Paradise is lonely
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2008
1
3
13
Trip End
Aug 2008
Kadidiri,
Indonesia
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
At current I am sitting outside at an internet caf on Poppies Gang in Kuta, listening to FBI radio from Sydney. Its 6.30pm and the sun has just set. My favourite colour is currently blue. I've been in Kuta, Bali for a week now and am finding it difficult to leave as I met a nice lassy. Just catching up on this blog though is prompting me to leave...maybe tomorrow. What have I been up to in my long absence...
I spent a week in the Togean islands, Sulawesi taking 5 days to reach from Toraja as I got stuck waiting for a boat in Ampana. The are a pack of coral fringed islands full of jungle and with a decent number of sandy beaches. I stayed 5 days on Kadidiri where I snorkeled everyday and lazed in hammocks
A dude enroute to Gorontalo
. Oil lamps, chess and too much fish - 10 in total! On snorkel trips looking at moray eels, thousands of colourful fish and form changing squid I'd drift over the edge of the hard and soft coral reef into the blue. Ten metres below I watched our host, Ada, in the blue with a spear in his hand spying barracuda, a sight that reminded me of a wildlife program.For the last three days I was in Malenge. Much the same but even more isolated - one hours boat from a village of three hundred. My favourite image from this island was when I was treading water with eight brown skinned boys, four either side of me, clinging onto a boat's docking rope. They looked on with curiosity and apprehension at the white skinned man and all got out to run away when I started swimming underwater.
As gorgeous as the island escape was I was craving familiar company there and so didn't enjoy it fully. Kept thinking of meeting Luiz in Bali and further ahead, Marie in Shanghai. One of the most striking things was how little the people there knew. Their worries would stretch as far as the sand on the beach and a little bit further with fish and a market on the neighbouring island. A painful comparison was unavoidable to ourselves what with all the worries of the world we feed ourselves. I could not reach a decision whether it a good or bad thing that we do concern ourselves with so much, but I think I desired both lives as I watched the old boy return from a snorkel, ring out a clam and munch down his breakfast.
Comments
hey
glad you were enjoying the place so much, but u gotta move on so u can get home quicker! and c other places 2, of course
Hammock Boy!
how do you feel sleeping in a hammock? (Ryan asks) how do you feel in your holidays? from Ryan and grandad. I miss you and I love you.
to martin from mum
sarahs birthday yesterday - she is saving to go to paris- due to fuel shortages we are planning to go to prague etc before too late. no lectures on carbon feet.off to marseillle tomorrow -sarah is driving us because she passed her test.Looking forward to your return you can always come back early as we want to see you. love you lots- think visa to china might be delayed due to disaster aftershocks etc.you are looking solom-check spell. how was bali-jaded from travelling remember to give yourself some luxuaries.
Sandy beaches sound good to me...
I heard Ry loudly dictating that last comment whilst sleeping off my hangover from my birthday night out!
Good to see you updating, I'm hoping to email you later with some proper sentences...just wanted you to know I'd been reading!