Hello! Hello! Hello dear readers and welcome back to the amorphous Yellow River Chronicles. Thanks for checking back!
Noooo, you are not shut of us yet. Our shadow will still darken your door and our faces will darken your towels, ye that harbor us.
We have returned triumphant from adventures in faire Bali and the United States. Your hardworking Yellow River Staff are now sipping tea high above Changshu Lu as the fireworks begin to crackle in the lanes in celebration of the Year of the Snake in the People's Republic. We will cover the adventures of Chinese New Year in an upcoming opus, but this week we delve into the mysterious and entirely charming island of Bali, in Indonesia.
While we were actually lured there to attend an absolutely spectacular wedding, we were startled to learn that the YRC had stumbled into a hotbed of popular culture.
It seems that, for part of our journey, we were following in the footsteps of Elizabeth Gilbert, the narrator of the hugely popular "Eat, Pray and Love". In case you missed it, this is the short summary of the novel from Wikipedia:
At 32 years old, Elizabeth Gilbert was educated, had a home, a husband, and a successful career as a writer. However, she was unhappy in her marriage and often spent the night sleeping on her bathroom floor. After separating from her husband and initiating a divorce, which he contested, she embarked on a rebound relationship which continued for some time but did not work out, leaving her devastated and alone.
Afterwards, while writing an article on yoga vacations in Bali, Gilbert met a ninth-generation medicine man who told her she would one day come back and study with him. After finalizing her difficult divorce, Gilbert spent the next year traveling around the world. The trip was paid for in advance with a book deal from the publisher.[6]
She spent four months in Italy, eating and enjoying life ("Eat"). She spent three months in India, finding her spirituality ("Pray").[7] She ended the year in Bali, Indonesia, looking for "balance" of the two and found love ("Love") in the form of a Brazilian businessman.[8]
The YRC Has Another Idea for E-Liz-A-Beth. The YRC proposal would be that the silly bitch should have skipped Italy and India and instead made a beeeee-line for Bali to eat, pray, surf, and love in faire Bali. Here's our logic, dear readers.
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| YRC Senior Food Editor at work |
Eat. Bali has wonderful, eclectic native food, a complete set of five-star dining venues, and of course, the most important food in the world, tacos.
We at the YRC staff have dined in Mexican restaurants in Thailand (full of Russians) and many other parts of the world, but
none can compete with the epic tacos in Ubud at the Taco Casa Bali.
So, E-Liz-A-Beth, leave that poser
pasta romano behind and get some real food in Bali. For example, ribs! Yes, epic ribs! And nitrogen cooled martinis in a little street warung called Naughty Nuri's. Highly rated by all, here are the reviews from The New York Times and Frommers:
The Reviews!
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| Naughty Nuri's interior, courtesy of Naughty Nuri's |
Pray. From Wikipedia:
When Islam surpassed Hinduism in Java (16th century), Bali became a refuge for many Hindus. Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshiped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practiced in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods".[51]
From the simple offerings of fruit, food and incense on the beach to the thousands of temples, Bali is a total spiritual smack down on India, E-Liz-A-Beth. Yes, the Beatles went to India with the Maharishi but that is so
past life, E-Liz-A-Beth! The spiritual epicenter for seekers like yourself is Bali! And, you can surf in Bali!
Surf. Right and left break. Off the hook gnar. Mellow beachbreaks. Intense reefbreaks. Frosty Bintang beers waiting on the beach. Over 50 world-class surf beaches on one island. And, finally, you can't SURF in Rome, E-Liz-A-Beth. Need we say more?
This from
Surfline:
From a surfer's standpoint, Indonesia is a paradise. Thousands of miles of island coastline receive consistent, powerful, swells from the huge storms of the Southern Indian Ocean. With no major landmass to block or alter these swells, they arrive to the reefs and shores of Indonesia as well groomed, orderly, long lines. The best waves on earth. By the mid 70's stories of idyllic beachbreaks and long, barreling, reefbreaks on the island of Bali were beginning to appear in surf magazines, and the classic 70's surf film "The Morning of the Earth" brought the Indonesia surf experience back to wide eyed surfers in communities all over the world. Indonesia became a hallowed surf destination.
SURF SPOTS in bali
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| The outdoor bath at Hotel Tugu, Bali. Nobody sleeps on the floor in this bathroom. No, sir. |
Love. Last, not least, and definitely as much fun as surfing. You may or may not have read or liked the book "Eat, Pray, Love". But we at the YRC agree that Bali is an extremely romantic place. The people are friendly and exotic. The air smells good. Spices are everywhere and there is a rich, sensuous atmosphere. And the coffee is spectacular. Back to our somewhat ham-fisted compare and contrast approach: E-Liz-A-Beth went to the right place for loooovvvveeeee.
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| Rice paddies, Bali style. |
To wrap this up, if interested, here a link to the Wikipedia article with some good reviews:
Eat Pray Love Reviews
Management Discussion and Analysis:
It would be an understatement to say the book got "mixed reviews". We here at the YRC reserve judgement as a matter of professional courtesy to a fellow travel writer. You may have slept through the movie. You may have a federal tax return that you found more interesting. The book may be the epicenter of your literary and personal life. The YRC supports and applauds diversity of opinion and we thank you for you kind attention in this matter. And, we'll see you next week!
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"So what" you murmur as you rattle the ice cubes in your second morning cocktail, YRC style. 
