Bali adventure!

This time Max and I have decided to tempt fate and have invited our parents to Bali for 2 week, I mean 2 weeks!! No worries, we are still alive and we have not succumbed to parentcide instincts so no harm done there.
I found Bali beautiful as one would imagine and as all the guides describe it. The land of smiles, the land of the gods.
But I doubt I will go back and it will not be one of the first places I will think of when reminiscing about past holidays in fact quite the opposite, I think I will forget about it quite soon and not because something bad happened but because nothing remarkable did.
The best Bali had to offer was probably the fact that as a family we had a terrific time together and enjoyed every minute -bar the sweet Bali belly moments-. To be together this way in a villa that was as homey as it was stunning and have the possibility of swimming in a cool pool looking at the heaving waves crashing on the shore, go to the fish market and grill our own lobsters, visit beautifully decadent temples and bask in the glory of lush jungles and impossibly tall bamboo trees and to do it as a family was just too good.
But in the end the thing I remember most of the island is the traffic, the interminable queues of millions of scooters weaving in and out in front of cars and trucks, the danger of crumbling sidewalks, the war torn look of half built buildings and the smell of millions of food and flower offerings left to rot after they had fulfilled their godly mission.
I had just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love by E. Gilbert before I left for Bali and I was disappointed by the book and mostly by the author who gave me the idea of being away with the fairies and had failed to come back to earth rather than being a person in search of herself after going through a painful divorce. Her depiction of Bali is romantic and seen through rose tinted glasses and if I could just strip down the island to its ideal bare bone I might see it this way as well. But fat reality is never too far away and I cannot endorse spending countless hours preparing dainty little offerings, throwing flowers and pouring water on everybody's head in a cleaning and purification frenzy when rubbish and waste collects at the sides of the roads.
Still one moment stays in my memory and brings a smile to my face. While driving to Mengwi and the temple of Taman Ayun we started talking about reincarnation and what a sweet idea it is. We asked each other what we wanted to be in our next life and while my father-in-law and hubby both opted for becoming a fish -to give something back they say, having depleted the ocean's pantry says I- and the rest of the family choosing other more or less opportune creatures I asked our driver-cum-guide-cum-butler Putu what he wanted to be. He smiled and said "me again because I am happy to be me". How refreshing, somebody who is actually content with who they are and does not ask to be rich, famous, successful, a bird, a lion or a fish fry. I guess this is the best thing I am going to take home from Bali, the sweet memory of a look of pure contentment on a good man's face.