-
Our Year at the Green School:
One of the primary reasons we moved to Bali was so that my son could attend the Green School, an international school in the middle of the jungle whose goal is to create green leaders of the future. I first heard about the school through a friend of mine who once lived in Singapore. It was generating a lot of buzz among expats living in South East Asia, she said. The school was opened in 2008 by John Hardy, a Canadian who moved to Bali and created a wildly successful eponymous jewelry company with his wife. As the story goes, he was galvanized by Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”…
-
Visa Runs from Bali
Staying in Bali for an extended period of time, is a fairly straightforward affair when it comes to immigration. For those who plan to work or live in Indonesia on a more prolonged basis, a resident permit card called a “KITAS” is required. But for those who just want to stay for a year or two, there are a couple of other options. B211 Visa: One is to apply for the B211 visa before arriving in Indonesia. It’s a single entry visa that lasts 60 days and can be renewed twice. It means you can stay in Bali for six months without having to leave Indonesia. It’s a great option…
You May Also Like
Bagels in Bali? A Guide to Dining in Bali.
-
Why Japan Deserves to Top Your Travel Bucket List:
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to go to Japan. I know I’m not alone. When I told my friends we were headed there for a couple of weeks over Easter break, the response was overwhelmingly one of envy. “That’s the number one country on my bucket list!” “I’ve been dying to go there for years,” they said. I’m no spring chicken. Neither are my friends. I suspect many of them have put off a trip to Japan for so long, in part, because of the perception that a trip to Japan will lead to financial ruin. It’s true that in the 1980’s Japan was prohibitively expensive.…
-
Bagels in Bali? A Guide to Dining in Bali.
Before moving to Bali, I was excited about many things. But the food was not one of them. I’m not a huge fan of Indonesian fare. Or at least I didn’t think I was. When I last visited Bali 12 years ago, I had a ton of nasi and mi goring, which got boring real fast. I have since come to realize there’s much more to Indonesian food and some of it is delish including the corn fritters and crispy, fried tempeh. The homemade vegetarian lunch prepared at my rice farming class every Tuesday is something I now look forward to. I’ve also come to learn, that dining in Bali…
You May Also Like
Visa Runs from Bali
-
The Fruits of Bali
Rambutan. Mangosteen. Durian. With a roll of the “rrrrr”, the names of these Southeast Asian fruits are deliciously fun to articulate. They’re also deeply satisfying to eat. You have to work to get to their sweet spots. One of the joys of moving abroad is exposing your taste buds to new flavors. For me, discovering Bali’s colorful fruits has been one of the culinary highlights of living on this island. Here’s a sampling of Bali’s tropical fruits. Durian – this is, without a doubt, Bali’s most controversial fruit. Some people love it. Others find it offensive. Known as the “stinky fruit”, it is banned from many hotel rooms because of…
You May Also Like
Our Year at the Green School:
-
The sport hitting Bali
The sport most people associate with Bali is surfing. The island has a variety of surf breaks, which makes it an ideal place for both experienced surfers and those who are just learning how to surf. But the sport that is really making waves in Bali right now is padel. Padel clubs are popping up all over the place. Construction is underway on many more. Courts are fully-booked weeks in advance. Padel is the fastest-growing sport in many parts of the world. The exception is the U.S. where another racket sport, pickleball is catching on like wildfire. So, what is padel and why is it so becoming so popular? The…
-
Our Villa in Bali Gets a “Spiritual Cleansing”
Bali is an island of ceremonies. It’s one of the first things you notice when you arrive and it’s part of what makes the place so special. Spiritual offerings and prayer are a daily ritual. Traffic often comes to a standstill to make way for a colorful procession of men and women dressed in traditional clothes walking slowly down the street performing a ceremony or dance. There’s no honking or angry faces. It’s just a part of life in Bali. Bali’s Unique Religion: The majority of Indonesians are Muslim but in Bali, the predominant religion is a unique blend of Hinduism, animism and ancestry worship. Every day, the Balinese make…
-
Ticking Things Off the Travel Bucket List in New Zealand and Australia.
At the Green School in Bali the winter break is inordinately long. I’m talking 30 days. That sizeable amount of time off can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s a looooooong time to keep the kids entertained but it’s also an opportunity to do some serious traveling. Many expat families in Bali return home – predominantly to Europe, Japan or the U.S. to see loved ones. While we missed home and love a snowy Christmas, the idea of flying to the other side of the world and back again was not so appealing especially when there is so much to explore on Bali’s doorstep (if that’s what you…
-
My Love/Hate Relationship with Bali
Four months ago my son and I moved to Bali. It’s been a busy period with too much time spent hunting for a villa, starting a new school, travel to Vietnam and family visiting for two months Now that I can finally take a breather, I wanted to record my thoughts and observations on Bali. At the moment, I’d best describe my feelings as one of love/hate. Bali might be the island of the Gods but it is not paradise. At least not in the traditional sense depicted in films like “Eat, Pray, Love” and “Ticket to Paradise”, the latest Julia Roberts movie that takes place in Bali but was…
-
Views on Vietnam
Vietnam. The very name conjures up all sorts of horrifying images for many. Older generations experienced the war in real time, either being a part of it directly or watching the events unfold on the nightly news. For those too young to witness it in real time, the scenes of war have been brought to life by countless movies and the work of photojournalists on the scene. The images are searing. I don’t think anyone who’s seen “Napalm Girl”, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken by AP photographer Nick Ut in 1972, depicting a nude 9-year-old girl named Phan Thi Kim Phuc running down the street with a severely burned back,…
