February 22nd, 2016

Read an article about the recent cold snap here in Taiwan and how the local 7-11's had a 'problem' with homeless people camping out in their food eating areas overnight.  To me, it is a sign of how great societies are able to take care of their less fortunate in ways that are unexpected and wonderful.  On the flip side, I am convinced that the majority of the population thinks little about their next move as they seem to freeze at an intersection (or doorways/escalators) while they decide what they are going to do next. 

The kids had to tell me how to do something basic on the computer the other day, and Carolyn dismissively told me that I am not as bad on them as Grandma (89 years young), but am close.  Youth is wasted on the young.

And as I write this, am watching the results from the Nevada caucus/South Carolina primary roll in.  Am working on a theory that equates being a Bernie Sanders supporter and enjoying reggae music.  Goes like this...Socialism/reggae music both seem like they are the answers to all the ills of society, but as one gets older, one realizes that they are both admirable visions of what society/music should be, but their limitations in practice are obvious.  Once again, youth is wasted...  As of February 21st, it seems clear that the only rational choice for our next Prez is HRC.  By far the most accomplished of all the candidates, she is the only one I can see that will bring a measured tone to the office.   She has made some questionable decisions, and who hasn't, but she owns up to them.  Can't stand those that say she is a crook or whatever, but really have no solid evidence other than they don't like her to back it up.  She sat in that hearing on Benghazi for 11 hours and those effers couldn't pin a single thing on her.  I am a bit leery of her being too militaristic, but her record shows that while she isn't afraid to use force, at least it is with the humanitarian intentions and she is decidedly not in the Neocon school of thought.  While I love Bernie, he skews too far to the left and his goals are simply not realistic in this political climate and the extent he wants to redistribute the wealth is too idealistic and human nature is rife with those that would manipulate it to their own gain.  Most importantly, the country cannot afford anyone from the GOP to select Supreme Court justices for the next 4/8 years.  I had him tagged last October as the Repub nominee, but Marquito is proving to be too immature to hold the office.  While I passionately disagree with 80% of what Trump has to say, that figure goes to a full 100% with the awful human Ted Cruz.  My skin crawls with the thought of him.  Seems like it is gonna be Clinton v Trump, and those debates are going to be legendary, but how could the country possibly vote Trump.  All in for Hillary, and please let me know if you aren't and we'll talk.

Went to Lombok for the Chinese New Year break.  Lombok is an island in Indonesia that is right next to Bali.  You can see that island and its volcano to the west, which makes for some nice sunset framing.  An interesting (to me anyway, couldn't find anyone else that knew about it or cared when I explained it) is that the sea between Lombok and Bali is a faunal boundary between Indomalaysia and Australasia called the Wallace Line.  The only reaction we got was a description of the Taru Manyan tree in Bali (which is not found on Lombok).  People do not bury or cremate their dead where this tree grows, but lay the bodies on this tree to decompose as the tree masks the smell of the decomposing bodies.  Freaky shit.

Don't have a ton to say about the trip as it was a beach vacation, so not a lot of deep dives into history and culture, but do have some takeaways.  The first thing is to implore you to buy stuff from local vendors.

Have always been uncomfortable with haggling with the poor folks selling their crafts, especially when you are trying to get the price down from low to lower.  A dollar means so much to these people.  Just buy some crap please?  I like temporary jewelry, like a bracelet or necklace that'll last a couple of months and disappear.  I bought a couple from a dude on the beach one day and it was slow, so we sat for an hour or so and he told me about life.  He can't get a job at the hotels cause he doesn't have a high school diploma and that he scrapes money selling whatever in order to pay for his daughter's school.  He doesn't want to have to turn to stealing like so many others do.  We talked about Islam and how most people in Indonesia are Muslims (85% and has the largest Muslim population in the world) and how he will never go back to Bali as his grandmother was killed in the 2005 bombings there.  What I found funniest though was how he came to marry his wife.  We were talking about kids after he saw Babydoll and asked why I am so white and she is so Chinese and told him she was adopted.  I explained that back in those days, the one child policy in China made girls less desirable as boys are many families 401K policies as they move into their parents houses with their new wives and take care of them in old age.  He said it's just the opposite in Indonesia as paying a dowry is common practice.  I asked if he paid one and he said yes.  Seems  the potential husband is to negotiate with the father-in-law and that his wanted 5 million rupiahs (about US$200).  He countered with an offer of 500,000 saying that the bride to be couldn't read or cook.  They settled on 2 million.  We heard several times that men "kidnap" their brides, which is really them just eloping without paying these dowrys.

We stayed at a hotel called Sudamala, which is in a town on the west coast called Senggigi.  Our room came with a decent sized private pool, which was awesome and the kids liked it so much, they barely left the room.  Think Carolyn came to the big pool once as we were ordering afternoon French fries.  Have to admire the hotel (and really, all the places we visited, with their choice of music.  Our hotel played a set of Django Reinhardt (search him out) by the pool in the mornings, and all of the music played about town was tasteful and appropriate for the settings.  Didn't hear the bullshit techno stuff at high volumes anywhere. 

 Beach was quiet and the waters calm.  It was the rainy season at this time, so sunsets got rained out most afternoons, although we did catch a couple of beauties.

 We had dinner at the place one night on that deck.  Food was OK and that night they had the staff talent show.  4 of the lady housekeeping staff did a couple of hip hop dance numbers (one with the line 'she can sit on my lap, but I'm not Santa'), and a couple of the dudes did a Stick Fighting demo.  Not as violent as this, but we got the gist.  Later, a quartet of fellas came table side to play music.  I freaking cannot stand table side music.  As they were working their way around the tables, kept telling the family to not make eye contact, but was unsuccessful as we got a trio of songs from them.  I feel so trapped, and hate faking appreciation and interest in anything, but especially music.  To be fair, these guys were good, but still.

 There was a disagreement one afternoon as to who got what seat in the outdoor patio.  The Boy felt I took Babydolls side in the dispute, which is possible, but only after he was irrational and uncooperative.  And his reaction below to me documenting the altercation is unacceptable. 

Our first morning there happened to coincide with Super Bowl Sunday.  Luckily, the places WiFi had enough power for us to watch without interruption.

Was quite happy with the outcome as I like Chicken Parm the food and had been hoping that someone took down the Human Selfie Stick.  Was hearing a lot of chatter about how people that didn't like Cam's "celebrating" were racist.  I hate that look at me, in your face showboating crap coming from anybody.  Fall solidly into the 'act like you've been there before' camp.  Soccer players are some of the worst and the worst of those are typically pasty white Europeans.  I have no problem with celebrating a momentous play...do it, then get with your teammates as I am sure they deserve some of the credit too.  I think Cam looks for a camera to celebrate every solid BM.  I do that too, but am not alerting the media about it (more on that later).   Where I see this manifest itself most negatively is watching kids sports and these dumb ass boys will replicate what they see the stars do.  So icky and bad sportsmanship.  Karma dictates you are gonna get it in the end and sure enough, that play when he might have saved the game by diving for the ball but jumped away will live in highlight reels of him forever.  The postgame sulkathon (from Superman to the Incredible Sulk) was just another example that proved me correct.

Really liked the Mexican Avocado commercial (great comedic use of the legendary Scott Baio) and Baby Puppy Monkey.  Bruno Mars is a great performer and Beyoncé was the halftime show...how could they possibly have promoted it as being Coldplay?  They are fine I suppose, but Brits at SB50?   Must have put them on the bill to keep women that have no interest in sports happy.

 

We did go on a couple of outings...chose the further away but less travelled Gili Nangu (Gili's are small islands)snorkeling day and were not disappointed.  Decent fish and few people.

 

They are ingenious here as they take a plastic water bottle, fill it with read and cut a small hole in the cap so you can slowly feed the fish.  They are wise to the game as they follow the bottles around like a fat kid follows a tray of cupcakes.

See lots of mosques driving around and this was the prettiest

And while the women are mostly Muslim, wearing of the headscarf felt optional.

Rice paddies everywhere.  As it was rainy season, they were lush and mesmerizing.

Reading about the place in advance, was concerned about the tip as many reviewers complained about there being piles of trash everywhere, and while there were some, didn't get the vibe that it was a massive issue.  Another thing we noticed driving around was that at all of the roadside shacks that sell snacks and drinks, there is a shelf that had water bottles refilled with this yellow liquid.  Was told that it was gasoline for the scooters.   And we saw some areas that looked dead and learned that a few years ago there was a rash of gold mining, but the miners would use mercury to extract the gold which poisons the land and that the government was rabidly putting an end to that.   

 

Another day we did a day trip to the south coast of the island.  Had high expectations as the info on it said there were sparsely populated beaches with excellent surf.  We were not disappointed. 

As Lombok (and Bali) are only 3.5 hours from Perth, the place is crawling with Aussies and we saw many young ones tooling around on scooters with sidecars for their surf boards. 

Our last stop was this gorgeous beach with no one on it.  Maybe it was due to the storm was moving in, but we floated around for a while before it did.  We felt lucky to have visited here as it cannot remain so desolate for long.  They opened a new international airport nearby a couple of years ago and saw a sign on this beach that Club Med was coming soon.

Wish I could say the food was great.  OK, a couple of good things and maybe we missed the sublime.  Always love a local knock-off brand however.

The best thing I had was the meatball soup from the dude on the scooter cart at the aforementioned deserted beach.  We argued later about the type of meat used and whether it had any at all.

The driver and I got ours spicy.  He started to sweat and said it made his tonsils hurt.  Not bragging, but I have a tolerance to spicy that is world class. 

Sadly, I chose the place for dinner the last night poorly and I ended up with a searing stomach pain and accompanying explosive diarrhea for the 12 hour trip home.   Was so happy three days later that I declared at the breakfast table that I finally had a solid BM.  The kids gave me the 'what are you talking about old man' face and had to explain what that was.

 

Good times in Lombok

And have a prosperous Baby Puppy Monkey New Year