My loner life. A travel blog.

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

I keep my used passports - I like to flick through them every now and again.

Returning to Asia on a trip I wasn’t sure I wanted to take, I thought I’d keep a journal on CEO to help distract me from frequenting too many bars and other wayward adventures one should now be immune to at such an age. You can expect this blog to contain the finest examples of poor creative writing, very amateur photography, insipid filmmaking, and other half-arsed attempts at documenting an Asian journey.

You're welcome.

[Alex]

I misread amateur photography as amateur pornography, which might be something worth considering if you get bored.

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

I misread amateur photography as amateur pornography, which might be something worth considering if you get bored.

Writing and maintaining this blog was an attempt at avoiding idle hands, Alex.

[Yobbo]

A lot of people can't be alone.
It takes a certain strength to be a loner.
I also took this path when I realized that I was simply a trophy boy.
A possession to be polished, admired & gazed upon.
An alloy of complexity, eventually the shinning glimmer was tarnished.
And now, I too, am a loner......by choice!

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

The waters of Gilli Meno. Mid nineteen eighties.Image:KFH


Kuta is trashier than a car load of Kardashians attending a landfill party, and has been since the nineteen eighties.

But as inelegant as Kuta might be, history demands I start my trip there and spend at least one night wandering the streets to see how much deeper the place has fallen into the cultural abyss - and also to tell anyone who’ll listen how much better the Kuta I knew was forty years ago….maan. This 2022 Southeast Asian trip will begin in one of the world’s most nauseating, cretinous tourist ghettos there is and I wouldn’t have it any other way really. A trip to Bali is a rite of passage for many Australians and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't disgraced myself along with the best of them over the years with, believe it or not, more than a few good memories held in the grey matter of those youthful wayward days.


Accommodation on Komodo Island in the early nineteen nineties.Image:KFH

You can object to a lot of things about Bali, but it’s hard to complain about the proximity of Ngurah Rai airport to the mayhem of it all. My arrival into Indonesia should be as painless as a two dollar foot massage, and in the time it would take to drop an Indonesian whore’s draws or whip up a quick nasi campur, I’ll have walked out of the airport car park, ambled a short distance down a road, ducked through a small alley, and checked into my $8 a night guesthouse in no time at all. If the eight dollar room booked in Tuban is any example of what’s going around at the minute for accommodation this parsimonious itinerant will be well happy, with hopes of maintaining his tight-fisted ways over the forthcoming months.


Reef wanderers on Rote Island, Timor. Mid nineties.Image;KFH

Where I’d originally planned on returning to India to circumnavigate the sub continental home of the world’s largest democracy, I’ve now decided the Indian confusion isn’t what these old bones can be bothered enduring after Bali. This journey will be a much gentler affair restricted to the pancake trail of Southeast Asia and be damned the protesting howls of armchair explorers wanting to see an old man suffer the indignities of trying to relive the vigor of lost youth or demanding he find the patience for it all in that crazy place.

So, the first month away will see a leisurely dawdle across Bali from Kuta to Ubud then on to Padang Bai. From there it will be the slow ferry to Lembar, Lombok, with a saunter up the island's west coast before settling in on Gilli Meno for the remaining duration of Indonesia's thirty day visa on arrival. After exiting Indonesia it's on to Bangkok,Thailand, for a month of street photography....or not. I've got the feeling this is going to be a winging-it-seat-of-your-pants kind of trip - which should begin on the 29th of July.

[phuketrichard]

Did Bali by motorcycle in 2017, my first visit back sine 2001>
Zero plans to ever return> The Chinese had overtaken the aussies as number 1 tourism arrivals although i bet now its nice sans tourists.

Best places i found were: Lake Batur an staying down by the lake, Besakih, Bedugul, Amed & Candi Dasa

Enjoy

[ExPenhMan]

Love it, @Kung-fu Hillbilly. Think you've got your finger on the declining appeal of SEA. Follow the trash, at the risk of pre-judging the outcome.

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

Love it, @Kung-fu Hillbilly. Think you've got your finger on the declining appeal of SEA. Follow the trash, at the risk of pre-judging the outcome.

Southeast Asia has certainly been trashed in many ways, PenhMan, but it's a known quantity with still a lot to offer. I suspect to a degree there's a bit of an "old habits die hard' attitude involved with a lot of our choices when we travel. Yes, you could strike out to find new ground in the hope of discovering other places that suit your ways, but sometimes the effort's too great, especially as you get older, I think. For all its trashiness, both figurative and literal, I don't usually go too far beyond its borders as it has all I need even if it's not as exotic as it once was.

[ExPenhMan]

Love it, @Kung-fu Hillbilly. Think you've got your finger on the declining appeal of SEA. Follow the trash, at the risk of pre-judging the outcome.

Southeast Asia has certainly been trashed in many ways, PenhMan, but it's a known quantity with still a lot to offer. I suspect to a degree there's a bit of an "old habits die hard' attitude involved with a lot of our choices when we travel. Yes, you could strike out to find new ground in the hope of discovering other places that suit your ways, but sometimes the effort's too great, especially as you get older, I think. For all its trashiness, both figurative and literal, I don't usually go too far beyond its borders as it has all I need even if it's not as exotic as it once was.

Well said. Although I would be less complimentary to myself. Chasing alternatives has been like knocking my head against a wall and hoping for different outcomes over time. I've now come to a similar conclusion. After consuming dozens of videos on Bali, Ecuador, Mexico et al the past year, the benefits and disadvantages are much the same. Might as well stay here where I know things and good people. And yes, age is a definite factor in the discouragement of further adventurism. In conclusion, I still like South East Asia.

[atst]

Be interesting to know if after a month you'll be dreaming of the comforts of home. Nice travel report I like your descriptions of things.