Day 53: To Padangbai

Setting out from Kememai hostel in Ubud at 11 with my backpack and my motorscooter, I made my way to Bamboo Paradise in Padangbai.

Upon arriving I was told that I had actually booked a night two weeks from today, and that I'd have to pay for a private room as the dorms were full that day (an unfortunate result of browsing hostelworld too late the night before). Having had to deal with three irksome dorm mates the past two nights -- whose only purpose sleeping in the dorms seemed to be to have extended conversations past 12 in the morning and rising at 8 the next day -- I wasn't too peeved to have a room to myself for the night, and at a price cheaper than a dorm room in Singapore.

15 USD accommodation in Padangbai 

While exploring Padangbai by foot, I met a family living on the eastern peninsula. They invited me to play cards (and, of course, take a couple of shots with them). This lasted until 17:00, at which point I was getting tired and was offered a ride back to Bamboo Paradise via motorbike. Before leaving, they invited me to come back for dinner at 19:00.

At dinner that night we had noodles and some delicious grilled fish. This wasn't all free to myself, completely out of the goodwill of their hearts (I volunteered some money to pay for the alcohol I had drunk, and was presented a bill totaling 11 USD after dinner), but after seeing how desperately the area depended on the revenue of tourists and the destitution of the family, I had no qualms about paying for the tasty food and drink.

Speaking of destitution, there's some interesting observations to be made about the poorer families of Bali (assuming the family I met that day is representative of poor families in the area). As far as living conditions, they sleep on covered wooden platforms in a roofed, open-air structure.  Meals are served similarly on these wooden platforms, though we ate the fish at a wooden bench and table that seemed to be exclusively for dining. In addition, the family houses a small shop that sells the kinds of goods you would find at any convenience store. Being just outside of the touristy area, the shop seemed to serve a dual purpose of supplementing other families living on the peninsula as well as their own meals (maybe on infrequent occasions, as I didn't see anyone snacking while I was there).

As far as lifestyle, there were some striking similarities between this family in Bali and the stereotypical (i.e. pessimistic) views of poor families in America. The men smoked cigarettes like chimneys, and vodka mixed with coke seemed to be a casual drink for enjoying a game of cards with. It didn't seem to bother anyone that the 6-month pregnant wife of the 23-year old son that I played cards with spent the afternoon mere meters away from the chain-smoking men of the family. Despite the squalor, the men all owned iPhones, except for the uncle (?) who owned a Windows smart phone that Australian tourists had gifted him two years earlier (I don't want to doubt the claim, but it makes you wonder where they found the money for several hundred dollar phones -- then again, motor scooters cost at least twice as much, and everyone in Bali owns one of those, or a much more expensive car).

It can be difficult visiting places like Padangbai, where it's obvious the most lucrative occupation for anyone residing there is to cater to the whims of the much richer tourists that come to town. And the more you travel within the region the more numerous you realize such places are and the sheer number of people that spend 10-12 hours of their day satisfying foreigners' needs. But I suppose that's the gist of the tourism-service industry. And it seems preferable to the alternative of subsistence agriculture or another form of manual labor. It's a stark reality compared to the (theoretical) high upward mobility of living and obtaining a public education in America. Perhaps to put it into perspective, it seems being born in such a place gives you as much a chance of obtaining a higher education as being born to a non-academic family in America and becoming a national merit scholar (I know I wouldn't qualify).

Except for the thunderstorm that night, and the lizards and cockroach I had to chase out of the room (my fault, I left the back door open when I left the room for dinner), I slept well.