I started writing a new post yesterday, but got sidetracked by my first attempt at using stop motion technology. It turned out not too bad, and I posted it on YouTube. I tried catching the sunrise today, but for some reason the camera stopped. Here’s the video.

So, a few days ago, I took my new bike out for a ride to the west to get comfortable with the new gear pattern, the new seat, and sitting higher up than I’m used to. I quickly got the gear pattern down, but the seat is less comfortable than my old Kharisma, but it should be ok for the two to three hour drives that I will be doing on my way back to Sumbawa next month. I love the extra power for quick acceleration that you often need in Indonesia to get out of some of the bizarre situations that drivers often encounter.

Yamaha Vixion

We both agreed that generally kids here still have respect for their parents and elders and that they see one of their responsibilities when they become adults as taking care of their parents – that’s something that my kids often bring up.

Life is lovely here.

Today has been one of those days when you don’t really know what day it is, what time it is nor do you care. It’s kind of like a hippie day.

Students of mine over the years have been fascinated to hear that I was a hippie once long ago. Partly I think it’s just because they can’t imagine me wearing clothes other than the ones that I wear to school everyday – six sets of clothes that I rotate religiously. Just recently when we were in Malang, and I showed up in the evening after having my mandi wearing a t-shirt, my students were shocked that I actually wear something other than a polo shirt and slacks or a short-sleeve button down dress shirt and slacks. So, the idea of me having long hair and beads just makes them all giggly.

So why is today like a hippie day besides time (a driving force for most of us, and certainly one for the international teacher)? Today is a special day for the Hindus of Bali – Kuningan – so most everything is closed and everybody is doing nothing special.

I’m sitting out on the balcony now, and I can see a few sampan out in the water with guys fishing, there are a few kids snorkeling poking around for fish and interesting shells, the women in the house have been cooking all day like the usually do but without the interruptions of taking kids to school and going to the market (although for my wife that is one of her favorite parts of the day).

I decided not to go snorkeling today and instead process all the photos that I’ve taken over the past week. But I didn’t get up until 8 and then checked on a movie download and email and finished up with a leisurely breakfast. I did some blogging and then edited a video of the Bali Sea that I uploaded to YouTube. I watched some more depressing news from America on CNN, and then spent most of the rest of the afternoon reading anthropology.

No banking , no tax forms to fill out, no thinking about all the financial things that continue to perplex and worry me. Just a day of doing what I want when I want and at the pace I want. Listening to Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y. It could be 40 years ago except that I’m sitting on the balcony of my house in Bali.

And, I’ve been thinking about retirement again because…well, because it’s getting to be that time again (3rd times a charm, keep saying that) and because I read a post on a forum the other day by a guy who has been saying for years that he was going to retire and then did with the plan to move to Bali. After a month or so, he decided to go back to work basically because he was bored. I’m still trying to process that. I love teaching, but the one thing that I wasn’t during my five months of retirement was bored. I went back to work because I needed the relatively quick $35 grand.

It seems sad that people get so encased in their work that they can’t see another life out there with so much to do in one lifetime. So I’m back to the hippie theme again. One of the things that we believed in was that there was a life beyond work, even if it was just relaxing with friends, having some food together or a joint or two, watching the sunset or the sunrise, grooving on nature, exploring the city, making love, stopping the war. There was this incredible wealth of things (spiritual and profane) to do in the small amount of time that we had each day. As we grew up, most of us fell into the life of careers or jobs or gigs (as one of my friends used to call them) so that we could make money and buy things. I’ve bought plenty of things over the past 60 years. I fondly remember now the late George Carlin’s routine on “stuff.” When do you get enough stuff? We have rooms of stuff that no one uses anymore that we could have done without.

When I left my job with Freeport and ISS years ago, I had four rooms of books, records, art, clothes, furniture and other odds and ends of 40 years of life in the U.S.A. It was too expensive to ship over to Indonesia, so I gave it all up. My life didn’t change because of it; other than that I had less stuff to find a place for.

I can see that this is starting to be a ramble, but that’s one of those benefits to growing old – everybody expects you to start rambling and, while I have always been somewhat of a rambler, now I can do it in a culturally acceptable way.

So, maybe we weren’t so off the track when we were hippies, or maybe we were on another track that made more sense.

My son and his buddies

Today’s anti-work quote:

“My job consists of basically masking my contempt for the assholes in charge, and, at least once a day, retiring to the men’s room so I can jerk off while I fantasize about a life that doesn’t so closely resemble Hell.”
—American Beauty, 1999

I’m not sure what it is – maybe the cold weather in the States or the hot weather in Australia or a feeling of malaise from the Europeans, but I’ve been getting an unusual amount of email from readers (that I didn’t know I had) about moving to Bali. And, I’m just snowed under now trying to get work done of the school website and keep up my websites and blogs and chill and cook and spend some quite time figuring out what I am going to do next month, so I’m writing a blanket response to emails that I hope will answer the main questions that I have been receiving.

No, the situation in Bali is not the same as it was when I wrote the articles about Bali for Escape Artist. In fact, those articles are probably four or five years old. Prices have gone up quite steeply since then, and the island is getting more crowded as the expat population continues to grow as well as the migrants from Java and other islands around the country.

About Prices

The price of gasoline or petrol or whatever you call it in your country went way up and is on its way back down now. But, when the price of fuel went up so did everything else. And, as my wife just said a few hours ago, even though the price of fuel has dropped nothing else has. The cost of food and other things is showing no signs of dropping at the moment. When I created the budgets that I published, I underestimated the price of education. My children’s school costs continue to rise, and this is for local schools. Three of my children are in private schools and one is in a public school. Still, the costs are nothing compared to having them in international or national plus schools.

Food has gone up, and in particular, food that expats like such as cheese and other imported things like sardines. A tin of sardines cost almost $2 now. If you want to keep your cholesterol down, it’s going to cost you a bit.

Alcohol has reached the stratosphere if you drink anything that is imported like scotch or good wine. Local liquid refreshments like beer and local wine is still relatively cheap – you can buy the local beer for about 80 cents for a small bottle. Don’t even think about scotch unless you are a serious drinker because you can pay your electric and phone bill for the price of a bottle of scotch.

Employment

Boy is this a source of controversy. There are some folks who continue to claim that starting a business here is easy and almost a sure money maker, but the number of failed restaurants and bars continues to grow and with the impact of the global economic crisis just hitting Bali, things will only get worse. There’s already a glut of rooms on the island and unless you have some super idea for a special boutique hotel, forget about buying a hotel. If someone is selling their hotel now, it’s because they are losing money. Education is still an industry that is employing people, but the schools here will eventually feel the effects of the crisis, and the salaries in Bali have always been far below international standards for comparable schools.

Bali has always had a floating community of expat exporters who show up and buy arts and crafts and then sell them back in their home countries, but the paper today had some depressing news about the downturn in that industry.

The Short and Skinny

Bali, in many ways is still much like it was fifty years ago. Take a look at this video and with the exception of the topless Balinese women, you can find these scenes in any village in Bali.

The island is still beautiful outside of the tourist/expat ghettos in the south. Life goes on as usual even if it will become a bit tighter because of the global crisis. The main thing is to get out of the Western mindset and enjoy and embrace the culture for what it is. I get this perverse charge out of reading the Bali expat forums which are all about how much things cost and how to get a driver’s license and how to bribe a cop with nothing about the culture of the island. Who are these people moving here? I hope that the people who are buying my book (or not) and planning on moving here don’t fall into this category. Learn about the history and culture of this incredibly fascinating island and country. There’s more here than one person can absorb in a lifetime so get started on it today.

Friday afternoons are those rare days that I hate to see pass. It’s the beginning of a few days off when I can catch up with schoolwork, plan for the coming week, and do some work of my own. I’ve fallen into a lull with working on my book on international education because I have an income, and I let that take precedence over anything else. Actually, that’s as it should be, as my job is to teach and that should be my priority both in ethical and practical terms, but I want to get back to writing everyday so I’m looking forward to the end of this contract.

I haven’t been answering my emails from folks that want to know about Bali because I’m just beat at the end of the day. For me, teaching takes just about everything out of me, and all that I want to do when I get home is make dinner and veg out in front of the television or cruise the internet for ideas for school or writing.

One of my students asked me today about how much writers make, and I told her that many of them spend their writing lives making very little and only make money at the end of their careers or after they’re dead. I was thinking specifically of Orwell and a biography about him that I read a few years ago. But, I’d rather be writing now as difficult as it is. That being said, I really enjoy my class this year, and it is enjoyable being back teaching. I missed it when I was retired, and I’ll miss it when I’m retired again. It’s one of those things in life – you’re always looking around the corner to see what’s coming up and you often miss what’s in front of you.

Me and my oldest sister

I wrote back in June that we adopted a kitten that we found on the road in Sumbawa when we were making the move back to Bali. Well, the kitten has become a mother. She has been poking around my bookcases up on the third floor since I returned from Sumbawa, and I could tell she was looking for a good place to have her kittens, but I have electrical equipment and old photographs stored in the bottom of the bookcases so I kept trying to redirect her interest to other potential birth sites like a box in the kitchen, a box in my closets, and a box in the bathroom. She persisted in trying to get into the bottom area of the bookcases. Last night, she kept waking me up trying to open the doors to the bottom of the bookcase by my bed. I tossed her out of the room three times and finally made it to sleep. This morning while I was checking emails, I heard some noise in the bookcase and only then noticed that a bunch of photos were on the floor outside the bookcase. I slowly opened the doors to the bookcase, and there was the cat along with two kittens. I found her just in time to see her deliver her third. The family saw all this as another sign that I have some affinity with animals. They were quick to point out that the goats and dogs waited until I was at home before they delivered. Well whatever, as some former students would say. Anyway, we have three new kittens.

Raya giving birth

The alcohol shortage/price increase continues to be a problem here in Bali and around Indonesia. If you haven’t read about it, the government has cancelled the license of one company that was allowed to import booze, and raised the import costs by 300%. Thus, we have a shortage of alcohol and outrageously high prices for the imported liquor that is available. A bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label now runs around Rp. 620,000. Three months ago, it was around Rp.160,000. At current exchange rates that means that a bottle of scotch that should cost somewhere around USD20, now costs almost USD60. As much as I love scotch, I won’t be buying any $60 bottles of scotch. The governor of Bali has talked to the Indonesian president about the situation, and things have been relaxed a bit so the supply seems to be returning, but the price remains at unacceptable levels for all but the rich and the desperate. It seems like we have another case of Indonesia shooting itself in the foot. If you want to have an economy where tourism is a major component, you have to be ready to make the country attractive to tourists. Turning Indonesia into another Pakistan where alcohol is unavailable is not going to help the country compete with Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia and Singapore. At some point (and I hope that it is soon), the government is going to need to decide whether the country is pluralistic and multi-cultural or if they intend on imposing conservative Islamic values on the whole country.

Probably the biggest thing since I’ve returned has been the continuing saga of the jerangkong or the hantu. More on this tomorrow or the next day.

I have a four-day holiday because of Chinese New Year. It’s great to have the few days off because for some reason, I’m just really tired even though we’ve just finished Week 4 of the Third Term and have another six weeks to go before vacation. Partly, it’s just the stress of school with the amalgamation coming up, as well as thinking about getting the house here in Sekongkang rented or sold before July, although we can actually do it later. It’s just going to be a hassle to try to do it from Bali so we’ll put a little more effort in to renting the house out with some notices on my blogs, podcasts, and websites, as well as a sign in front of the house.

Amazing Race Asia is holding auditions for the next season, and I really wanted to try out. My students’ responses have run from amusement to interest. They think that it would be cool to watch me on tv, but find it somewhat bizarre that joining the race is what I want to do with my first few months of retirement. Anyway, I can’t take two weeks off in April so this season is out, but I’m thinking about who could be a partner to try out the next time auditions come around. 

I was able to vote in my first U.S. election in decades the other day. This is one of those “I love the internet” moments. Fortunately, I’m a registered Democrat so I was able to use my last U.S. voting address in California to take part in the primary. For the election in November, I’ll need to get a ballot and do the voting by mail, but now that I know that I can do this without having a current address in the States (which I thought was necessary), I plan on voting in November.

The weather continues to be cloudy with intermittent rain; last night it poured and we lost power for an hour. Today it’s cloudy and humid. But, we have lots of water so what can I complain about?

Well, not all that extreme, but it feels what? Less than desirable. I’m up for an extended period of writing and thinking. I had a job once as a research associate many years ago in Berkeley. My first task was to take three months read a number of books and articles about research methodology and education. I asked what was I supposed to do after I finished reading? The project director said, “Think!” Hmm? I said, Think about what? He replied, “Think about what you read and how you can use it in the field. Come back in three months and tell me what you figured out.” That’s it? I replied. I was more than a little perplexed at that point. “You’re going to be a paid intellectual worker now,” Don said with a smile that was as charming as I’ve ever seen. “Enjoy!’

I am that stage again, although this time I won’t be getting paid. I’ve relished the last month of mixing manual labor (learning how to repair plumbing, fixing windows, building wind proofing for my built-in closets), parenting on my own for the first half of the vacation (cooking, cleaning, checking homework, answering questions about school and the world), writing (working on a second draft of the novel I wrote 20 years ago) and writing (blogs and websites) and writing (letters and notes for a book on Islam) and podcasting and just thinking about how all of it is going to fit in to a new adventure, and what can I do in the last part of my life to make the world a better place for my children and grandchildren.

Yes, so as much as I love teaching, it’s time to take a step back (or forward) and see what’s next.

My youngest son, Sam, has shown a new interest in snorkeling. He’s snorkeled before but only on the shore messing around with his sisters, cousins, and friends. This time he asked if he could go out in the deeper water with me. I haven’t done much snorkeling here over the past nine years for a variety of reasons, mostly the coral was all dead and there were few fish to be seen. So we went out a few days ago, and the coral is regenerating; there’s still nothing like 18 years ago when I first snorkeled off the shore here in front of the house in Singaraja, but it’s slowly coming back and with it the fish.

We went out the farthest off shore today where the bottom just suddenly falls off and all you can see if deep blue. That was a bit frightening for Sam; I could feel him move closer to me until he as gripping my arm so we moved back in towards shore a bit. But even after all this time, I could remember the best spots for the fish  – just off to the west of the house almost in front of bridge just down the beach road. And there they were – thousands of fish of all sizes and colors and a long yellow eel who was not too pleased to see us, and a tiny blue moray hidden away in a blond piece of new coral.

So what is it that I’ll do in another five months? What won’t I do? The problem is going to be fitting in everything, getting organized and sticking to a schedule – alternating the book on Islam with the novel with the blogs with the podcasting with the house repairs with the parenting with the exploration of the sea with the visiting of friends with the letters to family with the classes I want to take on marine biology with the save the planet projects (save the cheerleader, save the world) with the development of the website to make it more useful to teachers with the looking for freelance writing jobs with the exploring of Singaraja. It should be amazing.

Another beautiful weekend although we went without electricity all day yesterday. A powerpole blew over in the high winds that we’ve been having lately, and a work crew had to replace it so we had a dark day which meant that I didn’t get any work done, but it seems that everything is fixed because we have power today.

I saw on the news today that Norman Mailer died at the age of 84. Mailer had a large influence on my writing in the early 70’s which was so profound that it altered the way that I thought about non-fiction writing and probably still influences me in subtle ways. Mailer was a character – always controversial and almost always amusing. Rest in Peace, Norman.

Technology and Social Action

I read an interesting article in the New York Times last week on how Indian technology workers are using the internet to try to help the poor gain better employment by through a site called babajob.com. The idea is that illiterate or just poor workers put their skills out on a social networking like site where the wealthy and middle class Indian employers can find a match for what they need. The founder, Sean Blagsvedt, said, “In India, you can’t escape the feeling that you’re really lucky. So you ask, What are you going to do about all the stuff around you? How are you going to use all these skills?” This is what all of us with the good fortune to have our material needs met should be doing – using technology to help change the world. Thank god, there are people out there being innovative. This article provided the inspiration for me to use the Net to assist others less fortunate than me or my family.

Pakistan

Here’s a photo that I took about seven years ago during a field trip with my high school anthropology students. We visited an old fort north of Lahore in Pakistan. Even though the fort is “protected” by the Pakistan government, due to a lack of funds it continues to crumble, be vandalized, and serve as a gathering place for junkies. The walls are covered with these beautiful ceramic scenes of life during this period. I’ve forgotten the name of the fort as well as the exact location. Can anyone out there help jog my memory?

Podcasting

The Life in the Tropics podcast continues on at http://drbrucepk.wordpress.com. I’m having fun with it, you might want to take a listen.