Massage around the temples...'Another Day' in Paradise.

Today is our last full day in Bali, tomorrow we fly to Kuala Lumpur for an overnight before the big flight to Tokyo. Liza and I are both filled with many, often conflicting, emotions at this time. We are both happy, and in some ways a little sad. In my language we have a word for this feeling, the word is: 'happy/sad'. Not really, in fact that is one of the more confounding things about the English language, none of those great 'one word sums it up' kinds of words except maybe 'giardia' but who wants to really use that word, and who would really wish to have such a thing, but I digress. We are happy and excited to be heading on to the 'BIG FINISH' which is Tokyo and some of the rest of Japan. I, in particular, have long been enthused about going to the land of the rising sun and the dwindling yen. And of course the fact that the US dollar now nets about 121.44 or something and maybe we'll feel a little less of the huge economic bite that I'm sure awaits us as we head into the expensive expanses of Tokyo. We have booked a hotel there, a generic Hyatt (Brand name recognition) in the shopping district for maximum culture shock. Having been to Kuala Lumpur, remember the Twin Towers?, and Singapore I wonder if we'll be 'sorta' ready for the urban chaos and neon blasts of the metropolis that inspired Blade Runner's futuristic cityscape. Which brings us back to 'happy/sad'. It's funny for a guy like me, Paul Myers 40 from Toronto, Canada actually, to be saying this but we are sad that we are leaving Bali. Particularly Ubud, the cultural mecca and home of some of the most inpiring natural junglescapes I've ever had the privilege of witnessing. We'd spent over a week here before going to Lovina for strange but strangely relaxing week, then we came back to Ubud for the 'good noises' here. The constant clatter of the gamelans, the endless bamming and booing of the bamboo marimbas, even the endless touting of the touts 'You need transport? Maybe tomorrow? Rilly Chipp!' are easily digested here as is the food, which I can't say the same about Lovina the unofficial capital of MSG cuisine. But here in Ubud, and it's okay to hate me for saying it, but we've been treated to paradise on earth. I mean, even I hate myself when I think about the days of just sitting on the outdoor daybed adjacent to our bungalow doing the crosswords of the Jakarta Post (easy) and the International Herald Tribune (difficult..it's actually the NY Times syndicate) The food at great 'western friendly' restaurants like Casa Luna (see Liza's trip journal for more about that) and our other stalwarts Bali Buddha, Cafe Wayan, Cafe Lotus, Casa Luna again, Indus (where the owners and the menu are the same as Casa Luna) and finally, the mildly pretentious bistro, Terazo where, last weekend, we spotted none other than Brooke Shields (far from L.A. but not so far from the Blue Lagoon, as it turns out) with her husband at a table with 'Suddenly Susan' co-star Kathy Griffin. These restaurants are all so good that I'll remember them fondly each time I attempt to jog , ride and diet off the countless heavenly calories upon my return to whatever life I return to.

I have been lucky enough to have many excellent massages here. All of them strictly professional and many of them for around 4 dollars US. There is a pleasant old lady, yeah I know I should get her name but it's so easy to forget to get one, who had been coming around to the aforementioned daybed outside our bungalow at Puri Saraswati (good place to stay)and for around 40,000 RP (close to four dollars) she has been giving me a 50 minute oil massage. She is a little old lady with friendly, if not ragged and calloused, hands. She is also vaguely toothless and when she solicits me for a massage, the combination of her broken English and gumminess gives me the impression that she is saying 'Math-ov?' 'You like Math-Ov?', and then she holds up four fingers to indicate she'll come back at four in the afternoon. Big smiles, no teeth, but big smiles. She is lovely and beams friendliness and tenderness, albeit in a sort of Indonesian Aunt Jemima-n kind of way. Can I say Aunt Jemiman without people thinking the worst of me, I mean no harm. Uncle Ben, though, THAT would be different. But I digress.

As it is our last week here, we decided that yesterday would be the day when we went for A REAL TOURISTY SPA DAY. That means paying the big bucks to be pampered in landscaped surroundings by 'professionals' in white outfits, with big thirsty terrycloth towels and fragrant oils, whirlpool baths, tropical vistas, natural hot springs and the proverbial whole nine yards. Liza had the massage where they rub yogurt into your skin, then rinse it off as you step into a rose petal bath. You know that one? I had the one where they rub tamarind or something into your flesh and then put a muddy mix of cinnamon, tumeric and oh lets say Cardamom over you for thirty minutes, then you rinse off and they moisturize you with saffron or was it linseed oil. All I know is that I came out feeling like a million bucks, but smelling like someone broke a freshly oiled,fully stocked, spice rack over my head. Ah the good life. That'll be 85 USD. More than three nights in our bungalow. But it's part of the vibe we are in here in Ubud. And after all we need treats don't we, come on, we're 'Happy/Sad' aren't we? We never thought we'd spend so long in Bali, but such as it is here we are. Some of my musical highlights follow. First in the category of non-gamelan, I was really digging the Best Of Blur on the way up to Lovina on the bus. Listening to their cor blimey cockneypop in mini headphones as we drove higher and higher into the rain soaked jungle mountains was a memory that I'll always, erm, remember. And the Coldplay album, which has been my sugar rush cassette for a few weeks now, was working it's magic then as well. And then on the ride back to Ubud from Lovina, we hired a driver, and once more there was an unexpected 'moment' of musical inspiration. The driver, it transpired, had only two tapes (well he OFFERED two tapes, I presume that he had some Indonesian pop or trad tunes but that he didn't dare offer them, one was Bob Marley's Greatest Hits (no pun intended I'm sure but I'm sure Bob took a few 'hits' in his day) and one labelled 'Marvin Gaye and Others', clearly handwritten by a tourist/traveller like myself who had either lost the tape or made it for our driver. Now, you know, I love Bob Marley. Really, I was just saying this to Liza the other day, I think that that 'Legend' compilation that Island put out a few years ago is really a classic 'Best Of' collection. But how much of a good thing can I and I take? Bob Marley is so heavily co-opted as some sort of branded icon of youth misadventure (read:'Cannibis ingestion') And the flag of Jamaica, or at least that version of the flag of Jamaica that features a two tone litho imagae of Rasta Bob in the centre like some sort of Jamaican Col. Sanders, advertising that pot heads, dutch people and surfers are welcome to partake of their rasta-fare amid the distortion of broken bass bins booming out 'No Woman No Cry' and 'Get Up Stand Up' (again no irony intended I would think, but many of the kids in these places look like a) they just 'got up' and b) they couldn't 'stand up' to save their lives.) So Bob was out for now. And besides I was intrigued by the B side of the Marvin Gaye tape. It was a compilation of R&B with some old faves and lost old friends, like 'Funky Nassau' which has some of the best anachronistic lyrics that I've heard in a while. I quote:

'Mini Skirts, Maxi Skirts

Afro hair-do's

People doin' their own thing

They don't care about me or you

Nassau's got sunshine, and this we all know (??)

But we've got a dog-gone beat now, we gonna take care of business too.

Nassau rock and Nassau roll

Nassau's got a whole lot of soul...

Funky Nassau, Funky Nassau...'

This was some kind of tape, man. It starts with the predictable, and as advertised, Marvin Gaye, (or as our driver pronounced it 'Mabin giya', a fact which meant that I didn't know what was on the tape he was holding until I read it myself.)And all the hits you'd expect, 'What's Goin' On?', 'Heard It Through The Grapevine' 'Let's Get It On' even 'Sexual Healing' sounded good in context, I seem to recall it seemed 'cheezy' when it came out. There was no 'Mercy Mercy Me' but it was okay because next up was The Main Ingredient and 'Smiling Faces' with the great lyric 'A smile is just a frown turned upside down' The tape progressed into, I couldn't believe how well sequenced it was, 'Freddie's Dead' by Curtis Mayfield, 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone' by The Temptations and 'The Backstabbers' by The O'Jays. Then James Brown and the inimitable 'Payback', I always smile when I think of James Brown's asides and ad libs. In one song, I cant recall which right now, he says 'You know Karate, but I know Kar-azy!' and I always felt strangely moved when he sings, in 'Papa Didn't Take No Mess' that his 'Papa' presumably not the same Papa with the brand new bag in the other song, 'beat the HELL out of us!' That explains a lot doesnt it? Now all the while, on this car ride, as these great R&B grooves are filling the little car, we've been passing little towns, waterfalls, temples,little towns, people on bicycles, people on motorbikes, rice paddies, little towns, temples,people with stuff balanced on their heads, rice paddies, men dressed in traditional clothes, temples, town, buses, people on motorcycles, rice paddies, and people on the side of the rice paddies on bikes with stuff on balanced on their heads. All the more strange for the juxtaposition of familiar oldies but goodies. Then came the Earth Wind and Fire, but it was all the wrong tunes. 'Let's Groove' which always sounded a little too eager, but not 'Shining Star'. 'Getaway' ('getaway/leave today/getaway/yeah,yeah, yeah) but no 'That's The Way Of The World' or 'Sing A Song'. Anyway, like I said, it made for an odd 'picture does not match soundtrack' juxtaposition that was not unlike the 'Satisfaction' surfing scene in Apocalypse Now!.

Then we were back in Ubud.

Continuing on this musical thread, for each day that we've been here in Ubud, I have been going into Ubud Cassette Shop on the main road. Each day, I ask or check to see if they have any cassettes of music that I've been keen to hear in my Walkman. But mainly it's been to ask if they have White Ladder by David Gray. They do not. I really liked the song 'Babylon' last year in San Francisco, and when I went to New York in November we were lucky enough to see David Gray at SNL performing that song. Then I keep seeing stuff about him in magazines, and everytime we get some music programs like the odd Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien show on CNBC Asia or the World Music show on CNN World, it seems that old David Gray is the featured musical guest. So I've seen enough to be curious. Back before I bought the Walkman, we were in Singapore and I saw the darn thing everywhere. I also saw another elusive new release, One Nil by Neil Finn (formerly of Crowded House) For many reasons, I did not pick up either of them. Then when I finally had a walkman and a beach to listen to them at, the local store keepers do not seem to know who David Gray is. Almost uniformly they direct me to the new CD by Craig David, 'Born To Do It'. David Gray. Craig David. Why not? But it's like asking for the Beach Boys and being shown to the Beastie Boys (I happen to like both of them but what are the odds of that?) Anyway, it is now a joke between Liza and I.

'I went to the store and asked for the David Gray tape'

'Oh yeah, did they have it?

'No, they had Craig David though'

'Oh. Did you get any bottled water.'

'Yes'

We've had DAYS of this conversation.

Today, I even resorted to buying a double cassette of Paul McCartney and Wings greatest hits, 'Wingspan' and I'm actually quite excited about it. I was amazed to find myself crying during 'Another Day' when I listened to the tape this morning.

Or maybe I'm just amazed that I get to have another day in paradise.

Or maybe I'm just amazed that I haven't found the David Gray tape yet.

What a luxury. What a gift.

Tomorrow we head back into the urban world, albeit a Kuala Lumpurian version. Then it's off to the land of ricebunned Mosburgers and Para Para dancing. It's hard to believe it but it's all winding down. It's hard to stay 'in the moment' and these are some great moments in time. In our life.

It's all so 'Happy/Sad' and I wouldn't have missed a minute of it.