Ulundanu Beratan Tabanan - Jatiluwih Tabanan (Bedugul)

i'm stuck in bali (not the worst place in the world to be stuck) waiting for an extension to my visa.  they don't tell you before you come to indonesia but if you stay for over a month you have to find a trusting place to hand over your passport and take a two hour motorbike ride across the island you are on to an immigration office.  it's cool.  chance has placed me in the company of some friends i've made through various places already in my trip; coincidence is really nice when in your favor.

we hired a taxi bus to take us around the northern half of the island through some old temples and rice and coffee plantations.  the scenery is cool but the company i'm in is the nicest treat. 

it's good to be here, off in the world, the place of wonder to those back home.  it's big and beautiful here on this planet and somehow i've been given the chance to walk around on it for a little while.  it's a strange time to be alive when we can dance at our bullshit jobs for a few months, just long enough to buy a ticket on a plane to nowhere.  i like it.  i like being off the record, a dream in between dreams. 

 

i'm looking off into this great sea wondering what is next to come.  a few weeks ago i got to swim with the manta rays, something i never dreamed i would do.  i didn't have a camera, only a pair of eyeballs and an impish childlike smile.  because of my lack of underwater camera i've decided to shamelessly steal a few photos of manta rays from komodo just to give an idea.  however i must say that the photos in my mind's eye are much more playful and vivid.