Travel Diary #47 : The tribulations of a photographer

Hello from Bali 🌞 where I have been based for 1 month (already!).

While it's hard not to feel comfortable in this country, Indonesia is not immune to life's challenges. Moving to a foreign country is exciting, but moving to a foreign country while starting a business is a challenge.

In the past few days, I have been learning how to let go and making decisions in order to succeed in my photography career. I take inspiration from other entrepreneurs, start breaking my limiting beliefs and try to make my way in entrepreneurship as best I can.

To all those who dream of living from their passion… do you also sometimes wonder why we put ourselves in such complicated situations ? I hope to tell you one day that it was worth it 🤞🏼

Remember Chery and Ratna ? The Indonesian couple who run the homestay we’re staying at ? Here is their third kid, Komang.

In Bali, every child is named by his or her order of birth. The first born is Wayan or Putu. The second born is Made, the third is Komang or Nyoman, and the fourth born is Ketut. If a family has more than four children, the cycle repeats itself.

Last weekend, we went to read in a café while watching the surfers - along with a morning smoothie bowl (if you were wondering, yes, in Bali, each activity has to be accompanied by a smoothie bowl, a sunset or a coconut… #cliché).

Last week, I also finished a book I must tell you about : Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody. I have rarely been as passionate about a story as I was about this one. This account of a true story made my blood run cold and brought me face-to-face with a reality I could not even imagine.

I chose this book at random in a book deposit box in France this summer. My attention was drawn to this cover because a few weeks earlier, I heard that a revolution was rising in Iran. Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman of 22, died in police custody. It happened three days after her arrest for wearing "inappropriate clothing". Mahsa became the symbol for thousands of Iranians rising against the mandatory wearing of the hijab.

I started reading a few pages, not really thinking I would connect with the story. Then, I dove into the story of Betty Mahmoody, an American woman who finds herself trapped in Iran and held captive by her husband and his family.

We follow the struggle of this mother and her daughter as they try to escape from a country in which they experience extreme violence. I learned a lot about the history and culture of Iran, and the harshness of the laws concerning women since the Islamic revolution.

I was particularly disturbed to read some passages in the book that could have been written today (the book was published in 1987), and which resonates a lot with the current revolts.

I really recommend this breath-taking story which opened my eyes to the harsh realities of a country I didn’t know much about.

On a lighter note, my yoga teaching friend, Jess, trusted me to take some pictures on the beach for her promotion. The path leading to the beach looked like a scene out of Jurassic Park, a real show for the eyes.