The next day we checked out and headed back to the ferry, and had to return the scooters to Ubud. We dropped off the scooters, and found a little old lady selling a ripe smelling durian from her yard to make Mark try. Pagerwesi, a Hindu celebration was occurring that day, and the traffic in Ubud was literally at a standstill. We walked all the way until we got past the traffic, and booked our Gojek to take us close to the airport. After 40 minutes of him being stuck in a parking lot unable to even get out we had to cancel and book another ride, and somehow it double booked us. I held out the durian to show the driver and he said we could not bring this into the car, which was why I showed him instead of just tossing it in. He gets a couple plastic bags and ties it to the bumper off the back of the car, and it dangles back there like a set of truck nuts for the entirety of the drive back to Kuta. Once we arrived he got out of the car and had to burn the bags with plastic to free it from underneath. Some people really do not like the smell of durian. It was during this week that I realized what the “smell” of Bali was, something that felt familiar once we had landed, and I realized it’s the smell of: incense, durian, and car exhaust. Everywhere there are little incenses burning on the little bamboo mats, fresh durian in the trees and for sale on the streets, and tons of petrol burning scooters everywhere. We got to the hotel and I did not bring the durian inside, and we took out Mark’s less than 6cm scissors (that would be confiscated the next day) and cracked into the durian, cutting it into the natural pieces like the internet suggested. Mark mentioned how much this looked like a kidney from his cadaver lab, they looked yellow and wrinkly without blood pumping through them it seems. He ate some, checked it off his list, and he crashed out for sleep. I made plans to see my friends from last time and hopped on the back of a Gojek scooter and rode back to the place we walked to the first day, and I was reunited with Gabriel, Carla, and Hadrian. We talked about the pandemic and how much Bali has changed, people’s vaping addictions, and I had some amazing curry. We finished off with a group photo and I took a Gojek back to the room where Mark was peacefully sleeping with a durian stinking up the outside of our room.
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