抱歉. 我的中文很爛. 我真的不會寫中文. 現在, 我使用一個翻譯工具 (babelfish.altavista.com). 但翻譯可能是錯誤的. 如此, 我寫英文.



Hi everyone,



I appreciate having the opportunity to go on this trip, and I thank everyone for being patient with my slow attempt at learning mandarin. I've learned quite a bit of phrases, but I'm still unable to read/write. I'm a lot more motivated to learn to read, write, and speak in mandarin now. I appologize that I have to leave my comments in English. Maybe someone can translate it properly for me? In the future, I hope that I will be able to start reading and writing in mandarin.



Overall, the trip was great! Jacky, our tour guide, gave pretty detailed accounts of the culture in Bali. Since he was a native of Bali, I felt that he could explain the history and background of Bali's culture pretty well. I noticed that other tour groups were not as fortunate as ours. Their tour guides just read explainations from a tour book. Also, their tour guide left the group members to wander around the tourist spots without any interesting stories. Our tour guide led the group around the tourist spots while telling stories and explaining the culture. It was very enjoyable and the stories were fun to hear.



If anyone is considering going to Bali, I highly recommend it. There's so much to take back:



- For those who love nature, the beach views are spectacular. The first beach we went to (I don't remember the name), there was a beautiful temple on top of a large boulder near the coast.



- For those who love culture, the people of Bali are quite unique. The life they live is influenced greatly by their religion. Before each meal, they make a basket out of leaves and put flowers, cracker, and incense as an offering to the heavens. The baskets are placed outside of stores. Also, the architecture has to respectful to the gods of their religion (for example, they cannot be taller than a certain height).



- For those who love luxury, romantic dining, and entertainment, there's so much to enjoy. Because of the currency conversion rates, everything in Bali is cheap for Taiwanese and US citizens. Fine dining, living in luxury suites, and entertainment

(like dances and massages) are very affordable. The last resort we lived in was right next to the beach. They had a gigantic pool with a spectacular ocean view.



The thing I enjoyed the most about the trip was that it served as a great learning experience and a reminder for me to take my time and appreciate the life that I live. The people in Bali are very relaxed. Every store that we passed by, I saw people sitting or laying down on the ground. They just took their time to conversate with their customers and with other people. This contrasts with living in southern California and my stay in Taipei. In Taipei, for example, there's always a sense of being rushed. People are always checking the time and are always pushing to get onto the metro trains. There's no time to stop and talk with strangers.



There isn't even time to do something as simple as making eye contact with the person nearby and saying hi or smiling. Bali is quite different. The Balinese people take their time and they always smile. The school children always waved to our tour bus. The contrast made me wonder why a lot of us value efficiency so much to the point where we forget to stop and ask ourselves why we are so rushed and obsessed with efficiency. The difference also served to remind me to smile. Just seeing someone else smile made me feel happier. I'm sure if I smile and other strangers see me smiling, they will feel happier too.



Overall, the trip was enjoyable and definitely relaxing. My mandarin is not too great, but I felt like I learned a lot. Bali is a great place to be at and I would recommend others to go.



-Ray

Photo album link here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rayver/TripToBali

If the link doesn't work, check

http://picasaweb.google.com/rayver/

for an album for Trip to Bali. I may have changed the album name.