode 3

"You may run from tigers, but where can you hide from your own fear? Desire is unquenchable - you can only free yourself from it."

Sans Kansas

In the past week I’ve done the entire train circuit of Taiwan - heading to Hualien, down to Kaohsiung and Tainan and now back in Taipei where my Teacher Training begins tomorrow. It’s been a search for a place that I can call home for the next year.

The journey so far has certainly had its moments. In my search for something that felt a little bit normal I reached out for McDonalds and KFC – anything to comfort me from the feeling of ‘We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.’

My time in Bali was like living in an Ashram in many ways – all the physical world elements taken care of. Someone to clean up after you, wonderful food everywhere that would be delivered to your house for very little money. With the outer world taken care of so sweetly it left plenty of time for inner exploration.

Dealing with the shock from being pulled out of that world has been a struggle. Turning to KFC was a mistake. I think I found the Colonel’s secret ingredient – laxatives. The Colonel’s colon cleanse put me in the position every traveller knows – the mad dash for the nearest toilet.

Still, after this I knew beyond any chance of mistaking it that I was travelling again… Funny how the old dire rear marks the start of a new journey for me.

That day, feeling worse for wear, I went out in Kaohsing to check out a movie. If the Colonel wasn’t going to help me I knew Hollywood would. At the cinema I had a couple of hours to kill before anything was showing and ran into a couple of American baseball players. These two were like giants, especially against the backdrop of the Taiwanese.

Jay, a big black bald man from Mississipi and Nate, a big white diesel engine from Utah. The 3 of us shared pizzas, pasta and red wine and some laughs before heading into check out… ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’… Hmmm... Another look at glorified relational neuroses. And a chick flick for sure. But just what I needed to switch off my busy, tired mind.

Tainan has been one of the highlights so far. The old capital of Taiwan before Taipei took over at the turn of the century. Confucius Hotel was my sanctuary as I learned from the mistake of a sleepless night in a 6 bed dorm room. Before you pass Go, sometimes you’ve gotta stay at Park Avenue.

Monkey Quote: Episode 9

"Your work is to discover your work. Then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it. No one purifies another"

(This is the section of the blog where I will be taking quotations from the 80s TV show, Monkey)

Getaway

So, I’m up in the North East of Taiwan having a look at the spectacular Taroko Gorge, famous for its secret waterfalls and marble canyons, when I stop in for a coffee at the central base. I see a little crew of unmistakable Australians and think to avoid them. That is until I notice it’s Catriona Rowntree!

To those of you who aren’t Australian, Catriona does a show in Australia called Getaway. Before that, however, she was the focus of my most intense teenage celebrity crush. She used to be the sexy voice on the radio and was on the TV whenever I got home from school, hosting a sparkling piece of entertainment called ‘What’s Up Doc?’

So I sat down to talk to her when the others had left her alone. Keeping my cool I saddle up and ask, ‘Are you Christina Rowntree?’ Shit. ‘Catriona’ she answers, ‘yeah.’ And so the conversation begins. But the teenage boy in me just couldn’t hold it together long enough to ask for her hand... Besides which, later I would find out that she got MARRIED last year! Ah, the lost opportunities…

She has been travelling the world getting paid to do what she loves for the last 10 years. She said that she knew what she wanted to do with her life in High School. Then she just went out and did it... I admire that, perhaps because it’s the polar opposite of from my experience of life. I got out of school and studied Commerce for 5 and a half years and am only now beginning to get a sense of this thing called 'purpose.'

Anyway, if you’re in Australia look out for Getaway’s Taiwan episode coming up…

Day Wan

With about 2 hours to go before landing in Taiwan it suddenly occurred to me - I should try to learn a little Mandarin... So I thought back to the Matrix, how Neo plugs himself into a program and seconds later his eyes open with, 'I know Kung Fu'. With this in mind I plugged myself into my iPod, closed my eyes, let my eyelids have a bit of a flutter for effect, and...

I still don't know Mandarin!

Nor do I have any idea what those pretty pictures are supposed to mean - they tell me that around here those pictures are 'words'. Fascinating!

One thing I learned from my Mandarin podcast is that the Chinese tend to talk in proverbs. I like that. Little stories to explain situations away. It means that you could turn to your friend and say, 'Never pull on your shoes in a melon patch' and he'd completely understand what you're talking about (apparently that one means don't act suspiciously if you want to avoid being suspected).

But for now I'm far away from talking in tales. I'm focusing on avoiding the time bombs that are inherent in learning this language. The word 'ma' means mother, numb, horse and swear depending on which tone you use. Ticking tongue bombs...

Still, there are advantages to being the dumb foreigner. It affords me far more time to amuse myself with thoughts without the risk of someone interrupting them. It also lets me view a completely different world without any understanding of what's going on. Much the same way that you look at an ant farm and imagine how they all know what they're doing and where to go next...

All in all I'm impressed with Taipei though, as far as big cities go. It's clean. There are about a billion scooters running around and they treat them like bumper cars - scratched up to the hilt. They seem to stack them one upon the other to save space and drive them on the sidewalk. It gives the place the feel of a Theme Park, if it weren't for the seriousness...

Upon Noodles's recommendation I tried out the chocmilk, and it is up there with Masters Choc in Perth. Thanks for that Noods, it made my first day in a strange new world far more tasty...

My dad, Harry, is known for his understated pieces of wisdom. On one ocassion, when I went to his house for dinner, he had a word written on his whiteboard. It was the word 'Improvise'. And that, my friends, is exactly what I'll have to do as the adventure begins anew tomorrow.

And that's my story...

Bali has been an amazing place to live for the last 13 months. Looking at these stories it would seem that it has been nothing but adventurous times for me. That's what I don't like about blogs.

There have been plenty of hard times that I haven't written about here. Times that have felt like the edges of depression. Big wide spaces in between the episodes that are often so much harder to organise around than the episodes themselves...

Well, as soon as I learn to write about the 'not stories' I will let you know. In the meantime...

It's off to Taiwan. A steady job and income to replace the endless amounts of 'free' time. And I'm excited about that prospect. Of life becoming somewhat more normal and routine.

I guess it is such that you want what you don't have. But that may not be such a bad thing. Perhaps that want itself is what keeps us balanced, always drawn back to the middle.

One More Bali Opening...

Bali held one more story for me to experience. It was in the form of nothing but the greatest teacher of all – love. But not so much in the romantic form, more in the form of breaking myself open with the help of another. The way I saw it at the time was that what I thought was my heart was actually my heart’s shell. And like an egg it needed to be violently broken open from the inside to release the life within.

The person I am writing about is very private, and as this is a public blog I will respect that by keeping her anonymous... We got to know each other over the year and it was through her that I learned the most about astrology. As time went on we grew closer until somewhere in the midst of November we decided to be together.

It was certainly no normal affair. New levels of playfulness met expansive vulnerability. With her help I could see how disturbing it is to be absent with someone in the midst of intimacy. She called me out on that and let me see what is truly required to be with a person. And it's simple... Just the absence of absence.

We broke up around Christmas and brokethrough in the middle of January into something else entirely. I still don't particularly know what the 2 of us have now. But I feel blessed to have met her and grateful for whatever is to come.

The story of Alice...

There is one more story that can’t be missed. And I will go back into this blog to squeeze this amongst all that has been said so far about my time in Bali.

It’s the story of Alice…

In January, 2008, I went to the Gilis of Indonesia, off the mainland of Lombok. I was looking for a way to shake myself off and start again. On my first night in town I went to a bar with a guy I was travelling with and we started chatting up a few young Englishwomen.

As I’m talking to this girl on my right another woman waltzes up on my left and says, ‘Seriously, I think it would be rubbish.’

Meet Alice.

Alice is a straight-talking-no-nonsense-part-time-bitch-part-time-lover. She has possibly the swiftest sense of humour I’ve come across and is one of the crazier people on the ledge I’ve met.

We kicked off our friendship with a mushroom trip. Days later we met up again (read: I stalked the island searching for her) for a DVD date and a little bit of sexual exploration. A few days later I went back to Ubud and we left it at that.

6 months later, in the story of Otis and Lulu, we picked up where we left off. Or perhaps a few parsecs on from where we left off. For 10 days we shared romance, laughter, sexual connection and chemistry, first on the Gilis again and then back in Ubud together.

We entertained the concept of a relationship. But around about August a 36 hour nightmare journey to the Gilis showed us that we’re better off as friends.

Now she is a great friend and I hope that her quick wit, her bitch-side, her no-nonsense approach to life and her ability to listen to me through my fog remain in my life for as long as life remains in me.

Otis Funkmeyer and Lulutronic

A man walks into a Monkey Forest with an old friend. They do what any insane patrons of Monkey Forests would do – they start behaving like monkeys. As I was filming Lulu dance like a monkey complete with bulging face and wide monkey ears, a man tried to walk passed us. Lulu would have none of this, and so began literally ‘climbing’ him and picking the nits out of his hair.

That would be the beginning of the story of Otis Funkmeyer and Lulutronic.

Words are, again, inadequate to explain this part of the journey. To get a feel for Otis click here or google Meet The Funkmeyers. He is off the chart.

Our journey together was to have a look at the masculine principle. To look at how it feels demonised inside ourselves. Looking at how destruction gets a bad wrap! At the beauty inherent in anger when it is allowed to be there and not pushed away and ignored.

With Otis I would look at how we are truly beasts with consciousness. And I learned by him pushing me too far that anger is my device for drawing clear lines with the people around me. The further I let something go beyond that anger point the more lost I and the other become.

On the consciousness side of our learning we listened to the recordings of channelled aliens and let our imaginations run wild with ideas that probably seem crazy. And we learned through experiment, experience, mistakes and the odd success.

It was the best of times, it was the end of time.

Props have got to go out to Lulu whose pressure points were pushed through these experiences and held her own solidly.

Astrology and Energy Work

It hasn’t all been lessons with people… hmmm… Maybe it has. But still, a few skills were learned on the way as well. While here in Bali I’ve had the good fortune to have met some wonderful teachers of valuable skills.

Gary Roba has been my energy work teacher.  Gary’s teaching has given me the space to experiment and find my own way. This has helped me to develop a way of ‘listening’ to what the body wants to tell me that is my own and that continues to grow.

I have learned these techniques (or technique-less techniques as it may be) in the form of workshops. In these workshops I have gotten to know some of my other fellow explorers – a couple that really standout have been my friends Mitch and Margie. These 2 New Yorkers from Generation W (my new name for the baby boomers) each have 35 years psychotherapeutic experience and a wealth of life knowledge that they have so generously shared with me beyond the courses. They have become dear friends.

I have also been blessed to have learned Astrology with some of the world’s most accomplished teachers right here in Bali. Melanie Rhinehart, Steven Forrest, Rick Levine and Jeff Jawer came through here to teach. They use Astrology not as a predictive mechanism as it has a sour reputation for, but as a way to look deeper into yourself, your patterns and the way you were made and groomed.

I have found it to be a great tool for self-exploration and for understanding other human beings… Not that human beings can be truly understood, but you get my meaning.

Downtown Melanie Brown, my old friend from the early days of travel who I met 6 years ago, joined for the first course and stayed for 4 months. Together our friendship picked up where it left off, this time with astrology to help spin us out and put us back together again.

Denton, Megan and Henry

Denton and Megan are a couple of groovy Canadians with a 5 year old son – Henry. The adventure that these guys have taken me on has been something else entirely. To sum it up in a stupidly quick way…

Hang out with this couple, have an intense connection with little Henry, couple breaks up, hard times for all, have some strange dream relating to it all months before the event. It begins to mirror my own story and take me through my own path as seen through Henry’s eyes. Watching Henry handle it all has been inspiring and a way for me to rewrite my own life in some ways.

I’ve been staying with Denton out here in his mansion on the outskirts of Ubud for the last week to complete my journey. Last night I said to Henry, ‘Sleep well buddy.’ He replied, ‘How can I do that? I will just sleep how I sleep, I don’t have any control over it.’

That lets you know a little bit about Henry.

He also asked me once, 'Chris, when are you going to die?' Not a bad question for a Wednesday afternoon, eating pizza, taking a dip in the pool...

It's exciting to see what comes next with this family and their path. I'm sure that whatever it is, one unanswerable question will remain... 'Who's Driving?!'

Cat Kabira the Second

So where I’d left you with Cat was us sitting on a ledge in Amed tripping about Newness. After a while Cat and I started spending a lot of time together. It was the old story about Just Good Friends, but there was always something else on the border, discussing things with immigration, getting its bags checked, waiting to come in.

Abstinence makes the groin grow tender. Once the reluctance began to become a turn on we knew we were in trouble. And so the sexual energy that was brewing between us was eventually acted upon.

...

You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, and force the issue with God, you'll get what you need. What Cat and I needed was a wakeup call to reallign what we 'want' with what we Actually Want.

A riddle for sure.

It never felt right for Cat and I to add sex to our friendship. Doing so nearly cost us our connection. When she left for the States after a particularly nasty break up breakdown there was a lot of smoke in the room. But over time it cleared and when she returned a few months later we were able to connect with greater depth and friendliness.

Now she's off becoming a yoga/shamanic/human rockstar and Aces and Oxen wishes her every success. She is a true friend and I know, in some way, she'll always be in my life.

A Slice of Irrelevance

I realised that I was at the risk of my blog becoming somehow meaningful. So to counter this I have had to introduce something slightly obscure. And, let's face it, there's nothing quite as irrelevant as an elephant (that one's for you T-Bop)

Imagine what life must be like in the womb of an elephant...

Just Another Story

Tripping in Amed, my ipod froze as it was making its way through the shuffle – otherwise known as DJ God. The light remained on and the track showing was Just Another Story, The Return of the Space Cowboy. Now, on mushrooms, the phrase, ‘can I have some toast?’ can be thought of as a profound truth. So I understand if you are picturing a couple of stoners with a glazed look in their eyes marvelling at tiny miracles. If you can let that go, come with me onto the ledge of the bathroom where the following truth was revealed…

I sat with Cat on the ledge, not a cloud in the sky, looking at more stars than could be imagined. To one side of us were the hills whose lights appeared as more stars. The other side was the ocean. As we sat there and attempted to take it all in we could hear our minds chattering. ‘I’ve seen this before’ they would say. ‘That’s the stars, that’s the ocean, that’s a hill, this is a ledge’ as if nothing remarkable was occurring in those moments. As we moved from our categorising minds into our hearts and solar plexuses we could stare with child-like innocence at the sheer magnificence of it all. But even the thought, 'this is magnificent' is a judgement which makes the opposite also true.

It goes on forever this chatter – the mushrooms just helped us to see it from a different perspective away from ordinary consciousness. For a moment we are participants in an unravelling play to which we are neither the playwright nor the director. We are just playing a game in which the rules are unclear, but it’s fun and spontaneous and full of life. Then the mind draws you back to the attic and it becomes You and Me. It is Guilt and Blame. It is Success and Failure. The right side of the brain always arguing against the left side into eternity.

Just another story. One on top of the other on top of the other. Characters intertwining into the roles of good guy and bad guy, mother and father, ally and enemy. Time getting distorted into past becoming future becoming past again. The endless loops of mind-centered madness and all the while we are missing the unknowable truth.

I write about this trip because it continues to teach me today as I think back. And the irony of it all is it has become just another story. Trying to hold onto truth such as this is, as Jnaneshwar puts it, like trying to pick up a wave. All you will pick up is water. So I share it with my blog audience, whoever you may be, because it seems selfish to confine it to a bathroom ledge on the east coast of Bali in the still of a night of nothingness.

Cat Kabira the First

I met Cat the first day I arrived in Ubud. I was sitting in a café with the unnamed woman who I had come to see. We were blocking out half of our faces with our hands and comparing sides – which one was more masculine and which more feminine. It was a fun game. Cat strolled passed on the way to an Indonesian lesson that she would never find. She stood with us and talked about the different sides of the face and of the masculine and feminine in us all. There was an instant something, but it wasn’t romantic. It was a recognition. Perhaps a natural understanding. The seed would take a while to unfold.

A yoga teacher who teaches the Forrest Yoga Style, I met Cat a few more times over the month that passed. Eventually we caught up for a night of gin in my apartment above a restaurant in the rice paddies. The flow was easy and a friendship had been struck. But you know how it goes with boys and girls, there’s also something sexual. Alice, who I had met in the Gilis in January, was of the opinion that the best move is to just get the sex part done and out of the way and get on with the friendship… I ponder the success rate of her theory. Cat and I didn’t take this route and went about building a friendship even if the polar opposites of our privates were attracting each other.

After a few outings – one involving an all-night singing and dancing extravaganza in the belly of the beast of Seminyak – Cat and I decided to take a road trip out to Amed, take some mushrooms, and connect to the Source. We found an amazing 2 storey apartment right on the beach with the hills behind. The sky was beautifully clear and with a black moon the stars were out in full force.

How do I go about telling you about this experience but by mentioning the lessons that came from Source? Here they are as best as they can be remembered…

The Phoenix and the Short-Lived Flames

The thing about going into the unknown is that you really don’t know what’s going to happen. I know – that’s obscenely stating the obvious. But seriously, a space is created and anything can move into it.

When I was married to Natalie we used to talk about having kids. We had the feeling that the first would be a boy and we would name him Phoenix. When the marriage ended there was almost a mourning period just for this unborn son.

So who should turn up in Ubud in February but Glen – an ex AFL player from Carlton and the Hawks, Kati – an Elvish Finnish girl, and their 8 month old, Phoenix. They taught me about something I’d never heard of – the Lotus birth. It involves not cutting the umbilical cord after birth and placing the placenta in a decorated bag that stays with the baby. After about 5 days or so the baby will let go of the placenta when it feels ready. Kati described the placenta as the baby’s first friend and the cutting of the umbilical cord as the baby’s first taste of the violence of life.

Interesting huh?

I spent a lot of time with this family, getting to know them and talking about similar experiences – from burning man to central America – the synchronicities rolled on. We joined up with an American couple, Karen and the A Man. Together we formed our little crew living amongst the rice paddies. We talked life, we walked through a couple of crises, we ate great food and indulged in many a massage.

Through this time I would make 2 more mistakes when it came to women, coming to the realisation upon reflection the simple truth that, God is not a pimp. That led me to the decision to embrace a year of celibacy. It’s fortunate that in Hebrew the word ‘year’ means ‘season’. And so my year of celibacy became a tidy 3 months – the time it would take to get to know and love my dear friend, Cat Kabira…

The Beginning... January 1st, 2008

In the beginning there was me and a backpack and the first day of 2008. And it was good. Like any good story it began with a girl. Unlike said story the girl is not a major character and all the strange build up with her in the months that led up to Bali fell apart rapidly in the physical world contact that followed. Essentially, anticipation was better than participation. In fact, there was no participation, for when I got here I realised that there was a severe lack of attraction.

Maybe this woman acted as a good catalyst to get me here. Maybe that was her purpose. Or perhaps she was the start to a great lesson learned in 2008 – see through the veil.

So things with this Balinese woman ended before they began and I found myself going for a cleansing bit of action with an American girl after about a week or so of arriving. Cleansing was right – as my night with her was mysteriously linked with 6 days of bali belly that rendered me immobile, having to be within 10 quick steps of a bathroom. It was on one of my many long porcelain celebrations that I realised it for certain – I’m travelling again.

The belly cleared up only as she left town and I found myself, after 3 weeks in tropical Bali, to be in need of a holiday! So I left town and headed out to Lembongan Island – a place known for its scuba diving and snorkelling. There I spent as much time as I could underwater.

Do I tell you about the dive that we had, 2 dive masters and 2 beginners, when we were caught in a downcurrent that took us 18 meters further down than we were supposed to go? About the 50 year old woman, that I had convinced that diving was a safe sport, who took water into her mouth at 40 meters and panicked? Who nearly didn’t make it to the surface and when she did had lips of purple-blue?

Probably not.

She survived and we moved on. Me – onto the Gili Islands. Here I had a shake out of debaucherous fun in the islands off the mainland of Lombok where the cops don’t go. It was just the kind of good times I was looking for, and when I returned to Bali at the end of January, I was ready to hit the reset button and go again.

Introdogshon

I’ve had a couple of requests from friends to share a few experiences from my time in Bali. And as it is all coming to a close I thought I’d put down a few notes on the journey, what I’ve learned and who I’ve learned it with.

Soon I'll be heading off to Taiwan to teach some English and Sing Some Song. Hence the title of this blog. So consider the next few entries a wrap up and then get into some more live time feeds.

So if you get the feeling, stay tuned to this blog and get down with the uploads.