“H
ow,” I wonder to myself,
looking out through a hole in
the ceiling to the purple bruise
of sky beyond, “did I end up in a squat in
the middle of a paddy fi eld in inland Bali?”
The mattress I gaze up from is slightly damp,
as is pretty much everything in the room.
It’s that time of year when rain sheets down
from the sky for hours on end, only to steam
up through clothing, fi xtures and fi ttings
within minutes of the sun appearing again.
Gutters run like rivers, carrying away the
strung marigolds, pagoda fl owers and intricate
hand-woven o erings le roadside for the
gods in the same slipstreams as perforated
plastic bags, ring pulls and cigarette butts.
Monsoon season: the great leveller.
It’s not a great time to be a tourist in Bali,
according to the guide books. But that was
OK, I’d thought. I had no intention of staying.A er months waitressing my way around
Australia’s bars and restaurants, Southeast
Asia was my reward: a place to spend that
hard-earned cash, exploring beaches,
temples and, if I felt like it, doing bugger all.
Of course, as there o en is with youthful
backpacking, that ‘bugger all’ was well set
out — certain islands to be visited;
key sights to be checked o The List.
Bali had fi gured nowhere in my long-held
plan for Indonesia. Tainted with the faint
praise of beer-fuelled Australian co-workers
who’d visited on cheap package holidays, I’d
dismissed it as nothing better than a gateway
to more ‘interesting’ islands; a place to touch
down, check out and swi ly move on from.
But that’s the thing about youthful
certainty, it’s begging to be blown to
smithereens by the fi rst breath of exotica.
Back then, how was I to know that the fi rst WORDS BY SARAH BARRELL
BALI
DERAILED AND
REROUTED
National Geographic
Traveller’s associate
editor, Sarah, is an
itinerant soul who has
lived in Australia, New
York, Greece and Italy.
Easily tempted by exotic
destinations, yet rarely
totally seduced, Sarah has
called many places ‘home’
— though few have truly
felt it. Bali, however, did.
One day she hopes it
might be. @travelbarrell80 natgeotraveller.co.uk
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