By Vyt Karazija So I’ve just finished bargaining hard for something inconsequential and the price has been accepted. All that remains is for me to hand over the money and receive my goods from the nice lady. Then, with studied diffidence, comes the sob story: “You give me extra Rp10,000 (US$1.10) so I can buy [...]

By Vyt Karazija So here I am – back into the swing of Bali life after swanning around Lithuania for several weeks. Set against a broader world canvas, the parking insanity here suddenly seems almost normal. Lithuanians park wherever they want to – sometimes in the middle of a road – simply because they can. [...]

By Vyt Karazija My plane from Singapore touches down at Ngurah Rai International Airport and taxis up to the designated arrival gate. Good, I muse, it’s early afternoon and I can see that most of the aerobridges are yawning forlornly at the tarmac. Ours seems to be the only plane that is about to discharge [...]

By Vyt Karazija I’m back in Bali after nearly four weeks away in sub-polar Lithuania – and it’s cold back here. I expected a mild European summer, but it was 39C for most of the time. And after bragging about the delightful Bali climate all year round to any Lithuanian who would listen, I came [...]

By Vyt Karazija The tourist sitting on the next bar stool, leafing through brochures, discovers that I live here. His eyes light up and he says: “What’s this Bedugul place like? Or Lovina – we’re thinking of going up for a few days.” “Umm…” I reply, “I’ve never actually been there. I, er, sort of [...]

By Vyt Karazija The great thing about living in Bali on a retirement visa is not having to “work.” On meeting people who are visiting here, the question that inevitably arises is: “But what do you do here all day?” My usual flippant answer is that I work assiduously at a degenerate life of sloth [...]

By Vyt Karazija I have felt like a single parent for the last week. My friend Sandy “volunteered” me to look after her dog Bindi while she nipped back for a quick visit to The Great Southern Land. I know this dog well; we go back a long way. The problem is, I haven’t had [...]

By Vyt Karazija My arrival home after a night out at a restaurant involves a simple and familiar ritual – a ride back to my villa down a small street and into an even smaller lane. Then I wheel the bike into a tight turn to face my villa, put the bike on the stand [...]

By Vyt Karazija It’s lunchtime, and just before Rini, my housemaid, leaves for the day, the doorbell rings. Two gentlemen, their uniforms bearing corporate insignia and carrying the ubiquitous clipboard and shoulder bag, politely request admittance. They say they speak no English, so it is fortunate that my Indonesian helper is still there. Responding to [...]

By Vyt Karazija So there I am, trapped for more than 10 long minutes in a huge gridlock on Eat Street, with traffic banked up to Ku De Ta in one direction and Jl Drupadi in the other. Everyone’s patience is wearing thin, and a cacophony of shrill beeps breaks out every 60 seconds before [...]

By Vyt Karazija It’s always interesting to talk to new visitors to Bali and glean their first impressions. I am somewhat enamoured of the place myself – despite its flaws. So it always comes as a mild shock to speak to someone who has their head screwed on a little tighter than mine, someone perhaps [...]

By Vyt Karazija Witnessing a motorbike accident is shocking in its suddenness. Before your mind can register what has happened, there is a flash and tangle of limbs, spinning wheels and brightly coloured bike parts in front of you. The sound is unexpected too – the faintest of thumps followed by an obscene scraping of [...]