Why Bali?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed of living abroad. I lived in Austria for a year when I was 17, which was amazing, but I have never experienced the thrill of living in a foreign country for an extended period of time as an adult.

In my 20s, I was too wrapped up in work and busy trying to build my career. In my 30s, I was too in love with New York City to even contemplate leaving.  At 40, I had my baby boy and was all-consumed with single motherhood and just making ends meet.

As I approach my 50th year and my son nears his tenth, I have watched our window of opportunity narrow. With every passing year, it becomes only more difficult for a child to say goodbye to established friendships, change schools and start fresh. For me, it becomes harder to say goodbye to parents who are young in spirit but objectively past their golden years. I’ve concluded it’s now or never. I hate the word never. So…we’re moving to Bali.

I visited the Island of the Gods in 2010 and had a wonderful time exploring temples, hiking through rice patties and getting daily massages at spas where you soak your body in baths filled with rose petals. It was glorious but I never envisioned myself living there. All that changed after speaking to a good friend of mine in New York about my wanderlust and fears of never experiencing expat life. She spent years living in South East Asia before moving to New York. Bali was her playground. “There’s a great school called The Green School,” she said.

I liked the glowing review I read about it in the New York Times. I also admired the premise – an international, project-based learning school meant to inspire green leaders of the future.  Jane Goodall reportedly spoke there. So did Ban Ki-moon. It was started by John Hardy, a Canadian who moved to Bali decades ago and made his fortune in the jewelry business.

We applied to the school and my son got in. We were supposed to move in the summer of 2020 but the pandemic put those plans on the backburner. Like everyone on the planet, we got a crash course on patience. Each semester, we deferred as outbreaks raged. We’re now finally ready for the move.

While my son attends what can only be described as a type of bamboo cathedral in the jungle, I’ll be trying to figure out what to do with the second half of my life.

What does a person with a background in journalism do when relocating to Bali? Start a blog, of course! I have no illusions about this being some runaway success à la “Eat, Pray, Love” but I do know writing about Bali, our adventures abroad and expat life in general will give me a lot of joy and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

The blog is called “Jungles and Joglos”, which is a reference to the traditional homes one can find in Bali and Java.

I know the adjustment won’t always be easy. There are at least six highly venomous snakes to contend with, mosquitos that transmit dengue fever and Bali IS on the ring of fire. We’re also going to miss our friends and family terribly. And then there are the fears about what I’m going to do next in my professional life after taking a pause like this. Despite these risks, I firmly believe the good will far outweigh the bad. At the very least, we’ll learn how to surf and turn our bodies into pretzels from the yoga!

We leave for Bali tonight. We won’t be gone forever. I have aging parents and friends and family to return to in a year or two. While it saddens us to say goodbye to our loved ones, we are looking forward to the beginning of a dream fulfilled.