From Bali to Los Angeles
Flying over downtown Los Angeles
Why did you decide to leave? It’s the question I am asked the most, after my decision to hop the pond from Southeast Asia to North America. Perhaps it would have made sense to extend my stay in Bali longer, but several things came to a head: my visa was ending in a month’s time, my passport had run out of pages to stamp, the borders are still closed to tourism - which means that there are virtually no new people flying in and the social atmosphere was getting a bit stale, I completed all of the projects I set out to do when I came to the island and I needed to get into a proper studio environment to write and record new songs.
Booking my flight was a terrific pain. The tickets I had initially purchased through eDreams with Turkish Airlines were cancelled a few days prior to departure with virtually no warning from the airline, other than an email I had found in my spam (which I was lucky I even checked). I scrambled to buy new tickets and found a good route through Nippon Airways (a Japanese airline). As Ngurah Rai - Bali’s domestic airport was closed to incoming international flights, all international flights out of Bali had to first fly to Jakarta - Indonesia’s capital, then onward to their respective destinations.
I spent my last day on the island getting my pre-flight Covid test (required 72hrs prior to departure), eating my favorite food, visiting the stables and cuddling horses. The Royal Sporthorse Academy was always a place I could come and ride and spend hours petting my favorite creatures. It was perhaps one of the places I’m going to miss the most while I’m gone. After spending a few hours with the animals I rode my Yamaha over to my friend’s house to park for safe keeping, hugged him goodbye and walked over to the beach, where I sat for a bit, accompanied by an old street dog who showed up out of nowhere, leaned against me and sighed. There was something about him … his eyes were very deep and he looked like he’d lived a thousand lifetimes. I was sad to leave him too, even though we’d just met.
The weeks prior to my departure were incredibly eventful. A bike accident that landed me in the emergency ward with a dislocated arm, a group art show I had curated to which opened just a few day later, packing up my hotel room, figuring out how to ship a two meter painting to Canada, giving away most of my belongings, the usual scramble. Finally I had a moment to stop and decompress. As I watched the waves crashing on the shore, tears ran down my cheeks. Tears of gratitude, the realization I was going to miss this place because it was a big part of who I had become in the past 5 years of coming and going from here. I don’t like goodbyes. If I could only hug this island and squeeze it and tell it how much I love it and how deeply it had changed my life… but I had to go. My driver arrived at the hotel a half hour later, we loaded my two bags and I dumped a heavy backpack packed with all my tech into the back seat.
Saying bye to my favorites
Sitting on the beach with my newfound companion before flying out of Bali
I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at the airport. With my right arm in a sling and nervously clutching my negative Covid test in my hand with my passport I passed through the checkpoints. It was midday and the airport was a desert, with only a handful of travelers boarding the same plane as me - to Jakarta. To my outmost gratitude, throughout all of my flights the airport staff were incredibly helpful and accomodating to me because of my arm injury. Much of my stress prior to boarding was about how I was going to carry two 50lb suitcases and a 15lb backpack with one hand.
The first leg of my flight was operated by Garuda Air, Indonesia’s national airline. The plane was mostly empty and I stretched myself out across three seats for a two hour flight to Jakarta. As the plane rose to altitude I watched Bali’s shoreline grow distant through the window and whispered ‘thank you’, as I always do, in gratitude to this beautiful island. The sky was an overcast deep blue, but on the horizon I spotted a brilliant red disk peeking through the storm clouds. The last rays of the setting sun. The drama and the beauty of that moment were not lost on me. I slept through my flight and when I awoke we had already landed in Jakarta. I had a 9 hour layover and had booked a suite at the airport hotel, which took a bit of time to located but when I did I thoroughly relished taking a hot shower and lounging around in my king sized bed looking over the sleepy runway. I got only an hour of sleep because I was writing interviews for TFN Talks for most of the night, but it was nice nevertheless. At 5am I got a wake up call from the concierge and chauffeured to my terminal to board a flight to Tokyo.
Sunset over Bali
On the first leg of my flight from Bali to Jakarta
Just like Ngurah Rai, Jakarta’s airport Soekarno-Hatta was vastly unpopulated. My check in was hassle free and quick. To the contrary of what I had expected, the actual experience of moving through airports and flying during Covid provided to be a much less stressful experience then what I was usually accustomed to pre-pandemic. That’s because there were hardly any passengers. My flight to Tokyo took just over 7 hours. I must say that Nippon Airways, Japan’s national airline, was one of the top airlines I’ve ever flown with. The plane was extremely tidy (I sat in economy), sprawled out across three seats because the plane was half empty. The flight crew were phenomenally welcoming, friendly and polite. I suspect this is also because the entire crew was Japanese, and having traveled throughout Japan, I can safely say it’s renowned for it’s hospitality. The inflight safety videos were also something I actually enjoyed watching, and that’s because the airline decided to incorporate Japanese tradition into the modules. The videos featured safety procedures shown by Geisha’s and actors from the Kabuki theater. I’m a big fan of thoughtful details and this airline went above and beyond (and this is not an ad, just an honest review). During my flight I zoned in and out of sleep and watched a film or two. Before I knew it we landed in Narita International Airport in Tokyo. Being on Japanese soil again was bittersweet, mostly because I knew I’d be leaving again in a couple of hours. Meanwhile I decided to take advantage and stock up on my favorite Japanese things: skincare and mochi (a traditional Japanese sweet). Japan is renowned for it’s beauty products - specifically face masks. I picked up 6 packs of my favorite Lululun brand masks and Keana rice masks which I’ve never tried before (now that I have I can tell you theyre ah-mazing). I also stocked up on Uzu by Flowfushi Eyeliner and Excel Tokyo eyebrown liners (probably the best eyebrown product I’ve tried so far). Anyway, having not shopped for any beauty products for 13 months I was very excited as you can probably tell. Before I knew it it was time for the last leg of my trip - Tokyo > Los Angeles. This time the flight was 10 hours long, but thankfully Nippon had a fantastic in-flight entertainment system and I ended up watching 4 movies back to back, before making friends with my neighbor Aaron, a Chinese marketing student about to embark on his first ever trip to the United States to study.
When we finally landed at LAX - Los Angeles International I braced myself for a bit of a different world. At the time of my flight Los Angeles was literally the world epicenter of the pandemic in terms of statistics. Border control asked me a few questions, mostly about where and who I was staying with and stamped my passport. At arrivals I met my friend Matt Lange who came to pick me up and drive me to his house where we would spend the next two weeks writing and recording new tunes. It was great to see him again. The last time we got together to write was two years prior when I had also flown in from Bali. It was also surreal to once again be back on Western soil. Everything was bigger, faster and louder, even driving out of LAX I could feel the energy shift. Two days earlier President Joe Biden had been sworn into office. It was a new America with a completely new administration.
In Partnership with Tropical Nomad Coworking Space