Day One – Bali

Sleep was fleeting on my first night in Bali, my circadian rhythms are completely out of whack as Bali is 13 hours ahead of Toronto. I managed to knock off about 3 hours but it was restless. My accommodations are absolutely stunning on the outside (beautiful porch overlooking the central courtyard of our homestay, where I am served breakfast each morning) and modest to the point of sparse on the inside. Bed, night table, a few shelves, and a bathroom, that is, literally a bath”room.” The shower is simply sticking out of the wall and the entire room becomes the shower. The toilet and sink are simply there along for the ride. There is no hot water, but ironically it’s so hot and sticky that this is actually welcome – I have become somewhat accustomed to taking quick 30 second showers just to cool off before dinner or bed. I had heard horror stories (ok they were horror stories to me as I am high maintenance) about the ‘facilities’ in Indonesia but so far, and granted, Bali is a tourist area, all bathrooms have been similar to those at home.

We had the morning free to explore a little bit as we were not meeting up with the VSO welcome team or the other volunteers until 11:30am. I took the opportunity to hit an internet café and let Michael know I had arrived safely, then off to the beach to see it for myself. Sanur beach has extreme differences between low and high tide, with the low being so shallow that the water recedes hundreds of feet from shore. At its peak it is high enough to wash over a “J” shaped jetty that curves leisurely out from the shore (more on this jetty later).

I met with the other volunteers for lunch at local restaurant (they were quick to emphasize that we would not be able to afford a restaurant such as this on our volunteer allowance) and quickly bonded with the others. There are 8 VSO volunteers (and two accompanying partners) that have arrived in Indonesia at this time for their in-country orientation. We are a motley crew, with volunteers from Canada, the US, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, Uganda, and yes, even one who was born and raised in Indonesia but had moved to Holland many years ago. We are all staying at the Yulia homestay for now, but by the end of this week, we will separate and go live with our host families. We will be learning Bahasa Indonesian together over the next 6 weeks, and have already come to rely on each other for support and practice. It will be tough to move to Solo and leave them behind.

Later that night we went to a great little restaurant / bar on the beach that happens to have wireless internet access. It was awesome. I decided to take a quick walk out to the end of the aforementioned jetty. At this point it was high tide, though it seemed completely dry. As I walked, it got darker and darker as I got away from shore. I began randomly aiming my camera down at the jetty and snapping pictures in hopes of catching a crab or some other kind of interesting crustaceon. I was greeted with quite a surprise when I got to the end of the jetty and examined the pic I had just taken....



Look closely at the picture and you will see it. It was the biggest sea snake I had ever seen. I snapped a couple more pics, as close as I was willing to get, at which point a rather large wave washed over the entire jetty, up to my shins. I thought this was likely a sign that it was time for me to go back to dry land as I certainly did not want to encounter another of these creatures. Back to shore I went, and home for the evening, where a more benevolent reptile (my gecko) awaited.