Where in the World Is John Muse?

Editor's Note: Former AHL goaltender John Muse was kind enough to share his story about his journey on the other side of the world the past four months during the coronavirus pandemic

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This certainly isn't what John Muse signed up for when the 2019-20 season began in the fall, but as I've been chatting with him the last several weeks I get the sense he is trying to make the most of his situation.

He's finishing his ninth week being stuck on the island of Bali, Indonesia during this pandemic - some 10,000 miles from home and still separated from his belongings that are in Moscow, Russia.

And that's not even the craziest part of his story.

Or the beginning.

The former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Charlotte Checkers goaltender signed a KHL contract last summer with the Kunlun Red Star. In August, before he headed to Beijing, China to play the game he loves, he told InsideAHLHockey.com it's "definitely going to be quite the experience."

Not only was he not joking, but the past four months have been wilder than anything he could have dreamed of.

And to top it off he says he wouldn't change any of it.

Going back to the middle of January, Muse and his teammates hit the road for a five-day road trip in Russia.

When they arrived, they had found out that all of their remaining home games in Beijing had been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

They had to finish the last month and a half of their schedule entirely on the road, with what they had brought with them on what they thought was going to be less than a one-week trip.

"We would play our home games in cities in Russia that had their rink available for us," Muse explained.

What about all of Muse's - and his teammates' - belongings back in Beijing?

"Luckily they packed up our belongings in Beijing and shipped them to Moscow so after the season ended we could pick up our stuff."

Unluckily for Muse, he decided - at the time in late February - to leave all of his luggage in Moscow because he had planned to travel before returning home to the United States.

He flew out of Moscow to Bali, Indonesia on February 28th to begin his post-season travels in what was supposed to be a three-week stay in Indonesia - the first stop of his tour of Southeast Asia. He had then planned to head to Austrailia for two weeks, and then to Vietnam for three weeks before heading back to Moscow to pick up all his luggage from the season before heading home.

"And now I'm going on nine weeks here and not sure when I'll be able to fly home and not sure when I'll be able to get my luggage (in Moscow)," Muse said.

Indonesia has grounded all domestic and international flights until June 1st.

Russia currently isn't allowing any foreigners into the country.

Muse is hoping to be able to get his belongings and hockey gear in Moscow shipped back to the U.S. at some point.

Daily Life In Bali, Indonesia

For Muse, he's had plenty of time since the beginning of March to explore all of what Bali has to offer.

The first three weeks he was there, it was swamped with tourists, which he informed quickly became quieter after Indonesia began closing their borders.

"It's actually not nearly as crazy and panic stricken as back there. People are smart about it," Muse said of how the people of Bali are handling the pandemic, noting that the big tourist attractions are closed for the time being but the majority of restaurants and such are still open.

As for what there is to do on the island, it's a lot of what you would expect.

"Beaches are amazing, and then there's volcanic mountains to hike/motor bike through," Muse said. "Depends what you're looking for, but I've done a lot of both."

Muse also visited the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in a neighboring town of Ubud, Bali as well as Gili T Island and the rice fields of Canggu (all pictured above).

Motor bikes are more popular than cars in the region Muse is currently located in, and he explains that some of the villages have checkpoints where you drive through and they spray your motorbike with a disinfectant.

A lot of the places are closed not by order, but because there aren't enough tourists for them to make money by staying open.

Luckily for Muse, a majority of the people in the part of Bali he is in speak English. While not their primary language, they're able to speak it well enough to converse, he explained.

"Haha, [I'm] gonna be a local by the time I get out of here."

For a look at all of John Muse's travels, he's kept a pretty organized and detailed account of all of the places he's been able to see this season on his instagram page -> https://www.instagram.com/imthemoose01/?hl=en