The Dream Continues

(5/19/2002)

Although the contest is official over and the winner declared, we'll continue to share some of the interesting entries received in the Bali Dream Holiday Contest. This one from Colin Thomas cthomas@iinet.net.au, of Mundaring, Western Australia.

A Holiday in Bali? A Dream Holiday? Sounds Good to Me.

Four years of night school learning Indonesian, practicing with fellow Aussies - now I'm itching to 'bercakap-cakap' with the locals. I worry, though, about my accent, how the Balinese will react when I make mistakes. I've been told it's enough if I even try, that they will love me just for that.That sounds good to me.

I've dined at Indonesian restaurants in my home town - savoured aromatic beef rendang, cooked slowly in coconut milk and spices, and delectable black-rice pudding with sweet palm sugar and subtle, fragrant pandan. But next time it will be at a tiny village warung, sipping hot sweet tea from a glass, with suckling roast pig in a paper bag; al fresco on the beach at sunset; or by candle light, watching lava spit from a mountain-side. Fine dining for only 3 or 4 dollars? Sounds good to me.

I've been in training for this. My leg muscles now have muscles of their own, and I ache in places I shouldn't. My brain's had a workout too - I've studied everything I could find about Bali. Why? I want to go beyond the guidebooks: to see the waterfall at the end of a 2-hour trek, across rice terraces and narrow bamboo bridges, or the secluded black-sand beach hidden by a jungle of palms. Yeah, I know, lots of walking - but afterwards, a soothing Balinese massage, warm oils, frangipani flowers... ah! That sounds good to me.

I want to be a regular tourist, too: ride an elephant through dense jungle; play golf against a backdrop of clove trees and volcanoes; climb Mt Batur at dawn to see the sunri...oops, gotta go - they're calling my flight. And guess what?

That sounds really good to me.