Bali Hai

Most people live on a lonely island,
Lost in the middle of a foggy sea.
Most people long for another island,



One where they know they will like to be.

Bali Ha'i may call you,
Any night, any day,

In your heart, you'll hear it call you:
"Come away...Come away."

Bali Ha'i will whisper
In the wind of the sea:



"Here am I, your special island!
Come to me, come to me!"



Your own special hopes,
Your own special dreams,
Bloom on the hillside
And shine in the streams.



If you try, you'll find me
Where the sky meets the sea.



"Here am I your special island
Come to me, Come to me."



Bali Ha'i,
Bali Ha'i,
Bali Ha'i!

Those words from the musical South Pacific capture many of the feelings of visiting Bali. The warm tropical breezes:



The exotic dances:



The rabid dogs:



That have to have their heads dissected at the island pathology lab:



(Yes there are about 30 dogs heads lying on that table.)

There was also the catch from the fisherman's net (idyllically depicted above):



(you may want to hit zoom on that one and see some of the treasures!)

And who could ever forget the Bali Hie Souvenir Emporium (where our bus stopped and parked among a troop of buses)!



And the Monkey Temple where monkeys have been conditioned to take things from tourists and not give them back until fruit was offered. But of course they warned us to be careful because they carried rabies and we would likely die if we were bitten. Was I scared of these monkeys? Oh yeah.



One stole a pair of glasses from a guy in our group and recognizing their quality demanded two bananas (conveniently priced at only $5 a piece by a handy fruit salesman) rather than the usual one for their return.

The only hard part was we were forced to attend meetings. Like this scene of intense discussion in the boardroom:


















Here is me on arrival after 36 hours of travel:















Finally, can you guess where everyone is from:




Left to Right: Australia, Iraq, UK, Brazil, Yemen, Italy, Indonesia, Austria, Indonesia, USA, Kenya, France, Ethiopia, UK, Brazil. Did you guess right?

And so that was Bali!



I also ate like a king.