As we have made this trip, we have always made our way back and forth between the mountains or deserts and the beach. The beach seems to be our comfort zone and arriving in Bali, Indonesia after two months in India was definitely a welcome relief even if the shock of the ultra western culture was just as strong as the bizarreness of India.

When I arrived in Bali I felt as though I had entered into the playground of the rich and famous especially since the last place I had been was Paharganj (the dirtiest place in Delhi). There were more Polo and Dolce & Gabana stores here than in New York, and all of the young Aussies and Europeans strutted down the main street of Kuta Beach (the tourist area and famous surfing beach) with the girls wearing designer clothes and the guys dressed as surfers. There were also many exquisite hotels, a Hard Rock Café, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, 24 hour delivery McDonalds, and KFC. We also went to a large mall, which made Ian and I feel completely awkward and out of place because it was spotlessly clean, and we felt like dirty backpackers. It was as if we were looking for the bouncers to throw us out and wondering if we should buy new clothes and shave before daring to enter. However, once we re-found our true identity as "westerners," we melted into the crowd and joined all the fun of surfing, shopping, eating at trendy restaurants, and riding motorbikes around the island.

Surfing and riding motorbikes around the island and up to the volcanoes was amazing, but the real reason that I came to Bali was to pursue my interest in microcredit at the Asia Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit. Microcredit was developed in the late 1970's by a fellow Vanderbilt graduate, Muhammed Yunus, who is from Bangladesh and won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the field. The idea is a very simple concept of giving small loans to the poorest people at an interest rate they can afford in order to give them the ability to help themselves get onto the economic ladder and out of poverty, and this concept has been highly successful in Asia and is now spreading quickly around the rest of the world. However, its success could also be its downfall because many of the larger banks, private equity firms, venture capitalists, and others now see microcredit as area with enormous potential profits because the microfinance institutions need greater access to capital in order to further meet the loan demand. However, the entrance of these firms into the market will drive up the cost of the loan to the poor person, and therefore make it harder for them to get their families out of extreme poverty. So, the challenge is to have more money available to the industry without further burdening the poor. This was debated passionately at the Summit and no real conclusion was found, but many good ideas came about and it was a phenomenal experience for me to have personal conversations with some very influential people concerned with poverty alleviation including Muhammed Yunus and former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo.

Both Bali and the Microcredit Summit exceeded my expectations because Bali ended up being everything that I love about Hawaii, New York, and home all combined into one, and the convention gave me an inside look into the world movement to eliminate poverty. Now, I am headed to Thailand to meet up with some friends and travel around Southeast Asia. The images in my mind of the beaches in Thailand, the ancient temples of Angkor in Cambodia, the untouched nature and hill tribes of Laos, and the history of Vietnam are almost overwhelming, but I cannot wait to experience them all. Till next time, Cheers.