On the road again and I can't wait

 December and January I am tripping out on my own again, I have made plans, let's see what happens with that.


Bali, Bangkok, Suvannakhet, Varuna Royal Yacht Club, Hua Hin, Butterworth, Ipo, Cameron Highlands and Penang before back to Bali and a return to Darwin for the start of the school year.


I have bought a particular suitcase, a particular brand and it comes in a particular size that I can muster on to planes, trains and what ever form of transport required to get me to all these places. 

I am on a mission to connect with friends living or staying at these destinations and it feels like I am emerging again into a globally connected being. 




I got this message from the suitcase manufacturer, and they are going to share a part of the journey  as I add images and short notes to my Instagram kaytype account.


I think that is what happened to the blogging, instagram made it photo based and comments were short, which was great for all the adventures I have had in the company of other, but Tripping Out Alone will remain active for these solo adventures,

So here we are - twenty four hours into the trip and I am in Bali, down in the depths of Kuta, not a place I have spent time in for many years. I had the opportunity to stay with my good friend and ex-colleague Edward who lives here in an old house that has, over the years lost its gardens to hotel buildings and now remains like tree house in the midst of the concrete confusion that is old Kuta’s back alleyways.

Edward rescues dogs, he takes them out for walks using a webbed belt around his waist and clips the leads to the belt, it’s a living crinoline of dogs and leashes. 

I arrived into the airport yesterday, tired and a bit confused, I was returning home to an island I had lived on for 16 years, but I was not ‘coming home’ …

Fortunately Wayan , Wayan 2, to be precise made it easy to re-enter the present  and drove me to Robert’s house in Seminyak to start with. Robert and I have maintained a friendship since working together in an American Hamburger Restaurant in the King’s Road, Chelsea, in the days when the King’s Road felt like the center of the universe. It was also Robert who introduced me to Bali, and he has made it his home, creating the opulent Villa Lotus from his imagination and filling it with art and over the top  theatrical creations including throne like dining chairs in plush royal purple velvet with gold frames. 

Tea is served on plates decorated with rabbits, the milk jug is a rabbit, the tea pot is red polka dotted, the sandwiches are egg with the crusts cut off and then there are banana pancakes. We sit surrounded by the lush vegetation associated with the tropical paradise Bali evokes and tease the tangles out of time spent apart, comparing notes and catching up on each others lives.  Then it is off to Kuta and the dogs. 

Sleep in the treehouse was deep and restful, despite the decay and the obvious devolution the magic is still in the air and the morning arrived fresh and clear.

At the last minute before I left I hurled two items into my suitcase, for reasons I was not clear on, but I understand now. I am in that proudly Bali Bogan territory, it is rainy and it is dingy, this is no place for linen pants and floaty tops,  the old t.shirt and op shop shorts make perfect sense, so much so I was eyeing a purple Bintang singlet earlier thinking it may compliment the outfit. After a huge afternoon downpour I traversed the narrow lanes dotted with mini marts and clothing stalls. This is somewhere else entirely, a Bali I am not familiar with, but it is filled with tourists, they look happy to  be picking through the broken pavings, eating at the Circle K cafe and dodging the motorbikes careening in both directions. 





                You can’t recreate the past, old sport, but you can dream about it in a treehouse in Kuta. 






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