Friday, May 06, 2005

Bali Tetap Aman

On October 12th 2003, terror struck on the paradise island of Bali, on the main street Legian, murdering too many people that were just working and having a good time. I am not going to go into details about the bombing as we all know enough about it. I just wanted to bring up the memorial they have erected across the street from where the bombs went off. It is a beautiful memorial of Balinese design, made of what looked like white marble, surrounded by 22 flags of the countries where the victims were from, and inscribed on the smooth face are the names of those you perished.

I usually avoid that area of Legian altogether because I find it too loud and crowded so I had never seen the memorial before, but as I was with a bunch of tourists during my last visit, I ended up at a few clubs on the strip, like EMBARGO and FUEL. One night while looking for my car I walked across the memorial and felt compelled to sit a while. I did not walk right up to the wall but I sat a way’s back watching people stop, look, and sometimes even say a prayer. One young lady was even moved to tears.

I have never been one to care much for memorials or to dwell in the past, but the bombing on Bali did effect me more than any other violent acts I have witnessed during my short life. I guess it was because Bali has always been a peaceful retreat for me and I was shocked that somthing like that could happen there, WOULD happen there. I had spent many nights at these very bars meeting tourists and so on. So about a month after the bombing, my buddy VJ and I took a very spontaneous trip to check it out. This is not a morbid post, but just some photo’s I wished to share. If anything I hope this can just remind us that life is short and we never know what will happen in the future. Just forgive, forget, and let your friends and family know you love them, always.

PS. Happy Birthday NEELU aka Raj… Wish you were here.

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