Nyepi!

It's Nyepi. A day and night in the dark for fasting and mediation and it's illegal to go out and there are sentries who can catch you and herd you back home and arrest you if you resist. Only place in the world where the airport closes. The airport doesn't have a lot a lot traffic these days anyway but, living a half hour from it, I know there are some flights. I can hear one now - writing this the day before Nyepi. My favorite on Nyepi is to go out and look at the stars. Where we lived the first three years here there was a nice big swimming pool at the hotel next door we could use and it was a walk straight out of the door for about fifty feet.

I'd lie on my back and look at the stars so revealed by the darkness of Bali - really, everything's dark. Hotels can do what they want inside but can't cast light out. So it's a rare night sky. Sometimes cloudy - that's too bad. Sometimes clear - that's magic. Everyoe cheats I hear. I do. I  work on laptop. If Katrinka's here which she's not - and wasn't last year either - we'll watch some flicks. There's no wifi but there's electricity. Not everywhere though. Some remote places without a lot of refridgerators and ifrastructure that needs it, cut the electricity. But we don't have lights on. Use a few candels. I have plenty of work to do without wifi. And recently I've started fasting a day a week so it'll just be water - and a little green tea for me. It ought to be global. It's so great. This is my sixth one (first year we'd already left for Thailand and Japan for four months). One sad thing is that the Ogoh Ogoh parades and gatherings will not happen this year. That's tragic Do a web search for Ogoh Ogoh and you'll see what I mean. Then check out Nyepi for what it's about. - DC