Reflections by the pool

I'm in Mimpi Menjangan this morning.  Yesterday we flew over to Bali from Surabaya (about 50 minutes total time) and landed without incident.  The people in Surabaya didn't even want to check our ID before we got on the plane.  I guess they figure a white guy like me isn't a terrorist.  Our car was waiting for us and we started to drive over to Tante Luan's new house.  She is the owner of the Mimpi resorts in Bali, inherited from her husband who died in 2002.  Her house is a little tricky to find, so we used the GPS maps stored in my phone to find it (I love my phone more and more here).  Tante Luan (Auntie Luan) is a small, thin lady who look ever part a queen of bali.  She's Chinese by descent, but has lived in Bali all her life and has adopted the Balinese lifestyle.  Talking to her is a bit what I imagine having an audience with the Queen of England would be like; polite, to the point and short.  We were only there for 20 minutes before we were off to the Mimpi, but there were a few passengers to pick up first.

Things with my in-laws are never straight-forward.  I had thought that Bing Bing, Sin Quok and I were going to be travelling together, but unknown to me Bing Bing's friend and 4 year old son we're also coming along for the ride.  We picked them up about half an hour out of Denpasar (the main city of Bali) and headed for the Mimpi.  Driving with Sin Quok, as I've said before, is a bit like playing a Playstation game.  He weaves in and out of traffic so fast and so close to other scooters and cars, you would think he'd have his license pulled.  I guess they have to catch him first.

Like I said, I'm at the Mimpi Menjangan now, which is in the North-West corner of Bali.  I've been here before a few times already, but it always amazes me how nice this place is.  This morning I went for a swim in the pool, then had breakfast down by the ocean.  Before lunch I'm going to have a massage (number 2, for those who are counting), then lunch, then off to the volcanoe for tonight's stop.  It's been pretty well non-stop since I arrived in Indonesia, but this morning I started thinking about stuff that was on my mind before I left near the pool.  I wish everyone else were here.  Kate and Anne are old enough now that they both would enjoy it here.  I also started thinking about MDS (they also could use a vacation) and how I'm going to miss everyone there.  But in a round about way it's good that I left.  I wasn't helping my career there and hopefully my new gig will help move me forward.