Bali April 2022 Towards the end of the first week
Saturday April 23, 2022
The roosters are crowing and the area surrounding our villa is waking up. It is 6.30 a.m and I’ve already been awake for 90 minutes albeit lying in bed until 6 a.m. I love waking up early. I love the darkness, quietness and the solitude when I can just sit down with a coffee or a glass of water and collect my thoughts and feelings. The habit I do need to improve though, at least while I am in Bali is going to bed earlier. getting into bed at 9 p.m would be the logical solution. This is something to work toward.
Hopefully “A” will fly to Bali next Wednesday. If this happens then she can also bring an extra 40 kgs of luggage with her. This is such a good opportunity that I really should start listing out what she should bring and how Finn can help.
As I said yesterday the Moksa Organic Farmer’s Market is on today. We will drop in after our morning walk to do some shopping and later we will get Purnami to pick it up for us.
I am still having a few challenges with buying food in restaurants and shops. The idea of a ketogenic diet is a totally alien one to the Balinese culture where ansi put (white rice) is such an important staple so the idea of asking for no sugar is really hard to understand for them. Does that mean kecap manis, coconut sugar, fruits? Not to them. So it’s a bit of a mine field that I’m going to have to learn to negotiate my way through.
We headed off toward Kedewatan through Penestanan Kaja and the rice fields to a coffee shop just before the main road where we drank our morning coffee. We then walked out onto the main road turned left and headed down toward Sayan. The traffic gets a bit hectic on this stretch of road and even though there is a very narrow footpath it can still be a bit daunting. Georgie didn’t want to walk along this road but I talked her into it. One consolation is that we found a plant nursery that will come in handy to buy our next batch of plants for the garden at Villa Tusk.
Just before the turnoff to the Moksa Organic Farmer’s Market I noticed a sign promoting a property called Sayan Point. Back in January 2020 we dropped into the 4 Seasons for an afternoon drink. While we were there we started chatting to a staff member named Wayan. She told us about her place up the top of the ridge that overlooked the Ayung River and bragged about how beautiful it was. When I put 2 and 2 together today I came to the conclusion that this must be her place. It was and believe me, she wasn’t bragging. Every word of her description was understated. The view and location are stunningly and overwhelmingly beautiful and breathtaking. It is just a few metres from Taman Bebek where Georgie and I spent an amazing 3 weeks in March 1998 in our own jungle villa. This is a special part of the world for me. It is described beautifully in Colin McPhee’s 1930s book called A House In Bali. It is a majestic and picturesque spot that would be hard to surpass anywhere else on the planet.
After spending some time just taking it all in we made a couple of phone calls and booked in a visit for tomorrow at noon. We plan on having lunch and just lounging around and swimming in the pool for a few hours.
We finally made it to the market just before 12. It’s not as big as it was last time we visited but was well worth any effort it took to get there. Organic veggies, herbs, spices and other goodies that you find at Markets like this. I spent about $50-$60 on veggies, herbs and spices and the stall holder actually offered to deliver it all to our home. I now have enough food to start cooking some decent curries for Georgie and maybe a few for myself as well.
We ate a beautiful lunch at Moksa, every mouthful was delicious.
When we got back home I decided to try out the sunken bath in the downstairs bathroom. I had already tried a bath 2 days earlier but the builders put an overflow plug in the side of the bath which was placed far too low and even though the bath started at the perfect depth it soon emptied out far too much. Our handyman plugged this up yesterday and now it’s perfect. It is big, deep and very, very relaxing. Tomorrow I will put together a plan for what is needed in this bathroom to make it seem totally exotic with it’s tropical plants and private walls already in place.
When I got out of the bath Georgie announce that she wanted to walk the 20 minutes to the Bintang Supermarket to buy wine and beer for our guests who were arriving at 4 p.m. This is a pleasant walk past Intuitive Flow, the local yoga studio and the Yellow Flower Restaurant. We are so lucky, everything is so picturesque and I am constantly reminded what a beautiful place Ubud/Penestanan is and how being located pretty much smack bang on the equator allows for a climate where plants grow quickly, lushly and big and healthy.
Sunday April 24, 2022
I have decided that we can forego our morning walk today. My body is telling me that it’s time to give it a bit of a break although we will be still doing a bit of walking later in the day and I might run up the Penestanan Steps from Tjamphuan later on this morning. But overall I’m looking forward to a day of relaxation and maybe a bit of cooking.
Christine and Tim Kingston arrived at our villa at 4 p.m yesterday. I hadn’t necessarily been looking forward to their visit but my trepidation turned to happiness when I realized that I had a lot in common with Tim and that the communication between us flowed easily and unpretentiously. It was also good to get some feedback about the villa from people who have good taste (based on their own home) and profession as artists. I moved a few bits and pieces around before they arrived which made a surprising difference to the main living space. We ate dinner at The Yellow Flower in Penestanan Kaja, talked non-stop and discovered more that we were on the same page. Good people to have come across in Bali. We will have lunch with them soon and meet another couple in the process.
We got home before 9pm and I stained part of the kitchen bench with oil. It looks like it might make a positive improvement.
Below is an extract from Colin McPhee’s book A House In Bali eloquently describing Sayan in the early 1930s. His house was built overlooking the valley where we will spend our afternoon.
“The village of Sayan stretched along the top of a narrow ridge that ran up into the mountains. Every three days a crowded bus rattled down from the Chinese coffee plantations to Den Pasar, choking and stalling as it climbed back again at night. The land I wanted lay at the end of the village, next to the graveyard, on the edge of a deep ravine. Far below ran the river; across the valley ricefields rose in terraces and disappeared in the coconut groves. Behind these ran the mountains of Tabanan, and far off to the south a triangle of sea shone between the hills. The land had once been terraced to grow rice, but now was covered with grass and shaded with coconuts. It descended in several steps to the edge of the cliff, where it dropped four hundred feet. From below came the faint roar of the river as it rushed among the rocks and stones. The village belonged to the district of Gianyar, ruled by the detested Anak Agung Ngurah, who was eating his heart out at colonial restraint. His attempts at ancient tyranny were constantly foiled by the Controlleur, whose tiny office across the square from the palace in Gianyar was a constant and infuriating reminder of another régime. Sayan was a peasant village, not very old, but running according to old Balinese law. There was not even a village school, and very few men spoke Malay, which meant I would have to learn Balinese. There were three banjars, with an assembly: where on rare occasions the elders of all three banjars met for matters of grave importance. There were half a dozen small temples, and a crumbling palace which belonged to me Chokorda Rani, a poverty-stricken, prince from the ancient and highborn family which once ruled m Pliatan, across me valley to me east. The rest of the village were simple farmers: when they heard a white man was coming to live among them the signal. drums beat loudly, and there was meeting after meeting of the village elders. Rendah, the owner of the land, was a shy frail man of fifty; he was plainly startled. When, as he led his cow through the bamboos one afternoon, he found me sitting under his trees. It was only after Kesyur told him that I was merely walking for pleasure that he relaxed. Then Balinese manners prevailed. I was welcome! Would I not like some coconut water? He tucked his dusty sarong around his Joins and began to climb a palm with surprising agility. In a moment there was the double thud of two nuts as they fell, and he descended, to open them with a neat blow from his heavy knife. We sat conversing. I made no mention of my plans, as I knew the idea that I wanted to build a house on his land would have to be broken with caution. Kesyur was soon embarked on a synopsis of where I had come from, where I was going, my finances and my character, while I was already thinking of the kind of house to build.”
— A House In Bali [Illustrated Edition] by Colin McPhee
I firmly recommend this book to anybody coming to Bali whether it be for a holiday or longer term.
The task ahead now and over the next 4 weeks is putting our personal stamp on the villa. I’ve spent a few minutes tweaking the kitchen and already I feel like it’s my space to create a meal in. I have some ideas for the bathroom downstairs but my ideas are like clouds that could easily float away or change shape and become something completely different.
Something else I have noticed is the blandness of the Australian newspapers. I’ve got an unhealthy habit of opening The Age and news.com.au on my iPad and perusing the Australian version of the news. It’s really not worth the effort to look at this lukewarm tripe, even though we have an election coming up. It’s all spin and doesn’t mean a thing. I have always voted Labor based on ideology and will probably continue to do so for now. maybe they will put a bit more effort into supporting the arts and music, maybe they will be a bit more humane but I don’t think there is any significant difference between these 2 parties. I think the best bet for now is to limit my Australian news viewing to one day a week or to just peruse the headlines from time to time.
Another big task that lies ahead is our gang (laneway). It is in disrepair and needs lots of love and attention. At the moment our guests will arrive and scratch their heads as they fill with doubts about what lies at the end of the pathway. Part of our challenge will be to get the support of the local Penestanians in getting involved in art projects for the walls but at least we need to repave. As it is it would be a bit like asking a girl on a date and turning up at a beautiful house in a very shabby and unkempt street. This might be enough to cause second thoughts.
So far, so good. We are coming to the close of our first week in Bali. Time somehow changes here. It seems like minutes ago that we arrived but also seems like an eternity that we have been here. Even the 27 or so months when we were locked out due to Covid have dissolved into what feels like 2 weeks or so. They call Bali Time rubber time, this sums it up quite well.
Georgie and I arrived at Sayan Point at about 12.30. What a gorgeous place to spend an afternoon. Pool, towel, lunch and a drink until 9 pm for $15 plus one of the best views anywhere on the planet..
We had a pool to ourselves with 2 sun chairs overlooking a vista that is beyond beautiful and totally spectacular. We were served by our own waiters who took our orders and then brought the meals and drinks to us.
I’m now sitting on another deck which is on a completely different level mainly to escape the sun which has a tendency to cook my white skin.
It is 3 in the afternoon and I reckon we should stay put here for the rest of the afternoon. We walked here today which took 30 minutes and we will walk back.
I did my first big cook up mid morning. Yesterday’s veggies and spices from Moksa Market were part of a plan to cook delicious curries for Georgie. So the first one I made, which should last for 2-3 meals was a yellow curry with coconut cream, Tofu, Tempeh and assorted veggies and spices. The plan is to prepare different meals and store them in the refrigerator for when we don’t eat out at a restaurant. I’m getting a feel for our kitchen but as I said earlier I still need to find some decent cooking utensils, knives etc plus work out where everything goes to make cooking easy and efficient.
