To the God of Travel, thank you.

A series of fortunate events.

It has been an active 48 hours and as tired as I am I’m also in awe of how it all came together.

The oddities started with my phone losing track of time on Gili Air. Service kept coming and going and with it my phone bounced around time zones.

This led me to miss a client call, a momentary stressor, but a lifesaver.

The client was more than happy to reschedule and with the extra time I went to the harbor to get a ticket for the earliest boat the next day, Friday, today.

Turns out all the early boats had been canceled and I discovered I needed to catch a boat in less than an hour. My buddy helped me get out in time and another friend lent me a place to crash last night.

I went through immigration today, got my stitches taken out, even found myself a stainless-steel pan; something I have been looking for since getting here.

Between each of those events were an hour or two of travel and about the same time in waiting. There were hiccups but they all worked themselves out in the end.

Like arranging my final taxi.

When Mercury sends one of his own.

While finding my pan I realized I was getting sick, Bali belly, but I still had another leg of my trip, a three hour trip into the mountains of Bali.

Throughout the day I had been using GOJEK, Indonesia’s Lyft. It’s cheap, secure, and for the most part you don’t have to worry about drivers trying to up their prices last second.

The only problem is getting them to show up at all.

I plugged in my destination and a dozen cars popped up. I figured I was set to go.

But the first guy who showed up said I was out of his range of service. The second guy who answered my booking tried to double the price on me. The third immediately said it was too far away.

I started worrying that I wouldn’t be able to find someone without spending a fortune, all while my belly started throwing fits.

So that's when I asked Mercury to help me get to where I needed to be.

The next car to respond to my booking was 13 minutes away (my lucky number).

He didn’t mention anything about the distance and with very limited English said he was on his way.

When he arrived he didn’t blink at the location or mention a price hike, instead, he offered me water, a multi-adapter charger for my electronics, and Bluetooth to play my own songs on the sound system.

I haven’t seen any of those things offered in any of the other taxis I have used while here. To top it off he grew up in the same village I needed to get to so he knew the way and was a pro at navigating the tiny mountain roads in the rain.

After two days of endless travel, little in the way of food, and not much sleep I suddenly had all the fixings for a great road trip.

Mercury had sent one of his best and I couldn’t have been happier.

I was able to enjoy the scenery, my music, and sitting back with my thoughts. He didn’t try to adjust the price once, never even mentioned it, and because the ap sets the price it was incredibly cheap.

When we arrived I doubled the payment.

He looked surprised and asked if I wanted any change. I was more than happy to tell him to keep it.

He didn’t have money on his mind, just his job, and it was a job well done.

I told him that I had prayed to Ganesha before he showed up and thanked him the man for the trip. Then I thanked Mercury for sending me such a good person.

To top it all off I just had the best shower I’ve had since being in Bali. One of maybe eight hot showers in the last two months, with full water pressure, and rain shower head. It was bliss.

Today is a very good day.

I’m too tired to really write much more than a description of my experience and a poem written off the cuff, an attempt to say thank you for a great day.

To the God of Travel.

my eyelids are weighted with moments passed.

body made dirty with the grains of sand and time.

miles stretch me out.

the flicker of scenery sets the stage, traces Zeus bolt —

flash of neuron. lights the cast of characters, old memories

played out in foreign scenes.

here the tearer of the cliff’s edge, the speed, the need

to move. the fog of santa cruise mountains

caught in the jungle mist.

myths grow beneath the trees.

here where the rot and life collect under

fingernails; lend their grit,

their traction to memory.

eight thousand miles and two decades away

the chest still remembers hint of family secret,

the aunt we met just once.

she had relics from egypt in her little house,

the one obscured by mountain mists.

she had chicken coops and eggs,

blue-brown speckled eggs. we didn’t know

they could be speckled, could be anything

other than white.

i held my hands behind my back,

imagined a world beyond the mist,

beyond the white.

even as a child these moments were old,

weighted with the memory of relics

and mountains, weighted with the memory

of root and stone, eggs and mist.

weighted, they were made

sacred.

what can be given to the god of travel?

what praise has not been voiced?

what sight has not been seen?

what song left unsung?

the world is yours but this: the roads

we weave within, crossroads of scene

and memory

so i give to you this: the mists of santa cruise,

the old ache and longing for depth and time,

for a world beyond the white and mist.

i blend this with foreign mountain,

foreign lake. i pair it with temple shrine.

i hold it here, stitched neuron to neuron

with the memories of italy, the lakes beneath

the alps and the full loneliness

i breathed there.

to the one who blesses my travel

i give to you this: the crossroads of neuron —

memory. the ghosts of other times,

their touch, their ephemeral kiss.

i breathe these in. i hold my hands

behind my back. i give to you

this.

Love and share.

I’m starting something new. Writing every day as I put my random thoughts on binary paper.

If you’d like to join me on this journey you can sign up for my email list here.