February 17, 2012
Singapore
Here comes to the end 2 months of my stay in Bali. Stuff delivered to friend, passport stamped, overstay penalty paid and here I am in a black and red seat of my budget flight to Hong Kong. New scenes, weather, people and food. Flying still fascinates me. I studied physics and I understand how wings and power work, but what I don’t understand is how this mega ton school bus can fly. I explain it as pure magic, as well as everything associated with it. Arabian nights, genie, magic carpet. That’s what comes into my head when I sit in the airplane. I know that it’s just a few hours and I will see land that would take several months to get to just 100 years ago. I am always thinking about wars back in the day when there was no electricity. How’s the hell do you know if the war is over? Let’s say Brits and Spaniards somewhere in Caribbean? It would take a month just to deliver the message, taking that there’s no storm at sea and many other variables that can arise. I really would like to see how flying/traveling will change in 100 years. I would like to fly HK-SFO in 3 hours or less. That would be cool. (more…)
“It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves”
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
February 9 2012
Beach66, Kuta, Bali
It has been a great night out with my friends in Bali. Over the last 2 months I met a number of unique people and can’t get enough of it. Around 3 AM I decided to see the sunrise on the beach. This is a huge advantage of online money making business model. You can choose where you want to see the sunrise. Mountains, beaches, slopes, desserts or in a comfort of an unknown place. I sat quietly listening to the sound of waves and feeling the drops of rain on my skin (god bless inventors of the plastic bag where I could hide my iPhone). Around 4 am I was interrupted by a young man passing by. “Boss, it’s raining! Go to shelter”. Local boy pointed in the dark. There was a small palm leaf house on the beach which is used by local vendors during the day and here we sat together talking. Here is his story.
February 4, 2012
Sanur, Bali, Indonesia
Bali opens up more and more in a very positive way every day. This Island also gave me an opportunity to meet Trevor. Young Canadian English teacher that spent his 2 last years in here. If you live in Asia, English teacher don’t have a good appeal to this profession. Usually you see them in Their 50s in a bar at 1PM pounding beers with young local girls, however there is a completely different breed. People that made this choice conciously and went to school to tech others. Not expats on full expat package but the ones that move to Asia and make things happen. He is the latter. He speks local language, surfs, blends with weather, ocean, earth and feels like he has found himself. Perfect balance of body and spirit. He left Canada to see what’s aroung and keeps absorbing and positively impacts everyone around him. Meet my new friend Trevor.
January 26
Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
It’s been a crazy week and I didn’t have any time to update the blog. This week I launched a business, met great people, had friends visit me from China and much more. I will write full posts in the next couple of days. Meanwhile Bali still amazes me. I have been really productive and most likely because of combination of a lot of positive things around me. Weather, water, people, food. After almost 2 months here I will try to outline why Bali is perfect place for me
Weather in Bali. It’s still raining, however we had sun most of the week and temperature is perfect. Just right. Not too hot, not too cold. 3 t-shirts a pair of flip flops. Minimalistic and sufficient. I travelled across Philippines and China but never felt so well anywhere like here.
Hangout places. The good thing about Bali is that you may have the Best of both worlds. High class restaurants and local warungs (small diners under 10 tables). Food in general is very good. Mangoes, avocados, veggies and beef. Beef is really good. It’s really hard to compare it to Canadian aged steaks at 40$, but my pepper steak at 3.5 dollars tastes really well here. Unlike in China where I almost became a vegetarian because of the way they raise cattle down there beef in Bali is grass fed and very tasty. I am not a big nightclub fan but close proximity of really high class night places is a good thing to have. I saw similar places only in Berlin, however over here it has it’s tropical appeal.
Ocean. I grew up in in steps of Kazakhstan and saw Atlantic (my first ocean) when I was 23. I can’t say enough about it. It was fantastic, but really cold. In Bali it’s really warm which is a really cool thing. I saw luminescent plancton, got hit by big waves around high cliff and can’t get enough of it. Powerful, deep, enchanting. Diving around Bali is also pretty good. Tulamben is famous for it’s US Liberty Wreck diving. It’s a WW2 ship that has been hit by Japanese torpedo. I don’t know about the destiny of the crew, but now it’s a beautiful riff with schools of fish, snakes and an amazing experience. In 1970 or so there was a volcano eruption and claimed some ocean space. Now this wreck is an easy shore dive.
People. I don’t know about other islands in Indonesia but these people are the most chilled people I have seen in my entire life. Minding their own business, working, living. Most of Balinese people are Hindu. It reflects on architecture, and day to day living. They wear traditional clothes, give offerings and play some cool meditation music. What is really awesome about it is that they do it all the time. That’s their way of living. Not a tourist attraction. Another good thing is they speak English. Most of them at least. Indonesian women are the strongest women in the world.
Work. Just because of all of the above conditions I find myself very productive and will blog about my results within the next week or so.
Looks like I have found my perfect environment. Exciting jorney.
Egoistically Yours,
VP
January 18,
Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
I will give you just a couple of my thoughts on SOPA and PIPA. Well, first of all these 2 abbreviations put a smile on my face because they sound really funny in Russian. Пипа as Pipi (like kids genitals) and ЖОПА as “ASS”. Let me tell ya. I was born In Soviet Union, lived in China and always devastated about censorship, and lack of freedom in these countries. Since I was a kid, US was my dream. Real democracy. (more…)
