I thought I’d be able to post here more frequently but I couldn’t get on-line very often. Bali is spectacularly beautiful! I started my month-long trip in Sanur, a quiet beach town, far from the wilder Kuta/Seminyak area. I thought part of my novel should be set there — and once I spent five days there I was fairly sure I had found the right place. Somehow I had discovered the perfect hotel on-line — it’s an old boutique hotel, about 40 rooms built into balinese cottages, right on the beach. $70 a night. I’ll try to attach photos later. The restaurant overlooked the beach and I spent a good amount of time sitting there, taking notes, settling into Bali. Along the beach there’s a stone path that runs for miles – it’s a lovely way to see the area. On the other side of the hotel, there’s a road with lots of shops — nothing fancy but all interesting. I found a yoga studio where I took a daily class. (One was called Japanese yoga, which I thought would be really interesting — oops. Turns out it was yoga taught in Japanese!) The other classes were taught by Balinese instructors — much more focus on the spiritual practice, meditation, energy. Interesting!

I had made one contact in Sanur before I arrived — a friend of a writer friend who lives there — and she was wonderfully helpful. She introduced me to a couple of Balinese people to “interview” for the novel — and we visited her Balinese doctor so I could ask questions about the hospitals and clinics after the 2002 bombings. (all for the novel)

I took tons of notes — the characters in my novel seemed very perky and talkative while I was there, checking out their surroundings. Can’t wait to dive back into the writing again soon.

Also had fabulous $20 ninety minute massages, great meals, lovely swims in the sea. This is work?!!

Then yesterday I got sick. Couldn’t sleep the night before. Neal had been very sick when I left California a week ago, but I thought I had passed the point that I might still catch it. No such luck. Within a day, I was feverish and coughing terribly. Bad timing, too — switched hotels to a different area and this time the hotel was awful. I changed my reservation to one night and spent one day sick in bed. Just woke up, feeling better, and will head to a different place that promises to be better.

I’ll post again soon and try to add pics.

I leave on Monday to spend a month in Bali. I’ve written 100 pages of my Bali novel (still untitled) and I need to immerse myself in Balinese life. I plan to talk to Balinese people and ex-pats to find out as much as I can about life in Bali in 2002 and now. And I’ll take in all the sights, smells, sounds of the island. I’m still a little amazed that I’m doing this — I love travel, I love writing — and now I get to spend a month in Bali for “work.”

So I’m hoping to blog while I’m there. Maybe daily, maybe not — I suppose it depends on how my daily life shapes up. I’ll be traveling a bit, and then staying in one guesthouse for two weeks mid-month. All of the inns have wifi, so I’ll stay connected during the month.

Next blog entry: Bali!