Barking Mad.

Obviously the last thing you want as a tourist on your visit to an Indonesian island, an isolated island that has a few hundred thousand feral dogs, is the inconvenience of them voicing their opinion and ruining your well earned holiday.  Upsetting your me time from your time poor existence of reality, that other life your taking time away from, time that you so richly deserve because you really have worked hard and now it’s time for a break.  It’s not as if the chickens are enough as you attempt to recline in your serviced villa, it’s a stretch when the pigs are doing their pig like noises and those bloody motor bikes coming and going at all ungodly hours, unbelievable.  And let’s not start in about all those ceremonies and daily offerings that may eat into your precious pleasure.  But when those frigging dogs, who have been around way too long obviously, start up with that barking and snarling and disturbance, enough is enough.

In other countries dogs don’t bark anymore and if they do their voice box is either chemically severed, electrically neutered or they are quite simply sent away to be disposed of.  Comments like, “if they did that in my country, there would be trouble”, is an indication of the freedom of holistic speech that may have existed once upon a time, a freedom that is now a faded distant fantasy lost in a thick muted fog.

It’s a fascinating observation to witness the many fold motivations as to why people travel to foreign lands in search of difference from sameness.  The organic and inorganic difference between Bali and any other place are extreme, how could they not be.  To not like about what you’re finding dislikeable about the difference you have found is an individual right, no argument.  But it is elitist and arrogant to expect and demand that you’re well earned and paid for vacation or long term migration be a mirror of what you have left behind. 

In many places on Bali you can be anywhere but Bali, forget about the old, ‘real Bali’ stance, it’s not at all relevant in a supply demand business.  So it’s certainly not an argument against change, that in itself would be arrogant and elitist, it’s about changing into what.  There is no argument that the barking Bali Street Dog can be an annoyance, those clucking screeching chickens and cocks can be inconvenient and those pigs and piglets can be way too human like in their screams for my liking.

But hey, all those organic occurrences really are still some of the bygone noises of the real Bali, so maybe just give them a break while you’re having your break.  Because like you, they really have earned the right to have their voice heard, as well.       

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