Bali Shrugged

I woke up in the middle of the night confused to hear the sound of a running shower. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and groped my way to the bathroom, only to find it wasn’t my shower that I was hearing, but a furious Bali downpour. I sat on my covered porch listening to the rain’s music until the sky was gray with the approaching sun – what a peaceful way to welcome in a new day.

Bali Downpour

Today at the office Lisa and I met with members of the accreditations and venues teams. I felt like we were transported into the pages of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. For those of you who are not familiar with the novel, one of the reoccurring themes is the transference of accountability by many of the characters. Particularly with the accreditations staff, each time we expressed a concern the issue was out of the hands of whomever we were speaking with. Nobody was at fault for the missing pieces of our puzzle and nobody had the authority to pull the trigger on any of our requests. We worked our way up the chain-of-command and were eventually told the Indonesian government was the cause of the bottleneck in the accreditations process, a faction we are not prepared to challenge. It looks like we will just go with the flow for now and choose our battles when appropriate. Who is John Galt?

After a somewhat grounding workday, we headed to grab a bite to eat. Rika suggested a wonderful beachside seafood grill with a unique style of ordering. Instead of using a traditional menu, diners peruse the day’s fresh fruits of the sea and hand-select their meal. We enjoyed a succulent spread of red snapper, lobster, squid and prawns, all grilled over coconut husks and seasoned with garlic and a tomato paste.

Fresh Fish

Our selection of lobster, red snapper, squid and prawns

Lunch is served

With the taste of seafood still fresh on our palates, we gathered our belongings from our first hotel and relocated to the Bali Hyatt, where we will be for the remainder of our stay. It is without a doubt, one of the nicest hotels I have been privileged enough to accommodate. Throughout the check-in process they referred to Lisa as Mrs. Samples, which was quite amusing and reminiscent of my experience when I was only 13 years old and mistaken as the suitor of my vivacious 40-year-old Aunt Barb. If I can only be so lucky one day…

Leid upon arrival

Hyatt gardens

We plan to work sparingly this weekend and I will take the opportunity to check a few items off my to-do list. I wish all of you were here to enjoy the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Bali.

 
With love,

 

Ben Z Samples

 

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