Me and Rob Petrie

Day to heal. Went to the spa, because I was told that they had a treatment that would really help. After getting through the communication barrier, I was bent over a bowl of boiling water with a drape over my head so I was in my own little teepee, just like Rob in an episode of Dick Van Dyke (forget it if you’re under 44 or so). The Balinese woman put some drops of peppermint oil and cungajen (spelling?) into the water and I inhaled deeply for about 10 minutes. Rinse and repeat. A couple of times. Believe it or not, when all was said and done, as I was sipping my ginger tea, my right ear opened up for the first time in a couple of days! Needless to say, I went back for more in the late afternoon and will be hunched over once again in the morning. Where’s my Afrin when I need it? Silly girl, that won’t happen again. Kept the ears out of the water all day. Walked on the beach down to the first village (there are two on the island and the resort, that’s it). Happy to see all the coral bits washing up. Sad to see all the trash and plastic. They have little plastic cups filled with water sealed with foil lids that come with a straw, similar to a box juice, only it’s a cuppa. Used everywhere. Don’t know the reason why, but it seems that straws are really big around here. A few restaurants in Ubud had signs posted that said “Out of respect for the environment, we won’t serve straws unless specifically asked”. Anyway, it’s a shame to watch the earth fill up with plastic trash and so few people feel like it’s their problem or that they need to contribute to the solution. I guess you can tell I was reading through Jared Diamond’s book “Collapse”, which discusses the contributing factors to civilizations that went from flourishing to nonexistent (Mayans, Easter Island, some Norse communities, etc). Environmental degradation and waste of resources (water and forestry primarily) were his conclusions. Sorry, I don’t mean to be a bummer, but it’s a truism and watching it happen over here, in a previously unspoilt and beautiful paradise just hammers it in. Well, perhaps tomorrow I’ll walk with a bag and pick up what I see. That’s one way to help it get better, for sure. Goodnight, Moon.