Sex & Balinese Men - June 13, 2007
So I finally have breakfast with the middle-aged woman with the long red hair. I’ll call her Evelyn. We meet at the Bali Spirit Kafe.
Just last night I got an email from Anna saying, “I think I found the coffee house we were looking for. It’s called Bali Spirit and it’s at 44 Hanuman.” Now I realize that the other place Robert Flores told me to go to was Bali Spirit.
Evelyn is boasting about her Balinese boyfriend. “I have him here in my camera, where I can keep an eye on him! They’re a commodity in Bali, you know.”
I’m about to be initiated into the private world of women, sex, and Balinese men. “It works like this. I did take a Balinese lover once. It was very clean and simple; not like in Thailand, where they attach themselves to you and won’t leave you alone until you go to the airport. Next morning, we just woke up and went our separate ways; no muss, no fuss. With the Balinese men, they just expect you to pay for everything, and maybe give them a present as a parting gift. But never to give them money! That would be like a prostitute, and they would feel offended by that.”
To my Western mind there was such an incongruity between this middle-aged Western woman and the gorgeous sensual young Indonesian man inside her camera. But why does it seem any more incongruous than the gorgeous young sensual women who marry middle aged men? There was a time when this, too, seemed unacceptable. Certainly there are situations where people use each other, and then there are other times when there is a deep love and connection. In either case, who am I to judge?
Tonight I’ll go over to the Bali Barn, which is another half mile or so down the road, where someone is playing Tibetan bells and gongs while everyone lies around on the floor. Bali Spirit and the Bali Barn are part of the large expatriate yoga community here in Ubud. I just met Megan, the owner owner and visionary of the Bali Barn and Kafe, and later today I will give her a Vibrational Alignment. She’s already talking about having me come back to teach a workshop at the Bali Barn.