November 1952 , Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour starred in their sixth of seven On the Road Films and On the Road to Bali was the first one they did in color released by Paramount Pictures.
In the days of mostly black and white films this color production added so much more to the antics of Bing and Bob and their classic cast. It is so befitting to use the words paramount and classic and color when thinking of the Bali destination for an enlightened get-a-way experience today. As a young girl enraptured with the exotic themes of the movies, Donna looked forward to the day when she would be able to travel the world and visit the places that the big screen and later TV made famous.
Many years passed and her marriage of 39 years ended when her husband who promised to whisk her off to Bali to renew their wedding vows for their 40 anniversary, died suddenly. Five years passed and though not into the dating scene and for sure not into the social matching online services, she was watching the On the Road to Bali classic and she knew she had to go, not as a honeymoon destination or romantic week for two but just for her. It tugged at her until she made the plans through a local Long Island, New York travel agency.
The beauty she imagined and the photos and descriptions viewed and read about, could not prepare her for her first impressions upon her arrival. Sometimes in life, a happening comes together under unusual circumstances quite different than you spent decades dreaming about. It’s as if the Universe has been listening to your wants and knew exactly when you were in perfect alignment to receive your desires.
A long time to get here and a long way from New York but in the scope of a lifetime it was the perfect distance destination that for Donna became her meditation magnet leading up to the visit and will for the rest of her life because it was just that special. From her holiday there to the beautiful rental villa she called home, the distance to this experience made the road she was meant to travel a highway of happiness.
She felt a romance for feeling life washing up and around her everyday. The friendliness and laid back time schedule was so unlike her back home environment. She found it a revelation of her senses to know that a hectic lifestyle shortens the breaths that you take in each day, it inhibits the adventuresome thrills of living each day, not for what you pack into it but for what you absorb from your experiences.
Donna wasn’t looking for romance of the physical kind but because of her week in Bali the Universe opened up more to her than she thought she would ever ask for again. People attract people who are in alignment with similarities and there was a special companion that came into her life on the third day. Was it destined or by chance? Believe what you will but when you are in Bali you need to be prepared for the bliss that will be drawn to you. Be open to it, embrace and accept it and regardless of your purpose of being on the road to Bali, take away what it has willingly gave up for you.
The beginning.