Twelve hours in Singapore

Exactly one week after arriving in Bali, I was back on a plane. This time it was for a quick one-day turnaround to Singapore to sort out my business visa. I woke up at 4:45am, motorbiked to the airport, hopped on the plane, and was in Singapore by 10am.

I took a taxi from the airport into the city, and was floored by how clean and manicured Singapore was. It’s beautiful!! I felt like I was in a Sim City or something… definitely not Southeast Asia.


I spent most of the day working on my laptop (thrilling) while my business visa was being processed (by a guy hired to do the job through my work). I went to a lovely café where the waitress even gave me a plug adapter when I helplessly realized that the plugs are different in Singapore than Bali. Derp.

My visa was finished at about 5pm and my flight wasn’t until 9, so I managed to squeeze in an hour of touristing before my evening departure. I went to the Gardens by the Bay, which are absolutely spectacular (and I didn’t have nearly enough time to see everything).

My favourite part was the super trees; there’s even a 22m high walkway to give you a bird’s eye view of the gardens. 

While standing on the skywalk overlooking the incredible gardens and the even more incredible city of Singapore, a woman walked up to me and asked if I'd been on the early flight in that morning from Denpasar - it turns out she’d been sitting right next to me, and had recognized me because of my PANTS. What are the chances?

We proceeded to walk through the gardens and chat until I had to leave for my evening flight back to Bali. One of the things Anna said was very poignant - she was awestruck by the design, engineering, and construction of these gardens - how could humans be so brilliant and yet so stupid at the same time?! How could we create magnificent art, build efficient mega-cities, and yet still be faced with climate change, political turmoil, etc??

I agreed with her and said something about the paradox of human beings – that it was absolutely frustrating and yet I thought something that keeps me going in dark times - if we are the problem, then we'd better be the solution too.

It's a floating baby!

Anna and I parted ways with a sweaty hug, promising to be in touch. We'd spent less than an hour together, but I felt like we were friends. I was reminded immediately of the special kinship that forms so rapidly and effortlessly in travel. While abroad, it feels like there's more time for self-reflection, and as a result there’s no hesitation to be honest and share exactly where your head's at with the other nomads sharing a similar journey with you. It was a great feeling to be reminded of.

Bye for now!
A.

My first weeks in Bali

Phew. Time has been flying by since I arrived!

I woke up early on my first morning to a precious gift that I’ve received nearly every day since – fruit pits and bat excrement all over the kitchen floor. My pet fruit bat, Larry, flies in every evening to the same cozy spot in the thatched ceiling to consume delicious treats and leave bits and pieces behind for me to clean up every morning. LOVE YA, LARRY.

 


After my morning cleanup routine, I was picked up by our office assistant, Wayan, who kindly motorbiked me to work (I definitely wasn’t ready to brave the Bali traffic myself). We spent about 30 minutes weaving through congested roads to get from Seminyak (where I’m staying currently, at my boss Momo’s house) to the office, which is located on the southeastern end of Denpasar. See fancy map for details.

As you can see, Bali is very large and I've only seen a little bit of it so far.

A few of my coworkers watching a video at lunch hour.

The MDPI team is super friendly, funny, and hard working. The organization has done some amazing work since it started four years ago; from establishing Fair Trade supply chains to collecting catch data from tens of thousands of fishing trips and using that information to improve fisheries. MDPI was born from the seafood industry, specifically a seafood distributor called Anova, which has given it a very unique perspective as an NGO. Rather than focusing solely on protecting an ecosystem while blindly ignoring communities’ needs, MDPI has worked with fishing communities, seafood suppliers, processors, distributors, and retailers (along with governments, academics, and other NGOs) to ensure that socioeconomic and environmental goals can be achieved. Yayasan Masyarakat dan Perikanan Indonesia (MDPI) translates to Community and Fisheries Foundation Indonesia – the focus is on people and fish. MDPI’s mission is to empower fishing communities to achieve sustainability by harnessing market forces. The motto is “Happy People, Many Fish!” – how great is that?

Suluban Beach

I spent my first weekend getting comfortable with motorbiking again (my field season in Vietnam was three years ago, after all), knowing that Wayan couldn’t be my personal chauffeur forever. I motorbiked back to Momo’s house on Friday after work, thanking the technological gods for Google maps, which was telling me where to go (in my headphones, Mum, don’t worry, I wasn’t looking at my phone while operating a motorbike in traffic). To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting – there is a flow to the traffic, and for the most part things don’t move too quickly, and it’s easy enough to pull over to figure things out if needed.


On Saturday I travelled to Uluwatu, which is on the southern tip of the island (~2 hours away from Momo’s house in Seminyak). It was gorgeous, and I’m looking forward to checking out some of the beaches and surf breaks in the area properly in the future. On Sunday, I zipped northeast to Ubud (~1 hour away), enjoyed a delightful meal and checked out the yoga scene, then headed south to Sanur. There was an “Ocean Day” event being held on the beach that brought together a number of different organizations working in ocean conservation, waste reduction, beach cleanups, and more. It was a great way to get to know a few of the conservation groups and meet some awesome like-minded people in Bali.

The most important person I met at Ocean Day was this seahorse mascot of the Genius Café!!

While at Ocean Day, I learned of an organization called Trash Hero, which has chapters all over the world. Trash Hero Sanur hosts a weekly beach cleanup that I attended the next day (right after work). It was extremely cathartic (love me some trash cleanup – I’m looking at you, Trash Mountain), and a good reminder to try to use as few disposable plastics as possible, especially while living here. Afterward, the cleanup crew had dinner and drinks at a café on the beach – yum!

Just bein trash heroes.

The next week at work flew by (and included a quick day trip to Singapore which I’ll write about in a separate post). It’s been fascinating to learn more about the work that MDPI is doing, and start to figure out what I can contribute (mostly science-y stuff which is likely too dull for the blog). Above all, it’s great to have a supportive and interesting group of people to work with!

I spent this past weekend on various adventures with my coworkers – on Saturday morning I went snorkeling through a coral plantation (which felt like being at a garden shop but underwater – holy moly the purples and blues and greens were so incredible!) and enjoyed a fresh seafood lunch on the beach. I spent Saturday afternoon checking out potential apartments to rent followed by a mellow hour of reading at the beach in Sanur.

After a mere three hours of sleep, I woke up at midnight to drive to the northeast end of the island and hike Mt Batur for sunrise – along with probably a thousand other tourists. It was incredible though, and I was thrilled to get out hiking! I’ve already started to scope other volcanoes to scramble in the coming months.

Until next time,
A.

Looking out at Mt Abang and Mt Agung at twilight.

My intrepid trekking partners - Timur, Wildan (my coworkers), and one of their friends!

How'd I end up in Bali?

Hello world!

(And by world, I’m guessing probably 90% of people reading this are related to me, but hey there to the other brave souls who’ve decided to learn a bit more about what I’m up to).

Let’s start with why I’ve moved to Bali.

Back in July, I was offered a position with MDPI, an organization that’s working towards sustainable small-scale fisheries in Indonesia. MDPI is focused on tuna fisheries, and they have teams dedicated to fisheries improvement, fair trade, and supply chain development. I’m working with the fisheries improvement team, though I’m fairly certain I’m going to spend a lot of my time learning rather than doling out fisheries improvement advice.  

First glimpses of Indonesia

In typical me fashion, I barely hesitated before agreeing to move to a place I’ve never been. I’ve always been curious about Bali, and have heard wonderful things about the culture, the lifestyle, the food, the surfing, the diving, etc… Not to mention the fact that Indonesia is a hotspot of marine biodiversity, so the opportunity to really make a difference in marine conservation through fisheries sustainability is huge. There are a ton of different marine conservation organizations here, so I’m looking forward to making some cool connections. As with any of my experiences living abroad, I’m excited about the opportunity to immerse myself in a new culture, try new things, and hopefully contribute in a meaningful way.

Momo's yard

After 24 hours of travel (which went really smoothly, thank you Cathay Pacific!), I arrived in Bali yesterday afternoon. I was instantly enamored by the people, the architecture, and even the smell (seriously, it smells really nice here). It’s busy, yes, but it doesn’t feel frantic or panicked or intense. I’m sure I’ll feel differently once I hop on a motorbike and try to make my way through traffic, but for now, I’m sticking with that.

I’m currently staying at my boss’s house (she’s at home in Ireland for a few weeks), and it is gorgeous. It’s in Seminyak, which is a bit busy, but it’s tucked away in a small complex down a narrow street, so it feels completely isolated from the hustle and bustle. There are flowers everywhere, the ceiling is probably 20 metres high, the bathroom is outside, and there’s a pool. What more could a girl ask for?? Oh – how about the fact that the beach is less than a 10 minute walk away? 

I think that’s it for me for now – stay tuned for updates about my new job, delicious food that I eat, cool places I get to explore, and inevitable pickles I end up in.

Ally

p.s. I nearly forgot. Everyone’s first question is whether Tobin is joining me here – and the short answer is YES! – as much as he can while balancing two jobs. So hopefully you’ll see lots of him in this blog.

Sunset at Seminyak