Vidal Sassoon The Movie executive producer (and Bumble and bumble founder) Michael Gordon blogs from Bali about the refreshing simplicity and tempo on the island.

A View from Bali
For the past few months, I’ve been living in Bali, which is in Indonesia.  It’s a beautiful island, with the largest Hindu population outside of India. In addition to the incredible weather, being in such a vastly different culture is refreshing and calming.  The average wage is $150-$200 a month and people live in large family clusters–babies, children, parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents all live together and care for one another.  There are no old-age homes, and they eat a lot of rice, which they grow on their own rice fields.  Not to say that they look insanely happy, but there seems to be a palpable sense of contentment and a distinct absence of craving material things.  This doesn’t mean that they don’t want things or don’t get the occasional new cell phone, but shopping is not a form of entertainment for them.

Most days, at around 6:00am, I drive by a couple of incredibly vibrant, magical outdoor markets which sell fruit and vegetables—amazing produce. The streets are filled with children on bicycles in their school uniforms – there seems to be a connection to the rhythm of nature that guides everyone. You can probably tell that I’m enjoying myself.  It’s not like I’m making comparisons to deem if I want to live there full time, but it’s always great to be able to see other ways of seeing the world.