I was having a conversation with a taxi driver on Bali, an island of tropical flowers, lush rice terraces and lovely seascapes. It was April 2015. I was 41, Obama was president, and it was an auspicious time for marriages in the Hindu calendar. 
“Where are you from?”
“The U.S.”
“Where?”
“America.”
“Oh, America! Obama!”
“Yes, Obama!”
“Oh, you have good President!”
“Yes, we like him too.”
“Where is your husband?” Continue reading
Where dragons hunt and currents fly…
I sat, eyes closed, surreptitiously breathing in one nostril and out the other, an exercise resurrected from a long-rusted yoga practice. The pilot of the small motorboat sped toward Batu Bolong, a rocky pinnacle in the Flores Sea that had been described moments before by our dive guide M. as “the most dangerous and the most beautiful dive site in Komodo National Park.” My gut was as uneasy as the sea. Continue reading
It is a culture by the sea, of the sea. The tides tell the day, and late afternoon is a time of play, to throw shells from the sand bars left by the going or coming tide, to look for creatures and treasures as the sun sizzles on the corrugated surface of the sea. This is how I remember late afternoon on North Sulawesi. For us travelers it was a time between… after the last dive of the day and before happy hour… moments to read, to write, to nap, to look at photos from our undersea adventures, or just to be, to watch the silhouettes on the sea and linger in the sultry quietness between.
My close friend V. recently asked, “What was the most interesting place you visited… as in a spot you never expected to find yourself?”
What a great question! Continue reading
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