Take a Virtual Vacation: Bali

My favorite part of getting ready for this trip (aside from picking up a very thick wad of brightly colored Balinese rupiah at the bank) has been saying “no.” For the past few weeks, I’ve been divesting myself of obligations and saying no to new work, new projects, new requests, and new ideas: “No, I’m

There is something very satisfying and freeing about all the last minute things that need to be done before a trip: Now all I have to do is go for one last visit with my mother and get a really, really short no-muss, no-fuss hair cut. And have dinner with my family—and then off to

Many of you are already familiar with my 85-year-old mother, Temme, who I moved out to California four years ago. She lives in Sunshine Villa, an assisted living facility about ten minutes from our house. Yesterday the last thing I did after all my errands and the final check of my bags was to go

When I got to the airport in San Francisco at 9:30 PM, ready to check in (and wait) for a 1:15 AM departure, I made my way up to the ticket counter and was immediately relieved that my bags were not overweight. The agent took my passport and my ticket but then she kept typing

When I woke up on Singapore Air Flight #001 out of a drugged sleep, it was 10 AM by my watch, but pitch black outside the window. After a very cramped night’s “sleep” (if you can call it that) in economy class (any semblance of sleep made possible with the help of two Valium, two

After an all night flight, I stumbled out of the cramped coach compartment at 11 AM local time into the shiny megacity that is Singapore’s Changi Airport. The size and scale of the place is staggering. Think of the biggest mall you’ve ever been in and inflate it ten times in size. This sprawling shopping

Today is my first full day in Australia. I arrived at 6:30 AM after a six-hour flight from Singapore, and my main agenda for today is staying awake until it gets dark. To that end, I’ve found it’s good to keep busy. Every time I stop my momentum, a wave of exhaustion sweeps over me.

Allison and I started the day at the local fish market and bought some of the largest most gorgeous prawns I’ve ever seen, some local glistening tuna, and something called a Moreton Bay Bug, which is kind of like a lobster, but it’s all tail and all meat. It’s a specialty of this area. We’re

Once again, I woke at 4:30 AM. Yesterday, I took an Ativan so I could go back to sleep and slept another five hours, until 9:30. This morning I decided I was done with drugs and that it was time to start following my body’s natural rhythms again. It was pitch black out; I was

After my walk to the beach, I came home to write. Allison and I were going on a bike ride and suddenly the weather report was for rain so it was, “Let’s go right this minute.” I closed my laptop, put on my Keens and met her in the garage. Kevin loaned me his very

Walking the beach this morning, the day was pure sunny and clear. Striding through the water at the edge of the ocean was completely comfortable temperature-wise—not chilly like Santa Cruz and not tropical like Hawaii. The cloud formations were once again amazing. Allison says she’s been walking here every day for four years and every

Today was a very, very, very long travel day. It was the day I said goodbye to Australia: We left the house at 5:45 AM. It took us two hours to drive to the Brisbane airport. We waited an hour to board, then an hour on the tarmac. The flight was 6.5 hours. We sat

My first morning in Bali, as I was awakening, the first thing I heard was the call to prayer at the local mosque. The sound in person is so different than the pale imitation I’ve heard on TV. The sound was riveting, haunting, compelling. It reached right inside me and touched a place that a

This afternoon while I was getting my massage I began to feel tired of being the pampered tourist. I don’t like being in the tourist bubble surrounded by local people waiting on me. It makes me feel too much like the ugly American. And although the luxury of our accommodations and the care taken at