I just had such a moving experience. The woman who runs the hotel where I have been staying in Sidemen, Subak Taba Villa, is an amazing humanitarian and a deeply spiritual woman. 13 years ago, Mama Ati began a foundation to support the children of Sidemen by offering a free afterschool program for children from […]
Mama Ati and the Children of Sideman Read More »
August 6, 2025 Today, I arranged to go on a three-hour trek through the rice fields on the other side of Sidemen. My guide, Gus Tanggi, says that at 43, he’s the youngest farmer around. He works his plot of land part-time when he’s not being a guide for people like me. He knew the
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August 6, 2025 I’ve been up for an hour. This seems to be the time that I have not quite gotten over my jetlag. I’ve been waking up at this time every night, and I usually take something to help edge me back into sleep. And then by seven or eight in the evening, I’m
“If you don’t face the dangerous in your writing, you won’t change other people, because you’re not changing you.” —Naomi Wolf Brainstorm a list of things that would be dangerous to face in your writing. Then write about one of them.
August 4, 2025 For me, the day’s highlight was being able to witness the most important life cycle passage in Balinese culture: cremation. It’s considered a deeply spiritual ritual to prepare the soul for its journey into the afterlife—and reincarnation. Cremations in Bali are celebratory, even joyful occasions, seen as the last step before the
August 4, 2025 On the tour I led in Bali last year, one of my students spent time in Sideman and loved it. When she saw on Facebook that I was going, she texted me the name of a local guide she loved, Gede Darya, so I wrote to him on Whatsapp and hired him
August 3, 2025 At 5 AM, in the dark, I hopped on the back of Toto’s scooter, and we took off to the village of Bungaya, Bali to watch the morning market unfold. When we got there, men and women were arriving on motorcycles and on foot, heads stacked high with goods to sell. As
Early Morning Market Read More »
August 2, 2025 I landed in Candidasa, Bali last night and am spending my first two nights at The Lotus Bungalows, a place I’m very familiar with. It’s the first hotel my writers will stay in when they fly in nine days from now. I decided to stay here my first two nights to get
First Full Day in Bali Read More »
I’m writing this next installment of my companionship saga at the San Francisco airport. My daughter dropped me off here an hour ago. I whizzed through check-in and security and am currently waiting for my first flight, a 12-hour overnight flight to Taipei. The fact that I’m flying to Asia tonight is just starting to
Will She Make It or Won’t She? Read More »
July 30, 2025 I take people all over the world but am afraid to travel alone. It’s a bit strange to start a travel blog by telling you I’m scared to travel, but here I am, the morning of my departure, with my suitcase and backpack packed, and that’s what’s going on. Don’t get me
I take people all over the world but am afraid to travel alone. Read More »
“If you travel far enough, one day you will recognize yourself coming down the road to meet yourself. And you will say—YES.” —Marion Woodman Tell me about a time you said yes to yourself.
I can’t believe I’m leaving for Bali in less than a week, but the piles on my office floor, my plane ticket from San Francisco to Taipei to Denpasar, and the stack of little lined notebooks I’m bringing as welcome gifts for my writing students are all proof that this trip is really about to
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“There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside the dullest exterior, there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.” —Mark Twain Tell me about a great dramatic moment in your life. A comedy. A tragedy.
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“Writing is a struggle against silence.” —Carlos Fuentes Tell me about all the different kinds of silence you have known. Start each paragraph with the words, “There is the kind of silence…”.
“One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.” —Hart Crane Over the next week, compile a list of ten-twenty of your favorite words. You can love them because of their sound, their resonance, their meaning, their specificity—or for
Word Nerds Unite: Words I Love Read More »
