I'm in Bali!

After two days of travel and over 16 hours of flying, we arrived safely in Bali on Monday night (Bali time). After some confusion at the airport regarding the visas for our film crew, we were transported to our homestays in Ubud around midnight.

I am amazed by everything I see. There is a lovely balcony off my room that overlooks a lush garden of fruit trees - including coconuts and bananas. It is surreal.

The bathroom of my homestay is also surreal - it is filthy and yesterday there was no water to speak of. Apparently some pipes had burst in the municipal sytem because of recent heavy rainfalls. Today the water was back on and I washed my hair for the first time in four days!

Rehearsals are going well. we've had two so far. On Saturday we will have a formal ceremony to initiate the project. The ceremony will coincide with a sacred Balinese holiday in which they celebrate all things 'metal' - this includes the gamelan instruments...so it is very appropriate.

We will wear temple dress...sarongs and selandang (I bought an apple green selandang - like a sash) at the local market. I think having some knowledge of the language (and culture) has made the transition here rather smooth. Plus I was able to strike up a pretty good deal for the selandang at the market using my broken Indonesian.

I hope everyone is doing well...please leave comments for me if you have time. I would love to hear what is going on in Vancouver (or wherever you are) - I am so out of touch with the Western world at the moment.

More later!