Zombies – in a Bali Paradise?
Don’t miss Linda Watanabe McFerrin’s new story “Bali Belly and the Zombie Apocalypse,” up today on World Hum, the best travel-zine in the Ethernet.
Linda spins a spooky tale that will make you rethink your travel medicine bag. She proves, once again, that old travel-writers’ saw: Anything that doesn’t kill you is fodder for great story-telling.
Linda also organizes magical travel experiences that generate bewitching books-full of stories, as well as memories to last a lifetime.
I was on Bali last year with her fabulous group of Wanderland Writers. Her World Hum story brings back one of my own favorite memories: a visit to master mask-maker Ida Bagus Anom Suryawan. In addition to carving masks–to international renown–Anom is a wood carver, mask dancer, and puppeteer. His workshop, Astina, is in the village of Mas near Ubud.
These scenes from his shop make me think zombies aren’t far behind:
I couldn’t resist the allure of remembered adventure. The mask below now hangs on my porch. 
Stay tuned for more stories from Bali in the forthcoming anthology Wandering in Bali: A Tropical Paradise Discovered.
Bali in 2011. Next up, Paris. I’ll be along for that mystery tour as well. Can we expect a zombie lurking in the basement of the opera house?
Photos by Anne Sigmon
