Watched the replay of Eat Pray Love on Sony Channel and enjoyed it all over again. However, I enjoyed the book much more. The movie's sequences are disjointed and asymmetrical, and lack the most important element of all: Elizabeth Gilbert's fantastic sense of humor. What the movie offers is a serious romance that features not Elizabeth Gilbert but Julia Roberts.

I visited Bali as part of the first Philippine delegation to the Ubud International Writers Festival some years ago. During my free time there I traveled all the way to Ketut Liyer's home to consult him, and I wasn't sorry I did. The movie production had packed up two weeks earlier. Everyone was still talking about the shoot. I also had the opportunity to meet Ketut's son Suriyah, who tried to sell me a piece of jewelry. Now I wish I'd bought it.