We could live there. Adapt, eventually. Find our places, our people, a favorite stretch of beach, good coffee and reasonable access to the internet. If only we were very careful in selecting pieces of reality we like, and pass over all the rest. Bali today is not a paradise, it’s just too inconsistent. But it does have the makings of one.
A bike lane. Not something I expected to see in a city where most streets have no sidewalks, yet there it was. Painted on the side of a road, lit by LED street lights and… casually driven over by cars. Bali is dipping its toes in modernity while still firmly rooted in ways of the old.
The jungle carries sounds of laughter, occasional screams of delight, and music; the voice of an excited, young speaker delivering a talk on environmental matters. We’re at Green School, nested in the middle of a thick bamboo forest, educating kids for a sustainable future, and possibly itself being the future of education.