“Where are you from?”

I went snorkeling. It was pretty cool and saw a small eel, lots of fish, and tiny jellyfish. I think a jellyfish stung the side of my face. It’s just a little red and tingly.

I also threw up three times on the boat. Sea sickness. I was okay with being in the water but not okay with the boat rocking. Particularly when the boat was still.

I also walked around the island and checked out the beaches.

There are a couple things that have been hard adjusting to 1) my feet always being wet 2) not being able to drink tap water 3) staying up to date with the news.

I wake up around 5-6 every day naturally. I think it’s the roosters and stuff but it’s not too terrible. The first night I woke up around 4 and I think that was more to do with my sleep schedule not entirely being right.

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Bali and Gili have been fascinating in terms of what people pinpoint me as.

I’ve been asked “Where are you from?” by pretty much every local. I think that might be a pretty common question but unlike white people, they aren’t just asking where I’m from, but my ethnicity. And I respond with “Colorado, in the US.” And then it leads to that kind of questioning of my ethnicity.

For the most part, it’s really tiring. Mostly because it’s also intermixed with whistles, I’ve gotten a couple “I love you” yelled at me, other typical things. Someone asked for a selfie from me, that was a bit strange. I also get “anyoung haseyo” quite a bit. And this isn’t surprising nor too different from like Colombia (although they would point at me and say “Cheena” instead of “anyoung haseyo”). And even in the US I get similar questions but not quite at this frequency. It makes it pretty exhausting to just walk down the strip though. They don’t do it when I’m walking with a group or another traveler though.

There have been times when The Question is not quite so aggressive or the person asking is nice and genuinely interested. I went to this coffee shop on the other side of the island called The Exile and one of the guys, Alam, asked the above and I said China and he started making fun of one of the other guys who thought I was Korean. Even though it can be a bit tiring when it comes from the street, it’s been a good talking point for meeting more locals and they still view me as a fellow Asian (they tell me so, which makes me happy since one of the white travelers here just said that I’m “not really Asian, [I’m] basically white” because I was adopted). Also, I should note that it’s uncommon for Indonesians to live outside of their own country let alone internationally so that’s why I’m not as bothered by locals asking this question but really meaning my ethnicity. Race and ethnicity still matter here clearly. I’m neither Indonesian nor white so I still stand out from both the local groups and the mostly white traveler groups.

The responses after I say I’m Chinese have been fascinating. I’ve been told I “look a bit local” meaning Indonesian. I disagree with that but I think it’s probably because I’m darker skinned than typical East Asians from Asia and I don’t have monolids. I’ve also been told I look Japanese or Korean, Korean most though. When locals guess my ethnicity, they say never Chinese, that’s interesting to me.

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Anyway, I’ve had good food here! Papaya juice that’s all natural, no sugar added because the papaya here is good enough.

Ferrero Rocher gelatto

This is nasi goreng (fried rice) from The Exile before I smothered it in hot chili sauce

I’ve also had mie goreng (fried noodles) and nasi goreng from the night market (like a pop-up food cart place). The nasi goreng from the night market had some added mix of cartilage, fat, and something else from an animal that was good.

I leave for Bali tomorrow for one last night at the place I was before and then I head to Vietnam.