Done Bali

After a much needed 2 day of rest, we are now getting into work mode for Monday in Singapore; we have just arrived here. Imagine that 6 hours ago, we were waken by the sound of ocean waves and chorus of insects in the forest. And not to mention the 1/2 open air bathroom. You literally showered under the stars! With some luxury items like flush toilet and hot water, of course. Hey Rod, I have finally found a camp site that fits your requirement of "camping" - 5 star hotel with room service. Hee hee....

Anyway, the place we stayed at was called Shankari's Bali Retreat (formerly Sacred River). Audrey used to work there for 9 months in the late 90's. Over the last two days, I found out that we were both in the same place over the same period of time! We were in Hong Kong over the New Year's Eve (Rod and Michele, the trip we took together in the late 90's). And then, she was back to Bali to work and I was at Kuta. How weird was that?

This place in Bali was geared toward spirituality; a self inner discovery type of place. But we were not doing that sort of things. There was no "seminars" of any sorts. We had the entire complex to ourselves with a full complementary staff. At night after 10pm, we were the only people there with the security details of two people. This place needs promotion of doing retreat for companies - like strategic planning and team building. The owner was a very interesting character; she arrived Bali over 20 years ago with only US$500 in her pocket with 3 young children; this resort was her life work; now, she's expanded into jewelery making. She designed all her work; Audrey and I had a tour of the jewelery factory just 5-minute walk from the retreat.

For those of you that are curious: NO, I was not there for the World Climate Change conference. I was doing a bit more in-depth than sitting in conference rooms (fully air-conditioned) at Nusa Dua isolated from the REAL problems. How can you plan to save the world in 5-star hotels with air-conditioned rooms? Firstly, with all the technologies available, we can easily have regions connected to the WWW for web conference; rather have everyone flying into Bali; isn't airplane flying is one of the pollutions? And air cond as well? If we want to make an impact, shouldn't the conference to done in community halls across local villages? You could then listening to the local concerns of what have been causing "the problem"? By transporting all delegates to and from different villages, they would KNOW how polluted in Bali has become; diesel fueled trucks hauling goods from East to West. As a statement, at least car manufacturers could contribute hybrid vehicles, gov'ts sponsoring hydrogen fuel cells buses.... At least that would showed the world that things are changing. Just staying at Nusa Duo, a prime Western tourist destination, would really help? Umm..... I have been living among the local Balinese people - more than those 10,000 participants to the conference. We used less energy; candles, mosquito net, coils... Just trying to conserve. We visited a local village where one of Audrey's friends lived. Now that was the real Bali! Broken roads, people planting Grove trees, Coco trees, rice fields. Concern with the change in climate because it has begun affecting their livelihood.