Sometimes it’s hard to “rate” a country or a city, but that’s what I’m going to do here since I took a few days off from our stay in Sanur and went to two of the smaller cities in Bali: Sidemen and Candyasa (also spelled Candidasa).

Sidemen was a short ride from Sanur, about 90 minutes, of which the first 60 were beautifully paved roads, but the last 30 were on traditional country roads with potholes and lots of twisties. We meant to visit here last year, but torrential rains stopped that and blocked some roads, so I’m making up that rain check. And since Kathleen is involved in her writing, and there was some question about the road quality up here, I’m doing this solo. And that’s probably good because I don’t think she would like this place!

No reflection on anything– it’s just that Sidemen is very small and very hilly and there’s really not a lot going on. You have to walk everywhere or ride a scary scooter, or hire a car, and that takes away some of the cool factor and fun. We’re looking for other places on the island to consider staying for a few weeks or longer. This is not one of them.

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So, that is the way my draft started yesterday, but it took a whole new turn today as I found out what there is “to do” in Sideman: Nothing. Which sounds boring, but today I learned that sometimes it’s nice just to BE. To chill, spend time day dreaming, contemplating, meditating. And I did that throughout the day.

I’m going to dive deeper in my Travel Younger newsletter, but overall I enjoyed just walking, stopping by the beautiful river, hiking through the rice fields, waiting for the drizzle to stop, and to truly take time to appreciate nature. After all, that is one BIG reason to visit Sidemen. I also did something I don’t do enough of: I put down my phone. Several times today. Instead of reading or scrolling, or catching up on mail, I just gazed off in the distance.

Meanwhile, I’m staying at a nice homestay next to beautiful rice fields, and it’s very, very quiet, with not much noise except for the birds, crickets, and other insects outside. It IS a beautiful visit, and for the adventurous, there are waterfalls nearby, lots of hiking through rice fields, and a very well-known

 religious shrine called Besakih, which I planned to visit via scooter, but after reading reviews, canned the idea. Speaking of scooters, you hear talk about the danger of scooters in Bali, and that is NOT an exaggeration. Don’t do it unless you have experience–and confidence. And I would not recommend a novice try to learn here. Or Vietnam for that matter.

Tomorrow it’s on to my next stop; we’ll see what that brings.