Kindness of Strangers

Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Balinese are just about the happiest people I have ever seen in my life. And it’s not just a few people, it’s everyone. I have seen grown men sauntering down the street with gigantic smiles plastered on their faces for no apparent reason. Women constantly flash their toothy grins at us. And everyone is always laughing. It’s hard to be a curmudgeon here, and I admit that at first I was a little cynical. “What are they so happy about?” But I think I discovered the secret: there are more handmade fruit juices here than you can shake a stick at.

I am a real beverage warden. Through most of this trip I have put the kaboch on ordering drinks in restaurants, as it’s a well-known fact that, not only do they dramatically inflate the cost of the bill, they are empty calories. We nearly always order bottled water in restaurants, which, admittedly, gets really boring. But the gloves are off in Bali! The array of fruit drinks is dizzying: lemon, orange, lime, banana, papaya, watermelon, avocado, ginger, honeydew melon, mango. And when you consider that you can blend flavors together, the possibilities are endless.  Plus, they cost, like, 50 cents each!!

I am consuming at least two fruit juices per meal, conveniently forgetting the fact that they are blended together with simply syrup. “But it’s fresh fruit,” I cry. “How bad can they be?” Watermelon is hands down my favorite (Maikael is a feign for banana), and I wonder if I am going to reach a saturation point before I leave Bali. But until that day comes know that, as you read this, I am probably drinking watermelon juice with a giant smile on my face.