HOW I SEE BALI.
The first days were already full of adventure and beautiful interactions. Sam and me always go all out on these trips. We never back down, get scared of a hurting butt from hour long scooter rides, dark faces from all the emissions, sunburns. We just want to see everything there is.
And when it comes to seeing things I am quite special. For me it’s enough if I drive past a waterfall, or a temple or a monkey forest. I don’t need to see it any longer than in the moment I pass it, look at it from the scooter, memorize it, and get on. My worst nightmare would be to spend a whole morning or afternoon at an “attraction”. Would be a waste of time for me.
On the way to Sidemen for example, there were parts where we didn’t see anyone. We also only saw around ten more other tourists on our whole roundtrip from Ubud to Sidemen and Kintamani once we were out of the center of Ubud.
What really interests me is the people working in the ricefields, the locals, how they live, how they think, not where everyone goes. I want to see everything there is in the shortest amount of time. An extremist - I always was and will forever be. And it’s something I started to accept. It also gives me superpowers, hypersensitivity and a laser focus when it matters.
Especially in photography, that helps a lot. I see the picture I want before I take it. If we are at the beach, I notice everything (probably not, but at least it feels like it). Somehow the subject always draws my eyes to it, like a magnet, or like we know it, the energy. It attracts, flows and is the one force that goes through all layers.
The locals are so happy, gentle, honest, real, raw and beautiful souls. Especially in those remote places, where they don’t make any profit of me as a tourist, you feel that the happiness and warm welcome of Balinese people is real. It’s mostly not staged, at least not as far as we felt it. Even at tourist spots like Ubud and Uluwatu, I always feel truly welcomed, and not just a walking wallet like in any other place of this earth (inlcluding or especially Switzerland).
What do you see on the next pictures? Let me know. I see beautiful stories. Contentment. Intentional seclusion. Purity.
