Sometimes you can go back: Sawan Bali

“We can never go back again, that much is certain. The past is still close to us. The things we have tried to forget and put behind us would stir again...” Daphne Du Maurier writing in 'Rebecca' 

But occasionally at least, you can go back. As you poke into strange corners you might discover yourself standing in the exact same spot that you visited years before. Of course things won't be exactly the same but old memories -- especially those evoked from old photos -- will spring anew from hidden memory corners. 

While I have travelled much and still enjoy new discoveries, I also enjoy revisiting places first seen years before. In March 1975 I was in the middle of a Round-the-World trip. When I left Canada I had no intention of visiting the island of Bali in Indonesia but Australians that I met insisted that it was a 'must see'. I stopped off for a few days that became a few more and eventually turned into a two month sailing adventure. 

In mid-April I rented a scooter and then -- perhaps on the 18th -- I headed off to see the North Coast of Bali. 

Winding Roads and Rice Terraces

North Bali Water Buffalo

Greetings by Roadside Boys

Prompted by a line in some guide book I headed up a mountain road searching for the distinctive temples of Sawan village. As I came into town I stopped at the grand entrance to the local Hindu temple. It was covered with wild gargoyles, spirits and demons. As I brought out my camera I was surrounded by a crowd of children from the nearby school. Everyone shouted "hello mister", and everyone -- including one dog and a few dudes trying to look casual -- wanted in on the picture-taking. 

Dalem Temple, Sawan District, April 1975

Dalem Temple Crowd, April 1975

These remained two of my favourite travel photos. Over the years, I would look in guide books but never found more than a brief mention of Sawan and its temples.

Long Pause from blogging (NotSorry Expansion)

I am back from a rather long pause from blogging. I started doing this in October last year and finally got going in November. Then one day I started to write a blog about how I created Notsorry.com and all my plans to make additions and improvements. I realized that there was a lot of an awful lot of work that I had been putting of for several years. So I decided to do something about the missing pages. 

In 2002 I had spent many hours scanning my old slides. I organized and renamed and edited. But then I did nothing about them except file them away. Later I scanned some old photo albums. So now -- since November -- I have edited and cleaned them all up. I selected the best and posted them on new web pages. 

My new pages include the following:
My World Trip 1974 to 1975 This shows my round the world trip that took me from December 1974 to October 1975. The first section includes Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia and Sailing to Singapore. The second section includes Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, France, Holland and Great Britain.
Travels in East Asia 1983 to 1985 This shows my travels in the early eighties that include the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Japan.
France Student Trip 1969 This is a single page covering my student trip to France and England in 1969.
Canada Pages This new section covers my photos that I took on my various travels across Canada. Pictures from British Columbia are shown in a separate section of BC Pages Here I cover various places -- some very small -- in BC outside of Greater Vancouver.
Vancouver Pages This section covers various part of the Vancouver area.
USA Pages Here I show my various pictures from all over the United States.

My old web page sections include Round the World Trip 2000 This shows my travels across the northern parts of Asia and Europe in the spring of 2000. Most of these pages were edited and posted on the go as I did my travels.

European Trip 2003 This shows my trip to France, Belgium and England in spring of 2003.

[This page was updated in 2020 with links to Archive.org]

Photo Changes / Optimism

I was trying out some new / old software yesterday. I have been using the free and shareware editions of ACDSee for years and have always found it to be a great and easy to use to organize and view my photos. 

Yesterday I downloaded a 7-day trial updated version. It has all the old basics along with a couple of new wrinkles. The built-in editor was great and I just might have to give in and make a purchase. This editor did a great job of updating some of my old web pictures. The newest part that I like is the automatic exposure and removal of color cast options. It is once again amazingly easy it is to do some web things that formerly were difficult to do. I also updated some of the oldest pictures on my web pages. Many of these are the larger pictures that open up from the little thumbnail buttons. (Yes I know that almost no-one every does that but I have not given up hope). 

Some examples include the FijiMe[No link] and MelleFr self-portraits from 1975 and 76. It has been pointed out to me that my previous post seemed horribly pessimistic... but anyone seeing me on that beach in Fiji will realize that I have had some great times in my life. I remain highly optimistic that some of those great times will come again.

[This page was updated in 2020 with links to Archive.org]