When Ted Simon was on his second trip, certain events unfolded durng that September of 2001 that would even impact a traveler, roaming the world on his motorbike. I remember reading about his experience of the events – how simultaneous connected and utterly removed he felt.

As we move about and explore Lombok, events have unfolded in the last week that may have an impact that has the power to break through and even touch us, here, a world removed. In the last week, Daesh has carried out thee terrorist attacks against foreign nations involved in the conflict in Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan. And as always, civilians have paid the price. 46 died in Beirut, 220 on a plane in Egypt and now over 120 in Paris. Through being online for the blog every day, but also just because of who we are and how we live we can’t escape but be touched by these events.

Yet it all is so strange, so far removed and so utterly saddening. Our filter bubble on Facebook shields us a bit from the hatred and the vitriol and the 20^th century nationalism that seems to be the inevitable result of such events, but we know it’s out there. Yet here we are, in the (democratic) country with the largest Muslim population in the world. We hear the muezzins’ calls every day. We eat, we talk, we smile and laugh with the people. We see them react and share the sadness. All sense seems to escape. We will do as feels right: continue on, watch, learn and prepare to come home and spread the world.

Today, as we were walking back to our accommodation from buying a beautiful fresh pineapple in town, Nina got side-lined. Three giggling girls obviously on their way to some kind of sport practice have waited on us to get a “selfie”. They were delighted when I offered to take the picture (clearly the woman was the attraction here). More giggles, honest thanks and smiles and we walked on with a great experience as they got to it sharing the picture on Facebook. … Oh, and they were all wearing the hijab.

We have escaped the “bule” or tourist circus in Senggigi and the traffic and heat of Mataram. Instead, we have arrived at the foot of the mountain once more. The heat is tolerable here, we are surrounded by immaculate rice terraces and gardens. All the noises are water flowing, frogs quacking and the occasional scooter passing by our guest house. Tetebatu is just the place we need to recover from our first encounter with a touristically developed area.

Nina’s input: Those girls were so cute! We passed them on our way down into the village and on the way back, they “ambushed” me with a request for a picture. I just wish we had our own camera with us. Flo took a “selfie” of the bunch of girls and me, cracking up laughing because I was about 50cm taller than them, while I cracked up laughing at Flo, holding out a mobile phone covered in “Hello Kitty” stickers.