Visits

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Sepi di Bali

Suddenly this morning people in Bali seem to be taking coronavirus seriously. The mall is practically deserted but for the employees. The streets are deserted compared to usual. Hey, maybe this is the best place to avoid the virus, given that everyone else is locked down at home!

Or perhaps they are just observing the threat on Sunday, since many people don't have to work on Sunday. People in Bali--the Balinese, I mean; the Indonesians--don't have the benefit of a government willing to support their absence from work, a medical system willing to even see patients without up-front payment, a cushion in their personal funds. It's work or die, whether their demise be from the virus or from starvation.

With Nyepi (the day of silence) coming up in just a few days on Wednesday, this will provide an extended period of isolation. Just happened to fall at an especially appropriate time this year.

Nonetheless, virus or no, I must appear at the immigration office tomorrow to put the final touches on my yearly foreign resident permit--have my photo taken, my fingerprints lifted once again. They change a little bit year by year, Imigrasi explains (yeah, right). I would expect the immigration office to be shoulder to shoulder as usual, filled with a lot of bored and frustrated bules, many of whom look rather ill to begin with. Sigh. Gotta be done though. I hear that those with expired visas are now being compelled to leave the country immediately. I got under the wire just in time. And where the hell would I go if compelled to leave? And on what money? Lol. 

But oh well, we'll get past this. Not the virus. The immigration hassle.

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