Selamat Pagi!! Selamat Pagi!! Here on Bali, it’s the second day of the Hindu Balinese ‘New Year’. The local men are wearing long dresses just like their wives do with what looks like a cloth dinner napkin tied around their heads. There’s Bintang beer, multi colored birds of paradise, swaying coconut palms and rice paddy plantations alongside black volcanic sand beaches.

Upon my arrival into Indonesia, the home to the largest population of Muslims on the planet, my local hosts explained to me they were required by law to inform the police of my intended whereabouts while traveling throughout some of the fourteen thousand or so islands that makeup Indonesia. I was also told that I must refrain from talking about any of the repression or human rights violations that are occurring throughout the country. That hasn’t been required of me since I was on my way to the Kashmir region of India, reportedly the largest democracy in the world.

Of course I refused the conditions and immediately disappeared into the countryside where I’ve been on the run ever since. For in Indonesia just like India, they don’t necessarily embrace the freedom of speech the way we do back home in America.

The Indonesian police throughout the nation have been placed on high alert for the entire month of April, anticipating student demonstrations demanding political reform. All this as ex-president Suharto again refused the court issued summons to appear before them to ‘talkabout’ the billions of dollars that he and his family siphoned off during thirty-two years of iron fisted control over the people of Indonesia.

And ‘talking about’ India, my arrival here on to the island of Bali coincided with Hari Raya Nyepi , the Hindu Balinese New Year celebration. On the Hindu Balinese calendar it’s the year 1922. The partying started this past Monday with processions throughout the local villages of the Ogoh-ogoh, twenty-five foot high giant paper mache monster dolls symbolizing the evil spirits found in the Hindu Balinese world.

Right at sunset, the local Balinese villagers began running through the streets from one end of Bali to the other, making as much noise as they possibly could by setting off explosions, banging drums, and generally loosin’ it. While they were running, they would stop at the street intersections and spin the huge Ogoh-ogoh monster dolls that were attached to bamboo platforms, around and around. With everyone on the island in a complete frenzy, the villagers then all went down to the beach where they lit a match to the Ogoh-ogoh monster dolls, setting’em all ablaze. For the Hindu Balinese, the belief is that after torching the Ogoh-ogoh monster dolls, the evil spirits are released and out there floating about looking for a place to land.

So, for the next twenty-four hours it’s the holiday of Nyepi, the ‘day of silence’. In order to confuse the evil spirits floating around, on this day, no one is allowed to speak or move about the island. If you’re a tourist, they ask that you stay in your hotel room with the curtains closed. No flights are allowed in or out of the airport, no cars or people are allowed on the streets. No music playing, it was a world without Robert Earl Keen... You aren’t even allowed to start a fire, light a cigarette, or read a book. And if the roving patrols of Balinese Hindus catch you outside, they’ll chase you down and stone’ ya.

By confusing the spirits with these stealth tactics, the Balinese believe that when the spirits floating around look back down towards earth and see no one moving in the villages, they will become disoriented and eventually disappear... Many say they float east from Bali to the island of Lombok.

For me, well I played along and respected the observation of the Nyepi day of silence by lounging around in my hotel room watching a muted marathon of cooking shows coming out of Japan. I remained quiet and kept my curtains drawn, cause there’s no sense in getting on the wrong side of a bunch of Hindu Ogoh-ogoh monster dolls. Why in this ‘talkabout the world tour, I need all the positive Hindu spirits I can pull together, just in case...

And that’s my world for this time...Selamat Tinggal, that’s always, adios, mis amigos!