By Vyt Karazija Breakfast complete, I lean back in my chair at the new cafe I’m trying out and puff contentedly on my cigarette. The couple at the next table glance at me disapprovingly, despite the fact that I’m sitting in an open area, well downwind from them. One of the pair wrinkles his nose [...]

By Vyt Karazija The rain is so heavy that there is almost no room between drops. What little space is there is saturated with a fine mist. My poncho flaps and drums in the deluge; my bike is teetering on the edge of stability in the atrocious conditions; and my rider-survival tactics have been ratcheted [...]

By Vyt Karazija Anyone who has visited Bali is struck by the number of ceremonies performed every day. From the thrice-daily canang sari – small baskets of rice, flowers and incense offered to the gods in gratitude for the richness of life to full-scale temple ceremonies, weddings and cremations. It is an inescapable part of [...]

By Vyt Karazija The heat is sapping at just past midday, and I’m finding it hard to focus on work. The pool beckons, and it’s a toss-up between a cooling dip and just drifting off for an early siesta. A waft of smoke blows into the villa, its mixed aromas of burning leaves, wood and [...]

By Vyt Karazija Bahasa Indonesia is not the only language that Bali visitors must learn – especially if you drive or ride on our roads. There is a separate, informal language for road users that, although it has no words or grammar, has its own peculiar syntax. It is more akin to the body language [...]

By Vyt Karazija There is nothing more pleasant than sitting in one of Bali’s thousands of open-air restaurants or cafes. Delectable food, a cool drink, or even a book – in case the passing parade of absurdities begins to pall – and a cigarette or two to enhance the experience. The outdoor ambience, and the [...]

By Vyt Karazija So I’m sitting there on a torpid Tuesday afternoon, slurping down my caffeine fix and watching the endlessly fascinating passing parade along Jalan Padma Utara. Suddenly, there is an eruption of demented yells and a group of boys zoom unsteadily into view on their rented motorbikes. Shirtless, barefoot and helmet-less, they weave [...]

By Vyt Karazija My pool light hasn’t worked for a while. Eventually, I pull out the globe to have a look. It looks normal, but just to be sure, I give it a quick continuity check with the multimeter. It’s fine. So I flick the switch a few times and notice that occasionally the lamp [...]

By Vyt Karazija Buying food in Bali is an adventure. I’m not talking about those imported food and beverage items that are now subject to usurious taxes and duties imposed by the perennially greedy and terminally myopic dunderheads in Jakarta. I can’t afford those now anyway. And even if I could, I would still flatly [...]

By Vyt Karazija The rising tide of religious intolerance continues unchecked in the great “secular democracy” of Indonesia. Diani Budiarto, the mayor of Bogor, only 60 kilometres from Jakarta, thumbs his nose at the government, the Constitution, the Supreme Court and the essence of Pancasila itself by continuing to victimise members of the Taman Yasmin [...]

By Vyt Karazija So I’m taking a short-cut home one night after a late dinner, and turn the bike into a somewhat dark lane in Seminyak. It’s around midnight, and my headlight illuminates a young woman standing stock-still in the centre of the road. She has long black hair covering most of her face, which [...]

By Vyt Karazija The season has turned in Bali. The long, relatively cool dry spell has snapped virtually overnight into the hot and humid interregnum that precedes the rainy season. It’s 33 degrees and the humidity is hovering around 80 percent. Life, never running at a cracking pace here, has slowed to a crawl. People [...]