Preface
This piece is a record and reflection of my life from 2024-04-01 to 2024-04-10.
As I put pen to paper, it’s already late May. Unknowingly, two months have slipped by. It’s not just the weekly review updates; the multitude of recent events seems to have made it difficult for me to extricate myself from my entire life. But without realizing it myself, this weekly review, a vessel for recording life, has already become a part of me. Often, I feel as if I’ve lost myself during this time without records, so I’ve decided to reclaim it.
Unlike the usual compilations, this time I’ll record in chronological order. Although the long time span inevitably means some details will be lost, the process of reminiscing still allows me to grasp some essence. This is the first piece, and I’m striving to catch up.
Life Elsewhere
The latter half of March was busy with early morning driving practice and consecutive theory and practical driving tests. Though exhausting, it ultimately bore fruit when I obtained my driver’s license on April 3rd. In previous chapters, I’ve mentioned my lack of fondness for learning to drive, even feeling somewhat averse to it. But upon truly completing this task, I still felt an inexplicable sense of achievement. My subsequent travel in Hangzhou has indeed benefited from it.
Next came the Qingming Festival, which was also the long-planned trip to Bali.
Milan Kundera has a book called “Life Is Elsewhere,” and the title aptly describes my feelings at the time. I’m not particularly fond of travel, nor do I have any special obsession or yearning for blue skies, white clouds, islands, and beaches. It’s just that when various pressures of life come one after another, life elsewhere seems to offer a breath of fresh air. It’s both an escape and a pursuit.
Vacation and Travel
Flying from Beijing to Bali requires a transit in the Philippines, with a total flight time of nearly 10 hours. After finishing “The Red and the Black” on my Kindle, I slept for most of the journey. When I awoke, it was nearly dusk. Looking out the window, the sunset overlapped with the clouds, and my mood seemed to brighten along with it.
Exhausted, we arrived at the hotel in the early hours of the morning. Initially, the stuffy air and ubiquitous mosquitoes didn’t leave a good first impression. But all emotions dissipated when we stepped out the next morning to see the beach, picturesque as a painting. The first two days’ itinerary mostly revolved around the beach and pool, typical vacation mode. But it wasn’t until the second day, when I donned a local Balinese T-shirt and flip-flops, that my true journey began.
I once chatted with my senior about the difference between a vacation and travel. Like when we went to Qinhuangdao’s Aranya for our anniversary, we cared more about being in an environment together; the important thing was a relaxed state of mind, regardless of the location. Subsequent trips to Beijing or Tangshan in Nanjing for hot springs were similar. Travel is different; the chosen place, food, culture, including the people you meet, are all important parts. I enjoy immersing myself and experiencing more; an unpalatable meal, the unpleasant exhaust from roadside motorcycles, or haggling with street vendors all become part of the memory.
Strangely enough, having seen spectacular waterfalls, monkeys covering entire mountains, sacred temple rituals, and so much more, what left the deepest impression was a shopkeeper lying relaxed on the floor of a small store in Kuta near the end of our trip. He remained lying down as we browsed through hand bracelets, only sitting up perfunctorily to haggle when we were paying, before lying back down again.
It seems that since a certain moment in college, I’ve been busy with various things: academics, student organizations, work. It feels like I haven’t had a truly empty moment since then. Of course, I’ve had moments of daydreaming, laziness, or binge-watching shows, but I’m referring to moments when I can truly think nothing.
Even knowing I won’t use it, I always bring my laptop on trips. Like the various memes online, I’ve attended meetings, written code at friends’ weddings, in amusement parks, restaurants, and even on roadside trash cans. It seems this is a lifestyle I acknowledge and even somewhat enjoy. But in Kuta, I seemed to see another way of life thousands of kilometers away in a foreign country. This life doesn’t belong to me, nor is it where my heart lies, but I could feel the ease and comfort of “doing nothing.”
Travel Snapshots
The rest are some regular travel records. Bali’s scenery is indeed beautiful, but the food is really average; we mostly ate buffets at the hotel. After recuperating for two days in Nusa Dua, we went to Kuta, where I tried surfing for the first time. Although it was just in shallow waters, I tumbled many times in the waves and swallowed a lot of seawater. But after an hour of practice, I could already ride a few small waves. We hired a local guide on Klook who took us to waterfalls and the holy spring temple, and we even had our glasses knocked off by monkeys in the monkey forest. Apart from surfing, it was a fairly standard trip. We took some videos, perhaps there’s material for a second vlog.
Interesting Things
Input
Although most interesting inputs are automatically synced to the “Yu’s Life” Telegram channel, I’ll still select a few to list here. It feels more like a newsletter now.
Books
Collections
Articles
- While Everyone Is Distracted by Social Media, Successful People Double Down on an Underrated Skill
- How Heptabase’s Founder Use Heptabase for Learning, Research, Planning, and Writing
- Bringing Python to Workers using Pyodide and WebAssembly
- 2024 First Quarter Books, Movies, and Music Summary
- The Ideal Life
Videos
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