With a lot of empathy, I watched hundreds of small mackerels struggling to breathe after being caught in a net and hauled onto shore at this fishing village. I too, have been struggling for the next breath. It was the familiar bronchial infection I get every couple years. The last time we were in Bali, the flight here got me in the same condition. Charlotte found a Z-pack of azithromycin and it appears to be bringing my breathing back. If you are struggling for a breath, it really doesn’t matter whether you are in a prison or a palace, a dump or a garden – that all quickly becomes irrelevant.

(clip from Princess Bride – If you don’t have your health you don’t have anything)

We had quite a food tour in Singapore – I’ll put that story on a separate menu tab.

We arrived in Bali nearly three days ago now. We were careful to follow advise and purchase a visa just before going through immigration. A 30-day visa here is free and automatic, you just show your passport. But that visa is not extendable. The paid one ($35 each) lets you apply for an additional 30 days – which we will need in order to organize the retirement visa.

A smiling fellow named, Made, picked us up and brought us all the way to the north end of the island to the small 5-unit guesthouse he manages with his pregnant wife, Ni Kodek. And this has been where we have been as I have been trying to get my health back, as well as catch up on tax work that I fell behind on while traveling.

We feel grateful that we are on a quiet part of the island right now. It has helped us recover.

Today we are going out to the oldest Hindu temple on the island. It is in three sections. The top section requires a climb of 1,700 stairsteps. That seems like a lot. Talk about a stairway to heaven!

We are on our last day here so today we must organize where to go next. Several considerations: 1) Fairly close to where we must do the three trips to immigration to get the visa extension. 2) Fairly close to the agent we pick to help us with the retirement visa. 3) Walkable distance to restaurants and a good range of services. 4) Not too far from a clean, non-rocky beach. 5) Affordable. 6) Reasonably quiet. 7) Aesthetically pleasing.

A difficult task when the internet is down – like it is now.

One cultural quality that attracted us to Bali is how spirituality and daily life are intertwined. The common greeting of putting the hands together, bowing and sometimes saying ‘namaste’ is one expression. Another is the offerings that are put out in front of every business every morning and sometimes in the evening also. We’ll post a video Charlotte made of Ni Kodak putting out offerings the other morning.

Watching Made drive through the chaos on the roads here was another lesson. No exasperation. Totally even tempered, even when there were events every few seconds that would have a New York cabbie screaming!

There is another lesson about trust that is working its way through us. With all the scams and rip-offs and crime that has been a part of our environment our entire lives, we are now in a place that seems to be more trusting. But our internal skeptical, cautious, fearful habits do not fade away easily. Oh, it would be so wonderful – like floating in a warm bath – to not worry about being taken advantage of. We’ll see how this one plays out.