Calming ocean, delicious Indonesian food and abundance -

Blue as the ocean
A color associated to dreams, wisdom and serenity
I know it’s been a while since I last wrote. I was away traveling for the past two weeks. I needed to see the ocean and feel its energy.

I went on a nice motorbike road trip with a local guide to see the East Coast of Bali. The road is winding, mountainous, bordered by the Bali Sea and dominated by the Mount Agung volcano that is the highest point – and the most sacred – of the island.

Balinese believe that the Mount Agung is a replica of the Mount Meru, the mythical mountain considered as the axis of the world in the Buddhist and Hindu mythologies. Agung is still active and last erupted in 1963. This eruption was considered the most important one of the 20th century!

Then I left Bali for the first time to go to Nusa Lembongan, a small tranquil island where the cultivation of algae is the primary source of income. The island seemed poor despite the tourists who flock for a one day trip of snorkelling. Nusa Lembongan is entirely dependent on Bali since all the food and other goods are transported by ship. There is no rice fields on this land where almost nothing grows. The cost of living is therefore a bit more expensive than Bali. Despite all of this, the island offered me the ideal haven to simply embrace the purification of the sea and to indulge in introspection before the full moon.

Let’s talk about food!
Strange as it may seem, real Balinese food is not that easy to find for a tourist in Ubud. There is a lot of healthy and international restaurants in town. Tourists can eat very well and at all prices. But it is not there that you will find authentic plates at a local price.

It takes a while to find out where locals eat. You can see them sitting in front of a shop offering transport services eating nimbly with their fingers or with a spoon and fork. There are no signs, no menu and no tourists. If you walk inside the shop, you can see a tiny kitchen where the mother and her daughter are cooking food for about $1 to $1.50 CAD and preparing fresh fruit juices for $0.50. In those local places called warung, fruit juices are usually prepared with palm sugar and evaporated milk. If you prefer your juice natural, say: “tampa gula, tampa susu” – without sugar and milk.

Typical dishes served in a family run warung are fairly simple. It’s made with a portion of rice (that they eat three times a day), mixed vegetables – often bean sprouts and mung bean with either meat (pork or chicken) egg, tofu or tempeh with a spicy sauce. Some will buy packets of crispy noodles that they will break and add on top. Food is served on a piece of banana leaf or in a paper folded in a pyramid shaped for takeout orders.

In the streets, you can hear a man on a motorcycle ringing a bell to announce its passage. It’s bakso time! He carries a food kiosk on his motorcycle with meatball soup. Some bakso soups can also be made with chicken (ayam).

Night Markets
Night markets are a great place to taste local food. Unfortunately, there are none in Ubud. I went to the one located in Gyaniar with my friend Elizabeth. We were like kids in front of a candy stall!

Two great advantages of this night market is that we were not chased by sellers and it seemed like we paid the same price as locals. It also helped to know a few words in the national language since some of the sellers don’t speak much English.

We saw very few tourists at the night market. Maybe there are not too sure about the hygiene, or maybe they don’t know about the place or are simply not interested. Locals were quite amused to see us in this kind of market. Even when we asked our driver he didn’t understand why we wanted to go there. When we sat down at the warung to order our Cap Cay, the other clients smiled at us a little intrigued. Interestingly, both men and women cook in the warung. They are sometimes helped by their children.

To give you a better idea, here is a very small sample of the fruits found here in Bali and some of the typical Indonesian dishes.

Let’s talk about money
The idea of writing about food made me realize how much locals, expatriates and tourists live in a separate world. Or should I write, in addition to our cultural differences, the social inequality between tourists and locals is palpable when we take the time to look at it.

Like in many developed countries, you experience that gap when you buy. Except at the pharmacy, supermarket and other slightly more modern shops, they are no price tags. You ask for the price then negotiate.
I think there are about three kinds of prices:

price for locals
price for the ones that speak sidikit (some) the national language and know the value of what they are buying (about double of what a local would pay)
price for tourists (about triple of what a local would pay)

Many Versions of Kamagra Available If a person has a pill swallowing phobia, and deprived of ED treatment he can avail other versions of no prescription sildenafil http://cute-n-tiny.com/tag/puppy/page/8/ the same brand. The drugs help achieve optimum discount cialis cute-n-tiny.com satisfaction with your partner. This problem might occur buy generic levitra in all sexual situations, even during masturbation. Not many are aware about the buy viagra issue of erectile dysfunction you immediately take the desired action towards it.
It is quite difficult at the beginning when you ignore the value of the items in addition to get familiar with the local currency that has so many zeros! To give you an idea 100,000 rupiah equivalent a bit less than $10 CAD. This means that even if our Canadian dollar has been losing its value it is still worth ten times the Indonesian Rupiah (1$CAD = 10,254 IDR).

Then comes the speech of “cheap” and “expensive” that I hear all the time from locals and expats. Too expensive or cheap according to whom and to what basis? Too expensive when I know they charge me a tourist price? Cheap comparing to what I would pay in Canada? I try not to compare too much according to the Canadian prices and think rather according to the local cost … but the fact remains that my purchasing power is not the same. I know it and Balinese know it too. It is our responsibility as foreigners to bargain whenever we can to restrain the prices to go ridiculously high. At the same time, my philosophy regarding money is to keep an attitude of abundance. Yes I am vigilant but I don’t want to feel frustrated about money and I want to eliminate any fear of lack regarding money.

The average monthly salary in Bali is about $156 CAD according to wagindicator.org. The family to whom I rent my house lives in a space equivalent to half of mine. Both parents their young boy and their young girl are all sleeping in the same room like most of the Balinese families.

Around Ubud and on the island of Bali in general, there are no beggars or homeless. The very few women begging with their children are from nearby villages. They come to Ubud because they know that there is money to be made with all the tourists.

Despite the poverty and social inequality, this land attracts many Westerners like me who come to Ubud in search of inner peace and happiness. Don’t we say that the best things in life are free?

Lately I realized how privileged and thankful I am to have the freedom to choose to live in Ubud. Travel is a privilege out of reach for a large percentage of the world’s population. Not to forget that I can return to Canada whenever I want…but that is not for now!

It was recently the full moon and Thanksgiving in the US. Two beautiful opportunities to be grateful. Take a moment to think about what you are the most grateful of right now. Acknowledge it, feel it and say thank you to the universe. You will feel more positive and energized.