My wife and I live in a fairly remote village in Northeast Thailand. We met when back 1999 when I first came to Bangkok to teach English and have spent most of our time together in Thailand. My wife is Thai, tho Isaan is a mix of cultures and my wife's actual background is a mix of Khmer-Vietnamese and Mon, as are many people in our area. She has travelled with me to Korea twice when I picked up work there and she has quite enjoyed our stays there. However, in 2011 when I got work in Jakarta Indonesia she declined to go with me as much evidence that I gave her that it would be just as comfortable as Korea for her and probably much more interesting. I returned in 2012, thoroughly enjoyed my life in Jakarta but didn't like living apart from my wife.
Thailand has been going through a real rough patch. In our area, farmers, including most of my wife's immediate family haven't been paid for a year's harvest when the government abnegated its responisbilities to adhere to their promise to pay farmers for rice the farmers gave them in advance. The military coup has done much to turn this situation around, but half the debt is looking as tho it will remain unpaid. The country's leader, General Pryuth announced that they had done what they could, but that it was time for the rice millers and others who have long profited from the farmers' labors to step up and also contribute. To make a long story short, we need a break. My wife asked to specifically get out of this country for just a bit and I immediately thought of Bali, a place everyone in Jakarta seemingly goes to when they can to get away. As I was always using my vaction time to travel back to Thailand, I never got a chance to go to Bali, which was always kind of a sore point for me.
When i asked if my wife would like to go to Bali, she was not sure. "Don't they have problems with Muslim militants there or something?" Well, yes, once there was a bombing, true, but we have them in Thailand a lot more, no? True. Bali practices Hinudism mostly anyway and as I have explained and convinced her, Indonesian Muslims are similar to Thai Muslims, they are not puritanical zealots and their brand of Islam is mixed with ancient nature based spirituality, Hinduism and Buddhism that preceeded Islam. Bahasa is also similar to Yawi, the Malay language spoken in South Thailand. Going to Bali is not going to Saudi Arabia! Also, Indonesian batik has long been popular in the north east and my wife was quickly impressed by the batik I had bought and the appeal of going to Indonesia where it comes from was a real starting place for her.
I am interested in the music and underwater life not to mention Balinese dance and drama. The ex-pat painters of the past and the current emphasis on painting and arts in general is a big plus as well. Most of Asia, including Thailand, is very utilitarian, and the arts are something i miss. Throw in the dramatic volcanic mountains and Bali's intriguing take on Hinduism and it is easy to say that for me there couldn't be a more interesting destination. I was also very impressed and quite enjoyed many of the people I met and came to know in Jakarta. I find Indonesians to generally be more interactive, witty, and interesting than any Asian peoples I have met in my 18 years of living and working over here. I have wanted to come back to Indonesia since the day I left and tommorrow, we will step out with our back packs and walk out to the rural highway where we can catch a songthaew which is a pick up truck converted into a mini-bus for a kind of cheap public transpo, found everywhere in Thailand not served by a municipal bus service.
We will take the songthaew, as we always do when we go to the provincial capital in Kalasin to do our weekly shopping, but we will get out before where the rural road meets the main highway and sit at the bar-b-que chicken stand, maybe buy a chicken for the road, and wait for an inter-provincial bus to take us 45 minutes away to Roi Et, another nearby provincial capital where we will have to spend the night in a cheap but fairly clean and quiet hotel a stones throw from the bus station. As public transpo to our village knocks off around sunset, we are often forced to stay here over night whenever we come back from trips around Thailand. So, this time will be no different. We'll get our tickets on the 8:30 am express bus to Bangkok and be in the big mango by 3:30 pm. Will keep you updated.
