Bye bye Bali, Good Evening Singapore

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”

C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

As I waited for our flight at Ngurah Rai airport I reflected on my few days in Bali.  No doubt influenced by jet-lag, the heat and humidity I found it an overwhelming tide of life lived in full, out on the streets and on every bit of public space available.  The people were warm and welcoming and very sharp, commercially minded in such a pleasant way - finding creative ways of relieving the tourists of the burden of their cash.  I saw only a miniscule portion of a small part of the island, but even that was bordering on overload.  It teaches me to be better prepared for places such as this in future; a paratrooper neighbour once told me "to fail to prepare is to prepare to fail".  Better research before travelling helps, although I think even that will only go part of the way.  To really get the most out of a place like this it's best to set aside my usual mindset and background and just dive into the culture I find myself in - it's how the locals survive so they must be doing something right.