Mar 10, 2005 - Day 247 in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Sarah writes: This day was one of the stranger days on ourglobaltrip thus far. It was a religious holiday for Bali called Nyepi. Locals believe that evil spirits will come to the island on this day to see if anyone is around and they will demand offerings. When they see no one is around, they will munch on all the tasty offerings. The evil spirits seeing that the island is uninhabited will go away. In observance of this holy day no one is allowed to leave their home or have any lights on including tourists. So we were quarantined with the other guests at our hotel (bungalows) which actually turned out to be a great excuse to loaf around by the pool. A few minutes after sundown, our phone rang to ask us to turn off our lights. We went outside (in the bungalow area) and everything was lit by candlelight. It was ultra-romantic. Charles and I went for a night-swim in the pool and we played who-can-tread-water the longest (yes we are in our thirties and still play stupid games). Before falling asleep the room kept lighting up from outside and we jumped up thinking it may be a fire. We walked out on our balcony to see the eerie lightening ripping through the sky. I thought to myself that I too could easily believe that this lightening was caused by evil spirits checking to see if anyone was home on Bali. It was comforting to look out over the horizon and not see a single light in sight.