Bali is messing with my head (and that may be ok)

Written by Kyle about Indonesia. Feelin' confused

To understand what Bali is doing to my thinking, we're going to go to a volcano. A volcano called Batur. We got to this volcano via rented scooter and an hour and a half 's worth of time.

Up to this point, everything has gone pretty much as planned. We take some pictures overlooking the caldera lake and volcano. We drive down near the water front to eat some street-side satay. We have a good conversation with the satay cook and eat a second helping. Looking at our watches, we decide to try to see Bali's largest temple, only 45 minutes away.

I'll spoil the ending here and tell you that we didn't make it to the temple. What happens between this point and the next hour is why Bali is messing with my head.

On the way out of the volcano, our pathetic scooter coughs and sputters up the steep incline like a chain-smoking septuagenarian. I notice that there is something more pathetic about the scooter than usual - when I turn a corner, like a top running out of energy, it leans and tries to pull itself to the ground. It's annoying, but I brush it off and attribute it to the fact that it is probably headed up a slope that it is not intended for. This wheeled septuagenarian should be unwrapping a new box of Marlboros instead of ascending volcano walls.

We make it to the top with only residual of a smoker's cough, then ride toward the temple. We pass a fork in the road - one way takes us towards to our hotel in Ubud, the other towards Bali's largest temple. We take the path towards the temple.

A couple minutes after we take the road to the temple, though, the rain starts coming down a little bit harder. It's still perfectly drivable weather, but as we have no rain coats with us, we turn around and decide to go back towards Ubud.

I don't know it yet, but soon I will be thinking about that decision.

About 20 minutes into our ride back "home" the scooter starts fishtailing wildly. From an old man, our scooter has now turned into an inebriated horse that is languidly trying to get us off his back. I pull over and we both look for what is causing our scooter to behave unpredictably. We quickly see the culprit: a completely flat back tire.

Something's not right with this innertube.

Looking around for assistance, we see a group of Indonesian motorcycle riders stopped on the side of the road. Not even just motorcycle riders, "chopper" riders. About 10 of them. And why were they stopped? They were at a repair shop, fixing a problem with one of the rider's bikes and chatting about their drive.

So, to recapture the scenario: our scooter gets an undrivable flat tire in the middle of an Indonesian island, but does so right next to 10 people who know a lot about bikes, who happen to be in a cycle repair shop. Did I mention one of them spoke excellent English, as well?

To cut the story short, the English-speaker explains our problem to the mechanic, the mechanic fixes the bike for $5, and we make our way back home safely.

And this is what messes with my head.

You see, here in Bali, everything has a superstition attached to it. If it rains lightly during a religious ceremony, it is a good sign. The placement of a birthmark can decide a person's fate. How many clicking sounds a gecko makes can be good or bad luck. And on, and on, and on. Everything has meaning. Nothing that happens is irrelevant.

Now, as I look back at what happened on this day, I realize all of the decisions that got us to the repair shop. If one thing would have happened differently, you might be reading a story about how we hitchhiked back to town and tried to mime to someone that we needed our scooter fixed that rested miles away.

But that's not how it happened, even thought it's the most likely scenario.

One more thing, before I leave this to your cranium. While we were waiting for our scooter to be fixed, the rain started up again, so we took shelter under a nearby tin awning. In fact, it rained during most of the time that the scooter was in repair.

And what happened when the scooter was road ready? The rain stopped, of course, and we didn't feel a drop all the way back to our hotel.

Now I have to wonder, are we lucky or did the cosmos align themselves to help us out? Do things happen that push us in the right direction or are we simply the result of all the rational decisions that we make?

Bali, I do love you so, but this is why you're messing with my head. Before I came here, I wouldn't give a second thought to these questions. But now, they're swirling around in my head like pudding with a hand mixer.

Am I going crazy or is Bali just making me look at things through a different lens?

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June 01, 2010 Susan: Isn't life interesting and amazing in many ways!

June 01, 2010 Jo: The same thing happened to us on Saturday in Thailand. We were on our way home from a local football match, taking a short cut down a remote road when our back tire went as flat as a pancake.

Luckily, a little old lady came along minutes later and guided us down this off beat road to a shanti town. There was a repair shop and the whole thing cost us 150 baht (around $5).

It was a very rainy day yet we, just like you two, remained dry and arrived home safe without the wallet any lighter.

I love that about Asia though, everything always has way more meaning than in the western world. Makes your life feel fuller.

We spent 6 months living in Bali in 2008 and can't wait to go back there in October. Enjoy every second.

June 02, 2010 Kyle: We're thinking about returning to Bali in October/November as well, assuming we don't get purposefully stuck in Thailand :) Hopefully we can see each other there, because Bali is one of our favorite places.

June 01, 2010 Joan Gibson: Hi. I am an old friend of Linda's and I definately believe in fate. In 1978; driving out to Momence, Illinois, to pick up my daughter, a "voice" in my head told me to put my seat belt on; twice. On the way home, my car went off the road and flipped. I broke my arm and my daughter was tossed under me. Her side of the Chevette was crushed and the seat belt save my life. We were hanging upside down and a man and his wife stopped and got us out of the car and drove us to the hospital where I worked. I have traveled extensively by reading about your adventures through the last couple of years and I thank you. Joan

June 02, 2010 Kyle: Hi Joan! Thanks for leaving a comment.

That's quite the interesting story you have. I think it would be hard not to believe in fate after something like that happens. Good thing you listened to your inner voice, as it always seems to be the wisest thing to do.

June 02, 2010 Bessie: Yikes - what a story! Thank goodness for the inner voices and listening to them.

Thanks so much for commenting, Joan, and for following our stories. I've heard a lot about you, and I hope you and your family are well!

June 01, 2010 Lily: I love it that you are able to reflect on your luck - obviously 'glass half full' types - if only everyone was so thoughtful. Some would say they had bad luck to get the flat tyre in the first place, I prefer your version. I very often count my blessings when I think about a family committment which meant leaving my beachside hotel in Sri Lanka on Christmas Day 2004 (leaving backpack etc and taking only valuables and passport to stay in Colombo overnight). I wish everyone in Sri Lanka had been as fortunate as I was that day. The hotel was washed away and 4 staff members lost their life.

June 02, 2010 Kyle: Wow, while it's a terrible thing that happened in Sri Lanka, we're glad that you made the fortunate step of going to Colombo.

I would have to say that I used to be a quite 'half empty' kind of person. There's no specific moment that changed it, but it's funny to think of myself as a 'half full' guy. But, I can say, it us much better with this mindset!

June 02, 2010 miguel rAZtA: definately belive in this type of "fate", and it's out there allright. i personally call it those "littel gifts of life" i personally do think that many things happen for a reason… call it karma, superstition or oldschool beliefs. The big difference is, we never really come to think about these things when we're living this western/citylife "from home to work and back home day to day lifestlye" i guess its just the stress and the speed in which we do things and live things. I have to give props to the morrocans who always say: "la prisa mata" ( basically meaning "hurrying kills"). Haven´t you ever wondered how people call you in the exact moment when you are thinking of them? hummmm… did the cosmos align itself here too.
buen viaje!

June 02, 2010 Kyle: "La prisa mata". I really like that phrase. I'm going to have to use that one down the road. A slower, purposeful life is definitely a good way to live no matter where one is in the world.

June 02, 2010 Julian Blumenthal: Great story. You never know what to expect from this blog.

June 02, 2010 Kyle: I'll second that one! We never know what to expect from our lives, either!

June 18, 2010 Linda: Sometimes fate, sometimes luck, sometimes destiny? Glad you both were uninjured.....but that's just the "parental unit" talking!