It’s hard to believe, but after six months in Southeast Asia – covering Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia – we’re heading back to Europe. We’ve gotten used to the heat, the sun, the beaches, the swimming pools, the driving on the right side of the road, the developing country vibes. And the New Year celebrations.

Imagine our surprise to land in Bangkok for one last overnight stop between Bali and Paris only to discover that it was Thai New Year’s, the fifth New Year celebration we’ve experienced in Asia (Laos, Western, Chinese, Balinese, and now Thai). The fun stuff here is that apparently they spray people with water on the street and sneak up from behind and smear white stuff on your face. We got in pretty late though and just had a drink at the bar in the hotel, so for us it meant a cute little dessert and bigger-than-ever drinks. Not bad!

So that’s it. Here are some farewell pictures from our last couple days at Temple Lodge in Bali. Next stop: Paris!

We’ve been somewhat off the grid for a while now, spending the last eight days in Pemuteran in Bali’s distant northwest corner. We enjoyed a wonderful week there with our old neighbors of 15 years — Bart and Ann and Wil. We barely had any Internet, but we sure did get in a lot of card playing, world problem solving, and general catching up.

Our villa was ideal for the five of us, with wonderful open spaces, a lovely warm pool, and beautiful views of lush green mountains and the Bali Sea in the distance. Kudos to Bart for finding such a perfect place.

Perhaps best of all, we felt like we were surrounded by some pretty genuine Balinese life. The nearby ‘town’ offered a small scattering of nice restaurants, tranquil beaches, and cheap massage. Getting there required a fifteen-minute walk past loads of ordinary houses, temples, and farms. And along the way we enjoyed the endless greetings from the warm and friendly locals.

Our eight days together gave us ample opportunity to preach our own newfound gospel of learning to relax and take it easy — a skill especially alien to Bart, though he may have picked up just a little. We also worked in a little time to hike through some stunning mountain scenery, visit an island and a waterfall, and do some great snorkeling.

We’ve now returned to Temple Lodge in southern Bali to spend our last three days on this amazing island. As we said goodbye to our old neighbors this morning, we’d already starting plotting where we might meet up the next time we all need a serious cards fix.

Yes, today is New Year’s Day here in Bali, the start of 1936 to be precise. Strangely, this is our fourth New Year celebration (Hmong, Western, Chinese, and now Balinese) since November.

The Balinese New Year celebration – called Nyepi – is quite unlike anything we’ve experienced anywhere. The day itself is a day of “complete and utter inactivity and silence,” as the description in our hotel puts it. We are, in fact, banned from leaving the hotel. Seriously. Again, back to the instructions from the hotel: “No one (including foreigners and visitors to Bali) is allowed to go outside on Nyepi Day.” Apparently this has something to do with gods floating around today (or maybe evil spirits, I’m not entirely clear on my Nyepi cosmology) and if they see anyone not honoring the requirements of inactivity the whole village is in for a rotten year. There is even a traditional security force that enforces the rule, leaving exception only for emergency vehicles carrying people with genuinely life threatening conditions.

Fortunately, though, “outside” seems to be defined as “outside the hotel compound,” since we are allowed to roam the grounds, go to the swimming pool, and so on. Still, it’s all pretty strange. The restaurant, for instance, closes at 6:00 PM; after that – and we don’t eat dinner before 6:00 PM – we can only get room service.

Perhaps even more strange than the day of “complete and utter inactivity and silence” is the ogoh-ogoh parade the night before. Ogoh-ogoh are huge paper maché monster dolls, Hindu agents that are meant to purify nature from spiritual pollutants emitted by humans. As you can guess, they have quite a big job. And as you can see here, they are pretty scary.