In Reply to: First Post: MY 900 pages... posted by winstonsmith on Monday, 9. June 2008 at 15:51 Bali Time:
- so much began by weakening my defenses at the opening and relieved me so greatly at the conclusion by offering a small bandaid for my heart and soul, so wounded and bleeding from that which came between.
You have certainly made me re-visit my authorities ( which include The Lonely Planet - of course - A Short History of Bali, Pringle; Bali A Traveller's Companion, Archipelago Press and Bali 1912, Krause) and this added to your information, for which I thank you, has made me re-write some passages.
Your offense taken over a paragraph on Nieuwenkamp I do think is a bit precious but I have taken it to heart as you will see. If you are saying that he 'was-and-is' the only westener ever allowed to get close to the Moon of Pejeng I can add to your history by letting you know that I too have been allowed (although it might have been un-officially) to get up and sit next to and within arms reach of this great casting and try to photograph it.
I know that somewhere I have mentioned Java Man but for the life of me I cannot now find the passage. If you could give me a road map to it, or even a clue direct enough that an un-scollarly student such as myself can find it, I will re-work that as well.
I do hope that we can wholeheartedly agree on a couple of things:-
* there was life on and around Bali well before the first hotel was built and the first shopping mall opened and -
* there is a Bali now, beyond the final Jalan and Gang at the edge of Kuta that is worth seeing.
This is the essence of the information I hoped to convey to the hapless visitor who came upon my pages with some curiosity beyond 'where can I shop', as a couple I conversed with at the pool bar of the Holiday Inn one evening revealed by asking, 'Can we go outside the hotel fence to look around and eat?'
Above all I thank you for taking the trouble not only to read my words but to do so with sufficient care to find the holes and to point them out.