I admit it: I haven’t seen ‘Eat Pray Love’ and I may never see it. Not unless it happens to be playing on a long flight and the battery on my laptop has run down. Even then I’ll see what else is on, perhaps another, less irritatingly popular tear-jerker, an action packed science fiction adventure or one of those ubiquitous Pixar movies that have turned modern cinema complexes into playgrounds for toddlers and a generation of adults who refuse to grow up.
Actually, I’d probably go for ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ over a Pixar film. Not because computer animated films are necessarily all bad, but rather just because it irritates me how they’ve somehow taken over the industry right under my nose without me even noticing. So I may check out ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, but probably with the sound off while glancing up repeatedly for an hour as I try to read a book I don’t really feel like reading. Two hours of hell trying to find out what Julia Roberts is saying, but refusing to plug the headphones in. Why would I do that to myself? Come to think of it, I should probably just avoid that nightmare and rent the DVD right now, sit through the slushy mushiness of it all and have a good cry or experience whatever that film is supposed to engender.
Will this movie change me, as it has supposedly changed the character of Bali?
Maybe yes, maybe no, or maybe yes and no, as an article in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests. Apparently some Bali tourist spots are all done up with Yoga centers and nice cafés, while others remain rustic and retain their traditional local character.
photo by Curtis Foreman (Flashpacking Life on Flickr CC)
As far as surfing is concerned, Bali still rules. Surfers from surfing Meccas like Brazil, Australia, Hawaii and California still make the pilgrimage to Bali just to catch its impressive waves, breaks and tubes.
Check out this collection of photos from a Brazilian surfer who went on a surfing holiday to Bali in search of the perfect wave.
