For Mom: Remembering Jane Hunt

My mother, Jane Amelia Henry Hunt, passed away recently. There are so many people whose lives were touched by her, and so many different versions of Jane that existed in the memories of those who loved her. She was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife, artist, advocate, traveler, mentor, and friend. She collected people, created beauty wherever she went, and built a family that extended far beyond those connected by blood.

I have been trying to find the right way to honor her. The closest I can come is to write to her.

The Beauty of Raja Ampat – Part 1, above water

When I last wrote about Raja Ampat, I focused on one of its less attractive features: plastic. Unfortunately, the problem is real and impossible to ignore. But it is only part of the story.

Bali, part 2 monkeys, markets and minor theft

Somewhere along the way, this visa run stopped feeling like bureaucracy and started feeling like an actual vacation. If you missed the earlier posts: This link follows our time in Western Australia and this link covers our first days in Bali.

Part 2 picks up just before the monkeys attempted to improve their hat collection.

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary was another highlight of our time in Ubud.

Bali, worth the visa run Part 1

Bali had been on our travel wish list for decades.

Back when we were teenagers, we used to hear stories about travelers renting one-dollar huts on the beach in Bali and living on almost nothing. At the time, this sounded less like a vacation and more like a financially realistic life plan. Those famous one-dollar beach huts no longer exist, and admittedly our standards have risen slightly over the years, but Bali still manages to feel surprisingly affordable.

Visa Run - A Necessary Part of Slow Travel

One of the less glamorous realities of slow travel is that eventually a country politely asks you to leave for a while.

Our Indonesian visas were expiring, so we had to leave Sorong, in far eastern Indonesia, and fly to another country while immigration processed our new visas. Since Sorong is not an international airport, this meant first flying all the way to Jakarta or to Bali before we could even begin the actual “leaving the country” part of the trip.

Singapore would have been the easiest option, but having already been there several times, we decided this was our chance to explore someplace new. We chose Western Australia and flew into Perth for what would become a ten-day visa run adventure.

The tricky part was timing. Indonesian immigration estimated six to seven business days to process the visa. Estimated being the key word there. We had to decide how long to stay, when to buy return tickets, and how much faith to place in government paperwork moving efficiently. In the end we bought the tickets and hoped optimism would prove to be a sound travel strategy.

Sunlight, Coral and the Plastic Tide

 Years ago, when we first began cruising, a dear friend, Elissa, asked whether we encountered much plastic during our passages. At the time, I confidently told her, “No.”

Recently, I messaged her again: I’ve found the plastic. It’s in Indonesia.

The day we were invited to plant a "pinus"

 

Leaving the village of Dai, we pointed Rhapsody north toward Raja Ampat, with a planned stop in the town of Bula on the next island north. Having just come from Fiji, the name made me smile. In Fiji, “Bula!” is everywhere, called out across streets, offered in passing, delivered with a grin. It means welcome, hello, life itself. The Indonesian town of Bula, however, does not share that particular meaning. Still, as it turns out, the spirit wasn’t entirely absent.