Picture Poetry

6 December 2006: BALI

Medewi Sunset

It is a beautiful quiet evening on the Indonesian island of Bali and I am enjoying the peaceful sunset while Nick, my brother and two of my brother’s best childhood friends are out with a fisherman trying their luck at providing a fresh tuna dinner. Nick and I arrived on Monday and met up with my younger brother (confusingly also a Nick) who is here traveling and surfing. We spent two un-delightful nights in Kuta (famous for the 2002 Bali bombings and hedonistic tourism) before heading off to more remote and less-traveled regions. First stop is a surfing spot famous to the local Balinese in a little town called Medewi.

Beach Meditation

Our day began at the beach. Brother Nick and company immediately hit the waves. Nick paddled out after them with an underwater camera to capture the moment of big-wave bliss. I stayed on the beach and watched the morning turn to day with a surfing backdrop.

The Morning's Surf Wounds

We are staying in a rustic little beach guesthouse where we have three bamboo huts to sleep in and a friendly host that makes the best watermelon juices around. Last night the guys met a local fisherman who sold them some lobsters, which his mother cooked and returned to us at dinnertime. Life is simple and salty at the moment…

Beach Read

All in an Eye

1 December 2006: SINGAPORE

At the conclusion of the photo assignment, Nick and I headed up to Singapore to renew our visas and visit a friend from Oxford. We arrived early on Friday morning to the shining face of our friend Wei-Leong and were quickly whisked into what would be a very comprehensive tour of this city-state. Singapore was almost sterile compared to Jakarta. It was delightful to walk the clean streets and admire the architecture and tourist attractions without constant ‘hello misters, where you from misters, where you going misters’. Singapore is organized in almost a Chinese sense of the word, but is flavored with a dash of leftover British colonialism, an interesting conglomerate to say the least.

Wei declared his mission for the weekend to us immediately upon arrival. He had a long list of the tourist sights we were to see (every moment fairly packed with one optical delight after another), but more importantly, we were going to try every type of food that Singapore is famous for. This is no mean feat as Singapore cooks a mixture of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Japanese and even has its own culinary dishes. Needless to say, Nick and I left Singapore with full bellies (having accomplished Wei’s motives) and great memories.

28 November 2006: BIRD MARKETS

As a part of Nick’s photo assignment, we have visited a plethora of bird markets. I wouldn’t hesitate to say we have seen some of the largest Java has to offer. The markets are crowded and intense, filled from floor to ceiling with thousands of birds. Feathers flutter everywhere, the birds sing madly and shopkeepers lounge on wooden benches beneath their live wares.

In addition to birds, you may also find endangered monkeys, a flying fox, fruit bats, puppies, squirrels, rabbits, rats and cats for sale. Oftentimes the animals are stacked in cages one on top of the other with no regards to what may be a natural predator to the other in the wild. Perhaps the most beguiling of animals I saw were the fruit bats and flying foxes. Hanging upside down in the cages, wrapped in their leathery wings, the bats have an almost eerie and haunting presence. Sadly, they are sold for this very purpose. According to one shopkeeper people buy the bats because they may absorb or deflect evil spirits if kept caged in a house.