Return of Ducky
Ducky meets Tan Twan Eng, author of “The Gift of Rain”.
For more photos of Ducky’s most recent adventures in Bali and Thailand, visit his flickr album.
I’ve been neglecting this again. Taking photos but not uploading. There’s still photos of his visit to America that I haven’t processed. Ah, well.
Looking at the album cheers me up though. I can’t believe how far one little duck has gone.
There and back again
Lydia Teh’s “Honk! If you’re Malaysian” broke the 10k mark while I was away. She’s holding a contest to celebrate. Are you feeling lucky? I am. Go here.
So I’m back from a 5-day trip to Bali, supposedly for the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, but mostly it was sightseeing. I would have preferred more Festival and less sightseeing, since that’s what the contest prize is, but I can’t really complain about how awesome Bali is.
The only problem is that by the time the Festival starts, I was all people’d out. Sitting in a session is also, as one of my fellow winners predicted, a little anti-climatic. We’ve watched giant waves crash into the temple cliffs at of Tanah Lot, had lunch with a view of an active volcano (Mount Batur), ate dinner by the sea where like little kids, we couldn’t resist the lure of the water and ended up getting wet to our butts from a surprise huge wave!
Sitting in a session? I couldn’t concentrate until the third session, and by then, my taste of the Festival is half over.
I did get to meet Kam Raslan, who signed my copy of his book. Thanks to Chet, he was peripherally expecting me to appear at some point. Knowing that enabled me to walk right up to him and say hi… instead of hiding behind a pillar somewhere.
I was feeling a little cheeky when I spotted Tan Twan Eng crossing the room all by his lonesome. I figured that if I wanted to accost another festival writer that I’ve actually heard of, now’s the time. (Twan got to meet Ducky. Ducky pics to come later.)
Twan with Sharon Bakar in-between sessions.
When in doubt, I stick with being blatant. I told Twan that his book is on my to-buy list and that I was holding back for the paperback. Apparently the paperback is out. I’ve been so busy I haven’t started looking. Or perhaps I was just assuming I’ll be able to get it at the festival. Unfortunately, the festival book shop won’t get copies until after I leave. Which sucks because if I wanted to get Twan to sign it, I’ll have to chase him down in Singapore or accidentally purposely bump into him in KL.
This entry is rambling along for longer than I intended. I have a few things about the trip that I want to blog about in more detail after I sort out the photos. So I’ll just end with my last hour in Ubud.
Hanging out on the front steps of Indus:(clockwise from left) me, Reza,
Dan and Leroy. (We don’t know where Liyana was.)
Reza, who babysat our group for 5 days, snuck his name into the poetry slam in mid-session and end up winning second place… which we’re all terribly proud of and which he well deserved. I have a video of his performance somewhere.
I’m so going back to Bali someday.
