Bali, August and September 2022

Monday August 1 … Day One

It’s strange when you have been waiting for a day to come and it finally arrives. Should you feel gratitude or just accept it as another moment in time? I don’t really know but what I do know is that I have 5 hours to get all of my cycles complete before I hop in the car to drive to the airport. The plane doesn’t leave until 5.45 but Georgie and Finn have deemed that 1.30 is the optimum time to begin our journey.

This will be the longest that we have spent apart from Finn since he was born but hey, he’s 22 years old and doesn’t need the love and care that a 10 year old needs and even more importantly he has to find his own feet and friends. Mt fingers are crossed that he will go to the gym and boxing on a more than regular basis. I’ve done what I can when it comes to food and vitamins the rest has to be up to him.

Where was I when I was 22? I was living in Healesville and had been away from home for almost 4 years. I’d been through my loneliness and had found my feet. I cooked, I earned money albeit not too much and 1975 was just around the corner. In light of my own experience this is OK. Finn will survive and possibly survive better than he might with us in the house. After all we just watch television each night and say hardly any words to each other. It will be OK.

It has been about 90 minutes since I got on the plane. Another plane, another trip to Bali. Bali, my second home. This will be my longest stay yet. Now that we have our own villa it feels more like home than ever.

The first time I set foot on Bali was almost 40 years ago. Sure it was different then but still much the same in so many ways. I wonder what Penestanan looked like back then when we stayed 5 minutes walk from where Villa Tusk is now located at the exotic Hotel Tjampuhan. I don’t think that we ever walked up the hill to Penestanan back then. I have to be honest I don’t remember much at all apart from dim memories of the pool and our little room that had no electricity or running water and our houseboy named Karta who is now an old man like me. If all goes as planned we will spend 2 nights at Hotel Tjampuhan in mid August when we rent Villa Tusk out for 2 nights to make a bit of extra money to help cover the costs of our trip.

Villa Tusk has 2 purposes. First and foremost it is our home in Bali, our base, our anchor but it also needs to make enough money to pay back the original money that we put into it as well as making us a bit of a living. So far so good, we have got off to an optimistic start with bookings throughout most of July and several while we are here over the next 6 weeks. The best thing about this is that it will give us an opportunity to explore Bali while we have guests. Georgie has already planned out several locations to stay at. Another goal that we both have is to find and develop new friendships. We are off to a good start and will meet more new people in the first week of our arrival. The other comforting thing is that Allissa is already in Bali. She’s been there for almost 2 weeks I think, it’s so easy to lose track of time. She will be staying with us until she leaves to return to Australia on August 8th.

One of my highlights is rising when the sun comes up and going “jalan jalan”, walking in the early hours through the rice paddies and up mountain ridges, sometimes getting lost which is getting harder and harder now that Georgie has mastered Google maps. There are so many places that we haven’t explored yet and that’s what I’m excited about on this trip. My plan is to get Made to drive us somewhere that we haven’t been before and drop us off, then we can make our way back to Penestanan before 9 am and then off to a yoga class or a sauna and workout at the gym at Parq.

The trip is going to be about health, we’ll being and friendships, eating well and exploring future business possibilities and ideas.

We are now more than 5 hours into the flight. It looks like we might arrive a bit early but I’m not certain. I feel better than I normally feel on a flight which might be a reflection of my overall health and condition, in actual fact I dodged the cold that Georgie and Finn had last week so it looks like my immune system is happy and well. I’m looking forward to touching down and getting in Mades car for our trip up to the villa. Hopefully we won’t arrive too late.

Tuesday August 2 …. Day Two

Our second day in Bali begins. We arrived late on Monday night to a somewhat cooler Bali to the one we had left 2 months earlier. The airport was busy considering the late time of the evening and the lines were long to accomodate the Covid protocols that have overtaken airports worldwide over the past 3 years. It’s all for show really, I don’t think anyone really cares anymore. Now it’s just part of the way things are done!

We had 100 kgs of luggage with us. Guess what, there were no trolleys available at the airport. This is the very first time that I’ve ever not been able to find a trolley. I did eventually find one but it was broken, with a stuck left back wheel that wouldn’t turn making it actually harder to push because it dragged on the ground acting like a brake. Oh well, this was my only option and I had to make it work simply because there were no alternatives. Because of the dodgy wheel it felt like 300 kgs dead weight so I pushed for about 50 metres at a time and then had to stop rest, slow my heart down and wipe the newly formed sweat off my brow, this diminished down to 25 metres runs as I made my way through the airport like an itinerant miner pushing a trolley full of rocks. Because no-one else knew about my dodgy wheel I must have looked like a dramatising fool but I had no alternative. What started off as a pleasant arrival ended in a nightmare, finding broken trolleys along the way and transferring the baggage only to discover the found trolleys were actually in worse condition to the one that I had. After 30 minutes of gargantuan effort we finally got out and met Made and Purnami but by now I was drenched with sweat and my heart was racing, my pride was also cut up and I wanted to cry out to everyone around me to explain my plight.

None of it mattered when we finally got into the car with Made and Purnami and began our late night sojourn to Penestanan chatting about our return to Bali, bitching about Melbourne’s winter and also the guests who had visited the villa over the past 2 months. It was like nothing had changed and we hadn’t left Bali earlier this year in May to return to the long premature, cold Melbourne winter.

Thursday August 4 … Day Four

It is 7am in Penestanan. The roosters are crowing and an ambient hum of motor scooters mingles with the sounds of birds and insects. It is another mild morning, a perfect time to go walking but Georgie and Lis had a few drinks last night over dinner with our new friends Geoffrey, Michael and Roger. I just have to wait patiently.

Everything to do with expats in Bali seems to run on 6 degrees of separation. Part of our purpose for spending time in Bali is to meet new and interesting people. Life in Mooroolbark verges on loneliness, even if we went door knocking chances are that we wouldn’t find more than a handful of people who we could have a decent conversation with. Georgie’s childhood friend Stuey Gemmel gave her the name of a couple who live in the main residential gang of Penestanan Kelod almost opposite Kemulan, my new favourite restaurant in Penestanan. In our haste to meet people she contacted them and got a very positive response, something like “any friend of Stueys is a friend of ours.” They live a 5 minute walk away from Villa Tusk. You never know what to expect when you meet new people for the very first time, it’s somewhat like a blind date with 50/50 odds depending on how much you already know about the people you will be meeting. In this case I knew zilch apart from the contact with Stuart and the fact that they were gay. Now that I can look back I must say that we had a great night. There is still a huge amount to learn about each of them which is always a good sign and I look forward to meeting them again.

Just as we were leaving their villa to walk to the restaurant I noticed a couple of distinct features in their villa that had a familiarity about them, a table, a light fitting, a general vibe. These features had something in common with Villa Tusk but I couldn’t put my finger on what it might be. Turns out that the person who built their villa was the owner of Villa Tusk and not only that, Geoffrey and Michael had their hearts set on renting Villa Tusk (then called Joglo Putih) long term back when they first arrived in Bali in 2010. But as fate called it Ana who then lived in Villa Tusk himself talked them into building on their current location.

Even though it has now been well over 3 years since I had my last drink I was still impressed that I could sit through a night of serious drinking and eating not being tempted to fall off the wagon or to over indulge in food or even more precisely, food that I know I cannot eat. So when I woke up this morning there was no need for remorse or self incrimination and I feel full of beans and ready to immerse myself in the pleasures of life.

Friday August 5 … Day

We arrived back in Penestanan around 10 pm last night after a big afternoon and evening in Canggu. We left around 11 am with Made who drove us for the day. First stop was a shop called Samadi which sells healthy food, drinks and kitchenware. Lis had seen some brass cutlery there last week that she thought would work at the villa and she was right, it is perfect and we decided to come back later and purchase it.

Next stop was an oil favourite, Shady Shack in the main drag of Canggu. Good healthy food, great ambience and friendly staff. We each had a different bowl of food each full of healthy morsels. After we finished eating we made our way to Oasis where Lis has stayed last week. Great sauna, gym and cold plunge. We spent a couple of hours there sweating, working out and dipping our bodies in the chilly cold plunge. I felt euphoric when we finished our hot and cold.

Made was waiting for us to resume our journey to Rod and Caroline’s new home on the outskirts of Canggu. We diverted to Samadi to buy our brass cutlery where we had an unfortunate experience with the payment methods. This was eventually resolved and all was well, a bit of a close call but the end result was positive.

The last time we went to Rod’s the build was half complete and his house was teeming with Javanese workers who lived in their own kampong of to the side of the house, which is on 23 ares. 3 months later it is complete apart from a bit of electrical and plumbing work which was held up when the contractor made off with the money in his pocket. The house is striking. Not the sort of place that I would want to live in but Rod has done an amazing job based on their needs and his skill as a designer and builder. The detail is wonderful and is a visual delight.

He cracked a bottle of bubbly which was shared by Allissa, Georgie and Rod while I drank water.

When the sun set and it was time to eat we scratched our collective heads and wondered where we could go that accommodated my dietary needs plus Lis’s as well as had a dog friendly policy so Rod could bring his little dog named Olive who occasionally has an epileptic fit. After a few tense moments we agreed on a place called Yema in Canggu. So back in the car with Made and back to Canggu. Our first impressions were favourable. The space was tastefully done, eclectic and exotic. We were all damn hungry by now and the restaurant was full giving us the impression that the food would also be great. After a bit of a wait we finally got to order. There were a couple of red flags but nothing to hint about what was to come. Rod arrived with Olive and we ordered. After the first hour of waiting we started getting a bit edgy. One by one we approached the staff to find out if they had just forgotten to order our meals or whether we might be invisible and in some alternate reality. The staff muttered lots of propitiative sorries and gave a veiled impression that they meant it but overall they did a shitty job. Finally after 1 hour and 30 minutes the meals started appearing but by now Olive had been through an episode which freaked Rod out enough for him to ask our forgiveness and leave to take her home. So there we were, famished, pissed off and anticipating a decent meal. Oh no, this wasn’t to be. Georgie’s curry was meant to be a tempe curry but appeared as several wonton looking thinks in some yellow sauce. To make matters worse they were still frozen in the middle. Really … it was hard to believe that such an upmarket looking place would have had the audacity to send this shit out on a plate. Lis’s tangine was a bit of chicken with chips in gravy another complete disappointment and my chicken was dry, possibly deep fried even though it was supposed to be half a grilled chicken, it was saved by the broccoli mash with steamed broccoli flowers on top plus my intense hunger. Such a disappointment. After our unbearable wait the food wasn’t fit to feed to a Bali dog, the local Balinese warong would have been 300% better and the poor Yema staff didn’t quite know how to make up for the debacle that we had been subjected to. Finally one of them plucked up the courage to offer to give Georgie her meal for free and offered her a cake to take home. It was so bad that one of the smarter staff very bravely told me that if I wrote down my observations and aggravations on a negative Google review that it would help the restaurant grow. We left, disconcerted and unfulfilled, full of disappointment and almost in despair.

After we got outside we had a short wait for Made and headed home to Penestanan.

Georgie had started feeling ill and head achy in the early afternoon and by now was feeling positively crook.

This morning after a big sleep-in she tested positive for Covid!

Saturday August 6 … Day Six

I’m quite excited to be off to the Moksa Market this morning. This also gives me some sort off anchor in time so I have some sort of reference point in regard to what day it is.

Yesterday was pretty laid back. A big walk with Allissa, rediscovering Gayatri in Sayan on the way. I decided to have a sticky beak. The 2 villas that we stayed in back in 2008, 2009 have been abandoned for years, returning to nature. I wasn’t expecting that. We then walked down to and through the Sayan market and past the banyan tree where Paul ate babi guling all those years ago and back up the track past Mana. It was a big walk, we were probably gone for about 2 hours. Later we walked into Ubud to pick up a few items at the chemist (apotik).

Poor Georgie has been sick, probably sicker than she is letting on. I’ve been making sure that she takes her vitamins and gargles with Betadine. I’m not certain about how much water she drank so I’ll have to keep an eye on that today.

Both Gary and Rosie have tested positive for Covid this week. I suspect that there are a lot more cases around than anyone is letting on as there is no way that the local Balinese are going to want to confront that they have covid. It would simply mean disrupting their lives and financial flows which isn’t an acceptable option. We’ll see what happens as the days go by. I’m still feeling healthy and fit, on top of it and have an optimism that my immune system is in tip top shape.

I slept in bedroom 3 last night. Sleep was good but there is a lot of light coming from the gang which might upset some of the guests. One good thing about sleeping there is noticing what needs cleaning in the bathroom and getting a handle on the general feeling of the room.

I even tested the projector last night. I put up the screen on the back of the big doors to get an idea what it would be like watching shows from the new couches and it worked OK. My screen was a sheet which wasn’t ideal but it did give me the general idea of what it was like. That’s a good enough trial to justify buying a screen. The sound that comes out of the projector was better than I expected but still not ideal so there is more tweeking to do.

Bali is what I wanted it to be. We are possibly spending too much money but that’s OK. As the days go by I will monitor that and put in some sort of budget based on our costs. The Australian dollar floats around 10,000 IDR which seems pretty good considering its’ standing against the US dollar. Our first few days were pretty social. We might have to ramp up the new friends department next week.

Life is what it is wherever you are. You need good health, an active and functioning brain, a thirst for knowledge and a sense of discovery and adventure wherever you are. I do enjoy getting up a bit earlier in the day and going to bed before 10 pm. I also enjoy being surrounded by people and easy availability of food. I never seem to get what I want to get done in a day but most of the time I’m busy and hardly ever bored.

We haven’t got any plans for today. I’ll go to Moksa Market and then work out what we’ll do after that.

Sunday August 7 … Day

Today is Netty’s 68th birthday. I’ve known her for longer than any other living person on Planet Earth. We spent almost 10 years together cocooned in 29 Pridham St East Prahran, the little white safe haven of our early childhood.

I tested positive for Covid this morning. Last night was a bit of a challenge, aching body, weird dreams and over heating. Back in 1987 I visited Lombok and caught malaria. In those days I relied on the medicos 100% and even though it is embarrassing I realized today that I didn’t even know that malaria is a virus. Another life form that has entered my body to read havoc. Back in those days I drank a bit and also suffered unwittingly from insulin resistance and hypoglycaemia. I ended up returning to Australia and being taken in an ambulance to St Vincents Hospital where I laid on a gurney all day with Melanie trying to convince the emergency doctors that I actually had malaria. My body ached, my bones ached, my skin ached … it had been brewing for days. I laid in a bathtub in Bali waiting to get on the plane. Finally the medicos agreed that I did in fact have malaria and they whisked me off to an infectious diseases hospital somewhere near Fairlea Prison. It’s no longer there. This was possibly one of the worse weeks of my life.

Covid is similar but nowhere near as bad. Aches and pains, crabby, short temper and sporadic sleeping.

Monday August 8 … Day Eight

Day 2 of Covid

Like I said yesterday I feel like I have mini malaria. My body has been in a perpetual state of aching since Saturday night when I started sleeping in the 3rd bedroom. I’ve been in bed for pretty much the whole time. Allissa got me some soup from Warung Mendez last night which I could have done without but on the other hand it was possibly a very wise move to eat it. Apart from that I am taking 24 mg of ivermectin each day as well as a couple of pain killers and one spoonful of green Kratom. I’ve been feeling weary and despondent and I ache all over. Completely different symptoms to the ones Georgie has.

Allissa is flying back to Australia tonight. She will arrive at dawn tomorrow. I’m going to miss her so much. As I say again and again I really must work out a way to spend more time with her in Melbourne. Georgie started feeing tired on Thursday when we made our trip to Canggu so she’s had it half the time Allissa has been with us. What a bummer. Oh well, the time we did spend together was fabulous.

We now have 2 more days at Villa Tusk before our guests arrive. They’ll be here for 2 days and nights. This will make $700 for us some of which will go towards our reserves and the other to our living expenses for Bali. The plan is to check out Hotel Tjampuhan and see if we can find a good room with a balcony for 2 nights. The grounds art Tjampuhan are glorious and they also have a sauna. Then we are back at Villa Tusk for 2 nights and off on an adventure probably to Nusa Lembongan and Uluwatu for 7 nights. I’m quite excited about this.

Staying at the villa has been interesting. It’s not a bad place to be locked down in. I haven’t been bored and I haven’t really experienced any FOMO. The overall need to always be doing something has diminished. I’ve got loads of time to explore Bali over the next 6 months during our backwards and forwards trips.

I’ve had some wonderful chats to Lis while we have been together on this trip. Our relationship just gets better and better all of the time. I’m so happy about this.

Tuesday August 9 … Day

Day 3 of Covid

Actually Georgie is on Day 5. Last night I slept sporadically due to the fact that I had already been asleep for a good part of the day plus my throat felt like it had razor blades in it evert time I swallowed. I’m still feeling under the weather and quite weary. The body aches are still there but they have diminished significantly.

Allissa left for the airport just after 6 pm and like naughty school children we snuck out to ask if there were any rooms available at Hotel Tjampuhan on Wednesday and Thursday when our guest arrives. Thursday night is available but at this stage Wednesday is booked. I’m postulating that they have a guest cancel.

I got a message from Allissa at about 4 a.m this morning. She arrived back safely to a 2 degree Melbourne pre-dawn. I’m going to miss her now that she’s back in Melbourne.

The way I am feeling right now leads me to believe that I might be out of action for the next couple of days. I really should take a look at the FLCCC website again today to see if I can throw any more light on Covid and anything else I can do to treat it.

It’s interesting when you are feeling under the weather. It is so easy to put your attention on outpoints as opposed to positives. I’m not usually like that but I am feeling a propensity to the negative side of life so I’ve got to be careful today.

Wednesday August 10 …. Day 1

We arrived at Hotel Tjampuan about one hour ago. We will be staying here for the next 2 days. What a blast from the past! I first visited this hotel in 1983, then 86 and 87. It is set in the most beautiful grounds. The room itself isn’t great but overall it’s like being in a beautiful jungle grotto just above a fast flowing river. Close to the room there is a sauna and cold plunge which I’ll definitely need to get into before the day is over.

We are renting the villa for approx 4, 300,00 IDR per day and paying 1,000,000 IDR at Tjampuan so we are a bit over $300 Aust ahead per day.

Day 4 Covid

Everything about covid is calming down. I’m still weary but a lot of the symptoms have diminished and are far milder than they were when it began, Georgie is much the same. I have a bit of mucous in my throat which is thick but clear. I walked to Tjampuan this morning to book our room and I have to admit that this was tiring even though it was a relatively short and easy walk. Apart from this and packing up I slept in again until about 9.30 a.m. I just have to remember that there are no medals for fighting covid. I think the trick is to just accept that I have it and to go with the flow. I’m feeling a bit brain foggy, weary and short of energy but I think that all is well and we are recovering quite well.

In some ways this whole covid experience has put the beginning of our Bali experience on hold but that’s OK because it’s happening and there is no use fighting against it. I’m missing our walks and the extra bit of adventure we get when we go exploring. The plan is to go back to our villa on Friday and then move out again for 7 days on Sunday. We will do to Seminyak and have a long buffet lunch at the Woo Bar. Lis and Tash did this and from all accounts it was fabulous. The cost seems to be about $80 each but what is life without a bit of indulgence. After lunch Made will drive us to Uluwatu where we will stay for at least 2 days before we head off to Nusa Lembongan, a short boat trip from Sanur. We still have to find accommodation but we do have $200 US in AirBnB credits to put toward our journey. An expat we met has given us an idea that it might be smart to rent a scooter on Lembongan as there are no cars and it will also be a safe place to learn how to ride. This will bring us up to August 21 which will be almost half way through our trip.

Thursday August 11 … Day 1

In September 2000 I visited the Catacombs of Paris with Paul and Lis. It was Paul’s 21st birthday and being the morbid bunch that we were we made our way underground to the underground ossuaries which hold the remains of about 6,000,000 Parisians whose bones and skulls have been thoughtfully arranged to line the tunnels under Paris due to a lack of space in the overground cemeteries. This bizarre project started in the late 1700s. The reason I’m bringing this up today is because we’ve just spent several hours in the very quirky subterranean sauna spas at Hotel Tjampuan. For some reason this reminds me of the Paris catacombs. You enter via a narrow stoned path through a damp and dingy doorway into a strange world of sculpted monkeys, frogs and Balinese goddesses packed in tight around the columns that hold the roof up. There are 2 hamans, 2 saunas and 2 long and narrow rock ponds, one with hot water and the other with very, very cold water. It’s a unique and wonderful place.

All in all we spent about 3 hours in the saunas and pool. Hot – cold – hot – cold.

One of our goals for this trip to Bali was meeting new people. We’ve been doing that in spades.

Friday August 12 … Day Twelve

We are back at Villa Tusk. Covid seems to be over for Georgie and on its last legs for me. The only real symptoms that I still have are a bit of weariness and a pain in the middle of my back.

Our 2 days at Tjampuan were a bit reminiscent of the movie Inception. Going to Tjampuan was like being in a holiday within a holiday. Even though it is only 5 minutes from Villa Tusk it is like a completely different world. A world where nature abounds and rules over the grounds of the hotel and in many ways matters far more than the architecture or what state the place is in. We moved rooms yesterday and ended up in Banyan 2, overlooking the river and the wall of jungle that cascades down perpendicular with the side of the ravine. We had a small balcony that was so peaceful and perfectly located to view the jungle surrounding the room as well as the river.

It’s interesting what a slight geographical shift can do to change the way you feel about life.

The staff at Tjampuan were fabulous. All I had to do was to hint that something was non optimum and they would put everything into the place where I wanted it to be. We ended up getting 2 free spa passes.

The only challenge was walking up the hundreds of steps with Covid fatigue. Before covid I was bounding up hills and stairs, full of energy, my legs felt like powerhouses and my lungs never seemed to strain. That is no longer the case but hopefully all will return to normal

Saturday August 13 … Day Thirtee

Not much to write about after a week of Covid. The energy drained out of our holiday and we became quite inanimate with no expectations of ourselves or what we could get done in a day. We went to bed earlier and got up later but it was all worthwhile and it looks like we will come out the other end in pretty good shape. Thank goodness we have been able to access ivermectin, it was a real godsend.

Today we will prepare for the next stage of our holiday and do some bookings. First thing we need to book is our lunch at W, a hotel in Seminyak where they put on a Sunday lunch buffet that I am really excited about, after we finish lunch Made will drive us to Uluwatu where we will stay for 2 days before catching a boat across to Nusa Lembongan on Tuesday. Due to the simple fact that there are no cars on the island we will rent small scooters and teach ourselves how to ride while we are there.

So that’s about it. We’ll spend today preparing for our trip, changing money, buying chemist supplies, packing and getting the villa ready for our guests who arrive tomorrow.

I might even have a massage a bit later on and I’m going to miss the spa at Tjampuan.

Sunday August 14 … Day Fourtee

We are off on our adventure today. As usual we are relatively unorganised and have no real idea of where we are staying tonight. That’s how the day began. But a bumpy and uncertain beginning doesn’t mean anything when you are full to the brim with optimism. It turned out to be an almost perfect day. First things first. The big goal for today was to attend the Sunday buffet brunch at Starfish Bloo at the W Hotel in Seminyak. Lis had gone there 2 weeks ago with Tash and really enjoyed herself. We left making the booking a bit late so when the time came they were booked out and it looked like a failure was upon us but against all odds we pulled off a miracle and got a booking.

We got there soon after the brunch started and made the most of the seafood entrees, plate after plate. Georgie had a few glasses of wine while I drowned my oysters and prawns with fresh sparkling mineral water. We ended up staying for almost 3 hours and even had desert. Damn it I say, every now and again it’s OK to indulge. I really loved the whole experience. I sort of felt special and certainly felt comfortable among the “hoy paloy” at The W.

After one false start with AirBnB we found a place to stay in Jimbaran just behind the 4 Seasons Resort. It’s not magnificent by any odds but it works with our budget and purpose. When we arrived we unpacked and walked along the beach at Jimbaran Bay surrounded by Balinese families playing in the setting sun while groups of agile young boys played bare foot beach soccer.

Now it’s 8.30 pm and although we are both a bit hungry we’ve decided to give dinner a miss after out larger than normal lunch.

Monday August 15 … Day Fifteen

It rained again last night and I got devoured by mosquitos. The problem is that I thought I was dreaming and instead of being eaten by mosquitos I had a keto rash. Weird.

The sun is out this morning but we are surrounded by walls in our very compact room/space up behind The Four Seasons resort in Jimbaran. Renting this space was a bit of a knee jerk reaction due to fear of not having anywhere else to stay. It almost defeated the purpose of coming down to the Bukit Peninsula because its so far away from Padang Padang and is almost like no-mans land. But if all goes well we’ll be able to get a Gojek ride to the beach later on this morning. Just don’t get sunburnt Gary. That would put a damper on the trip.

We have to book our boat trip to Nusa Lembongan this morning as well as at least one nights accomodation. The plan is to get there and once we have our bearings we will rent a place for the 4 extra nights.

We ended up not eating dinner last night which I’m pretty happy about. I’m hanging out for a coffee this morning but interestingly enough I’m still not hungry. My gut feels a bit tender this morning after our extravagant lunch yesterday, even though it could have been worse. The trick will be to go easy on food today.

As I sit here now I can feel an undercurrent if discontent in my gut. What did I eat? Might some of the delicious food at W have been contaminated? It is possible because I’m already feeling a need to return to the toilet.

Tuesday August 16 … Day Sixteen

Yesterday morphed in to a fantastic day. We got off to a late start. Our first stop was Padang Padang Beach in Uluwatu. Thank god for Gojek. For $8 we got a 30 minute ride down to the beach where we hung out at a table and under a beach umbrella for about 2 hours. From here we went to The iIstana for an afternoon of saunaing and cold plunging. Georgie pointed out that we seem to meet interesting people in places like this and yesterday didn’t disappoint. The find for the day was a Columbian lady named Patricia who has houses in Bingan Beach as well as in Penestanan. Yes, she’s our neighbour and we’ve walked past her place countless times on our morning walks. After we left the Istana we ate dinner at a restaurant called Laggas. Patricia had recommended that we visit. The owner of the restaurant is a New Yorker named Anton who has lived in Bali for 12 years. Lovely guy, friendly and vert talkative. We struck it off very well and ended up talking about music.Just as we were about to leave Patricia appeared the restaurant so we spent the next couple of hours sharing stories about Bali and life in general. We may have hit the nail on the head for a brand new friendship.

Our car is going to arrive in about 4o minutes to take us to Sanur where we will catch a boat to Nusa Lembongan. I’m not certain what to expect apart from beaches and the potential to learn to ride a motor scooter. We’ll return to Penestanan on Sunday. I was spared from mosquito bites last night and overall slept quite well.

We are sitting on a crowded Ferry or fast boat as it is called in Bali parlance. It’s not really all that fast, maybe 30 knots. The ocean is smooth and there is no visible land. Sanur port is chaotic just as you would expect. I firmly recommend booking all travel arrangements to Lembongan through an agent, approx 500,000 IDR per person, this includes transport from your accomodation. Overall a pretty good deal. We changed money at the port at an authorised money changer with no bumps and got a half decent Americans coffee while we waited on the wharf before alighting the boat through the water. The port was busy, people everywhere but there was a certain calmness at the same time. We should arrive at about 9.45 am.

It’s now 8 o’clock, which seems quite late. It’s a tropical island after all. The day turned out to be quite fun. We’ve got some bearings and we’ve booked our accomodation at 3 separate places. For some people this might seem like a challenge but I am delighted to have so much change in such a short stretch of time. Tomorrow night we are staying in a hugely expensive hut right on the beach at Mushroom Bay, almost $300 but it’s our splurge for the trip. The next 2 night we will spend in a small villa called The Boat where we had a massage today. The lady who manages the place is charismatic and lots of fun. The massages were expensive but overall Nusa Lembongan is more expensive than mainland Bali. We ended up having dinner at the star beach front restaurant where we ate lunch today. I was happy but Georgie got it wrong. On a more positive note we met a delightful young couple from The Gold Coast who had just arrived today from a few days in Ubud. It was fabulous chatting to them, real straight shooters and very uncomplicated.

Nusa Lembongan is old school. It sort of feels like Bali 30 years ago. No mod cons and a real country vibe, almost like Kuta in the 1980s. That sort of makes the trip to Nusa Lembongan worthwhile. It’s quiet, calm and peaceful …. Except for one short moment when it looked like a local was going to punch a tourist. Good knows what pre-empted that exchange!

We will move out of our current accommodation at 9 am tomorrow and get deposited to our beach front villa. They have push bikes available and they are pretty good quality so we’ll grab a couple and go exploring. I think there might be a few more perks available at this place, we’’ll see.

I felt good to be alive today, we are meeting people and discovering new locations and things to do while in Bali at the same time we are making some money renting out our villa in Penestanan. You can’t complain about that.

Wednesday August 17 … Day Seventee

The fishermen’s boats have already come back into shore at Tamarind Beach on the island of Lembongan. The tide is out exposing the beach like somebodies dirty underwear. It’s not a pretty beach, there are rocks everywhere which were covered by the water when we arrived yesterday. Off to my left there is a half completed and now abandoned building that looks like it once thought it was going to be a huge hotel. Covid possibly killed that dream.

I can’t see all that many fish but there are a few fishermen walking into shore with their catch dangling in their hand.

I went for a short walk up the beach at about 7 am, slippery rocks, coarse sand and a few grand private villas overlooking the bay. I walked up some dirty steps and down the grotty gangs that are a far cry from Bali because it appears that all that matters on Lembongan is the water. The people must be poor and the fauna is more like the desert fauna at Uluwatu than the lush tropical ravines around Ubud. I thought I might get lost. Actually I secretly wanted to get lost but I had no such luck, somehow I took the right turns even though there was no sign where the dirts paths were taking me.

Thursday August 18 … Day Eightee

Wow, 18 days into our adventure. We’ve had covid and recovered and as I have said we are on a small island off the east coast of Bali.

We’ve been here for 2 nights so far and surprisingly I am enjoying it immensely. The island isn’t much chop as you move away from the beach but that’s not why we are here although we have been on a couple of walks and a decent bicycle ride yesterday.

Talking about the bicycle ride. Firstly I had to take Georgie’s bike back to our hotel because the gears weren’t working very well . So the new bike ended up being even more dilapidated! The front brakes weren’t working which I thought was acceptable but about 3-4 kms into the ride I was roaring down a hill and tried the back brakes …. That failed completely and I was going down, down, down …. Fast, faster and faster. A moment of panic because the likelihood of a crash was strong but I recovered my wits and used my ride foot to try to slow my descent. This work a bit but not quite enough to slow me down to a safe speed so eventually my only option was crashing as carefully as possible into the outside of a house on the right side of the road. Minimal damage, even to my pride because it wasn’t all that obvious what a shitty situation I was in. We ended up ringing the hotel and they brought their demo out to The yellow Bridge to pick us up. We then went sedate and hung around the pool until it was time to check in to out beach front bungalow which has been delightful. The restaurant is also on the beach and the food is a bit more expensive and also carb ridden than I normally eat but it’s tasty, fresh and well cooked.

I’m surprised that I am enjoying a holiday at the beach. I really am. I have a bit of a red tinge to my skin but I have so far escaped being sun burnt and even the sand is bearable because being the wus that I am I have been wearing my shoes in the water to contact the sharp shells that form the sand here. It’s good to be reminded that 2/3 of the planet is covered in water.

Sadly, check out time is approaching and we will be moving to moire austere accommodation which is 20% 0f the cost of our current bungalow. We stay there for the next 2 nights and then return to the first bungalow on the last night.

So now it its 6.45 pm, we have well and truly finished our dinner which we once again ate overlooking the very picturesque Mushroom Bay. Today we moved once again to Astina’s place, TS Huts

Friday August 19 … Day Ninetee

I’ve just been for a short 30 minute walk up behind Tamarind Bay on Lembongan. It’s not a pretty place when you get away from the tourists and beach spots. In actual fact it’s not even all that pretty there, I mean in the touristy spots. It’s a dry island, the flora is dry and spindly and the dogs look feral just like the dogs used to look on Bali. I even got a slight tingle of fear down my spine when some of these dogs approached me yapping and looking like there might have rabies.

The new digs at TS Huts are pretty good. I’m happy here, it’s cheap, clean, friendly and not too far from the beach. Would I recommend Lembongan to a fellow traveller? I don’t think so. But having said that there is some sort of charm underlying the poverty and it’s a novelty to step back in time with minimal mod cons and feeling like it’s 40 years ago. For a short time yesterday we toyed with the idea that we might build a big villa on a cliff overlooking the ocean with schools of dolphin dancing in the waves. Looking at that again now I’d have to say that it was a moment of madness.

Georgie is sleeping in this morning. Hopefully she will arrive at the cafe before too long so we don’t miss the snorkelling. The next question is whether to stay at TS Hut for another day or return to the first place we stayed when we arrived.

We had our snorkelling adventure this morning. We got on the boat at about 9 am on Mushroom Bay Beach with about 10 other people. Georgie chatted to an English family who had their 7 year old son with them. I was so impressed that they were taking him on such an adventure. If you know me well enough you will be well aware that I am not a sun, sand and water sort of person as a rule but here in Nusa Lembongan something has changed and I am becoming a covert of sorts. Maybe it’s because I feel fitter and healthier than I have in decades.

I wasn’t certain what to expect but the boat set off across the water and sped through the small waves for about 15 minutes, came to a stop and we put on our flippers and snorkels, flopped over the side and the adventure began. As soon as I saw what was under the surface of the water I became calm and intrigued all at the same time. There was a whole world under the water, teeming with underwater flora and small colourful fish. I immediately started singing “Octopus’s Garden” by Ringo to myself. It was the perfect accompaniment to the visuals slender that I was experiencing. I felt a warm feeling of appreciation and love for the wonderment that being alive constantly evokes. This was a brand new experience, something that I had never before been aware of, that amazing other 70% of the planet that I live on or really just a tiny portion of it. It was truly beautiful. I felt like Lloyd Bridges, the star of the 50s black and white TV show called Sea Hunt from my childhood. Nice memories from the past but here I was doing it albeit in a very watered down way. Georgie and I eventually realized that all we had to do was to let go and allow our bodies to be swept gently along by the currents. As we became more confident and at ease we held hands and footed on the water admiring the wonderland below us. It was one of those moments that I wanted to last forever. Life’s a bit like that, isn’t it? But nothing lasts forever and we eventually got back to the boat and climbed up the ladder. There was a French guy who greeted us. What he aid was true beautiful. These are his words. “That was so beautiful watching the 2 of you floating through the water . You looked like Peter Pan and Wendy”. Nothing could have expressed it more appropriately because that’s exactly what it was like. Delicious.

The boat churned through the water some more and came to a stop off Nusa Penida, which is the big island of the group. Once again we donned out flippers and snorkels and plopped into the water. This time was even better because we knew what to do. Nothing. Just float along, holding hands and taking in the magic and visual splendour that has been evolving under the ocean for billions of years. The current was even faster here and carried us along as if we were bits of drift wood.

We got back on the boat after about 30 minutes and took of again in search of floating mantras. The water was a bit rougher by now and Georgie became a wee bit tense. Eventually we arrived at the spot where these big floaters normally preside but today there were none to be seen. We jumped in anyway for a short swim in the deeper water. When we got out we realized that we were in the precedes of a school of dolphins who appeared and disappeared as they pleased.

All good things must come to an end and we eventually arrived back on the beach at Mushroom Bay convinced that we would be back in the water tomorrow on another snorkling trip.

Saturday August 20 … Day 2

Saturday is well and truly underway. We’ve been out snorkelling again this morning from around 9 am – 11.30 am. The boat went in a different direction today. Maybe because the seas were rougher, I’m not certain. Initially Georgie got a bit scared as our boat danced across the swells and the waves toward Penida Island and our first stop. I have to admit that it was a much bumpier and scary trip than yesterday. My stomach is still feeling a bit ginger and we’ve been back for hours. We sat out the first swim in deference to Georgie’s uncertainty after finding out that a South Korean tourist drowned in the very same location 3 days earlier. We got 2 swims in, not quite as magical as yesterday’s experience, possibly due to the different currents and general conditions plus my snorkel was a bit fudge today but still overall it was a magical experience that I’d love to do again in the future. We’ve moved from TS Huts to the same place that we stayed on our first night at Nusa Lembongan. We’ve stayed at four different locations but interestingly enough this has been a positive rather than a negative. The 5 nights on Lembongan have been drawn out and overall a fabulous experience that I would do again on a future trip to Bali. I’ve became quite fond of the sound of lapping water and the feel of sun, salt and sand. Wow, I never thought I’d hear myself mutter those words…. and I haven’t even gotten sunburnt. We head back to Bali tomorrow via Sanur and back to Villa Tusk in Ubud. Out current guests check out tomorrow after spending 7 days at the villa. It has been very successful opening up windows throughout our holiday and this has brought in $8,000 which has taken the financial pressure off.

When we left Ubud we were still recovering from Covid and not really back on top of things but both of us are now 100% and ready to get back into long morning walks and lots of exercise and healthy eating. I’ve let my Keto diet go by the wayside while we’ve been in Lembongan which doesn’t mean that we ate crap. Our food was quite healthy but not 100% keto which in itself has been like a holiday. It’s been interesting to observe the difference between having hardly any carbs at all to eating meals containing them. My desire to eat has increased which is pretty predictable. But fuck it, it’s been fun. I even had 2 scoops of ice cream a few days ago.

Sunday August 21 … Day Twenty On

I am going to miss the ocean, the proximity to the never ending tides and energy of the sheer mass of water that never stops moving. The surface of the water that masks a wonderful world of flora and fauna below its surface. There is no controlling power like that, all you can hope to do is to co-exist and that’s exactly what I have done for the past 7 days since we left Ubud to drive to Seminyak to enjoy our buffet lunch by the sea and then to Uluwatu and for the past 5 days Nusa Lembongan. Another thing I noticed this week is that time seemed to slow down. The weeks normally whiz by unrelentingly, waiting for no-one but on the island time seemed to go into slow motion mode.

I came down to the restaurant at the villas we are staying at a bit before 6.30 am, no shirt just a pair of shorts and some slip on shoes. Water is splashing onto the deck and the slight warm breeze caresses my skin like a gentle masseuse, the sun is rising above a small hill in the immediate distance, it’s rays creating magic on the water. Moments like this are priceless and I am now greedy for more. But all things must come to an end and today we return across the ocean to bali and then by car to our villa in Penestanan. Back to the rice fields, the rivers, the ravines and the jungle.

We are at the midway point of our current trip. We have socialized and made friends with Balinese people, done things we’ve never done before like riding on a boat across a fragile sea, we have been sick with Covid (and recovered), we have walked, ridden push bikes and escaped injury when the brakes failed. I have even clumsily ridden on a motor scooter. We have eaten well, not too much but enough to give us the energy we need to continue on our adventures.

This is a life worth living, treasuring every magical moment and not squandering even a second of the wonder that the interaction between myself and what lies beyond me provides. In whatever time I have left there is so much more to experience and give and take from what is always surrounding me.

Monday August 22 … Day Twenty Tw

I got up this morning at 6.45 after a long nights sleep interspersed with quite a few visits to the toilet to piss. I have no idea why I’m posing so much , it may be my week of eating carbs while on Lembongan. I think this has got to stop now even though it was very enjoyable and at times very gratifying. It’s not the way forward for me. I can tell after I eat that my body isn’t happy. So it’s got to be quickly back to Keto.

Georgie’s younger brother, Peter has ended up in hospital again with acute pancreatitis. Poor Kaye and Georgie are of course really worried but more than anything frustrated about Pete’s seemingly bizzare desire to kill himself. What is it with people who won’t allow you to talk to them about problems that are so obvious. Why do we allow them to reject our offers of help or even push back against a simple question like “how are you doing?”

Each person is a different case. I had my own issues with Paul that ended in tragedy and now I have similar issues with Finn although not as bad. With Finn it’s a matter of finding the right gradient and getting some wins under his belt so he can see some gradual improvements. But with Peter it is time for a serious family intervention because nobody really knows what he is getting up to, what he is putting in his mouth and what is going on in his mind. He is a closed book. A book in denial of the truth. It’s a bit like trying to hand a picture on a concrete wall. A small nail won’t work, a small drill won’t walk. You need a huge battering drill to ram a hole into the concrete to get results but how do you translate that into getting through to an obstinate person like Peter? There’s some intense home work for the week.

Today was one of the better days of my life … if that is possible. Everything just fell into place, it was like writing a poem that just worked without any editing. No planning needed.

I awoke at 6 a.m and spent some time shaking out the cobwebs and then writing my morning “Defrag Blues”. By 7 a.m Georgie was ready to get out of bed and by 8 we were walking through Penestanan Kelod on what we call our “Kedewatan Walk”, the local Banjar (or somebody kind) has even finished the path beyond Penestanan Kaja and the old muddy bits now form an almost perfect ribbon of white concrete through the rice fields. We had a coffee and turned around bound for Gary and Rosie’s house for our 3rd get together during this trip.

What a perfect surprise it was meeting them back in the early stages of April 2022, two kindred spirits who just happen to be almost the same age as us and with so many views in common that it is uncanny. Deep and meaningful talks take on a new meaning when I get into a conversation with Gary, yep he’s another one, a vintage early 50s Gary! Also another scorpio in my collection, my life seems to be full of these November people. I have no idea what attracts me to them but there is something special about my relationship with these people born towards the end off the year. We spoke intently for at least 90 minutes and then continued on our way back to Bintang Supermarket where we needed to draw money from the row of ATMs and buy some coffee to satisfy our needs tomorrow morning. Then it was lunchtime and we chose Zest today which seemed perfect because we always seem to gravitate towards this restaurant when we return to Penestanan, we even ran into a delightful young newly wed couple from NZ who we met while we were in Nusa Lembongan and gave a long dissertation on what they could consider doing when they arrived in Ubud, Zest was on the list.

I finished my afternoon with a massage to end all massages, possibly one of the best I have ever had and as it reached it’s crescendo Penestanan started shaking. I thought that the masseuse or even myself had gotten so excited that the massage bed started shaking but when I finally looked up Wayan had a look of terror on her face and beckoned me to get of the bed and follow her to the street. The seriousness was soon shattered by laughter and glee but for a moment it felt like San Francisco in 1906 when a one minute earthquake set off a series of tragic events.

I came back home after my massage and Georgie and I decided to go to Casa Luna in Ubud for sentimental reasons that I won’t go into now. We stopped by our local seamstress on the way to check out the beautiful kimono she has made for me and to get some alterations done on some of Georgies clothes that she bought across from Australia. She has an art gallery attached and I also found a lovely miniature painting by a very talented artist from Sayan that I will purchase and take home for Allissa’s birthday on September 15.

As Lou Reed proclaimed decades ago “Oh, What a Perfect Day”.

Wednesday August 24 … Day Twenty Four

Good Morning Kaye

I started listening to a medical lecture this morning on pancreatitis. OMG, it’s so complex but even though I was half asleep when listening to it I now have as far greater understanding of what it is, how it works, what it does and how it can become damaged.

Don’t let the guys appearance fool you, he’s a genius and really, really understands all of what he is saying.

It’s not going to be easy going but I promise you that if you persist with this and try to understand as much as is humanly possible you will have more understanding of pancreatitis than 90% of the doctors in Melbourne.

He explains ….,

What the pancreas does and how it relates to the duodenum.
What the huge list of causes off pancreatitis is and what each one does. I’d say in Pete’s situation that it’s ethanol, or in other words alcohol but there are many other causes.
He explains what happens when certain enzymes get activated in the pancreas and why they cause inflammation.
He explains about the horrible pain that an inflamed pancreas causes and the best and worst position to be in.
He explains what the immune system does and how the cytokine storm happens.

It’s all there but it is going to be hard work listening. I would recommend listening to it once through and then go over it again with a dictionary and more studious approach and then again. Each time you will get more understanding of what is happening to Peter. It even explains how pancreatitis can contribute to the big belly.

I’ll talk to you later about this. I will send a link too the lecture to your email and also to WhatsApp.

It’s going to be worth the hard work and will weaponise you when it comes to helping Peter later on.

12 noon

Well I did wake up at about 6 a.m, came down and wrote the above communication to Kaye, who by the way watched the YouTube clip and gleaned loads of valuable information from it in regard to pancreatitis. That was a good start to the morning.

I headed off for my solo walk at a bit after 7 a.m because Georgie hadn’t slept so well. I whipped out the earphones and found some tracks by fusion guitarist Scott Henderson and hit the road. My first stop was the little coffee shop next to Cafe Vespa where I had a long black, not a Bali coffee which is what I prefer when I’m out and about. I then walked down past The Mansion and turned left down a small gang that runs parallel to the main Sayan road. Before I’d gone half way I noticed an artist working on a huge painting of what looked like the Ayung River valley. It was so nice to see him outside his house working on the painting, a bit like I used to do in the early 80s at Hartwell when I had what was almost a factory in my little garage and even on the front fence. I like that sort of chaos and intimacy. I spoke to him briefly and took a few photographs. The painting is huge … 300x140cm and he wants about $2500 for it. I continued on my way and crossed the Sayan road into a small narrow gang that went god knows where. I came out in the gang where Gayatri is and kept going down a pathway that led me to a locked gate so I turned around , came back and went down the next pathway towards the river. This was a real find as it goes right down to the river and is a great new walk for Georgie and I to go on. I kept a bit up my sleeve for tomorrow morning and stopped at a bridge across what could be a tributary o=f the Ayung River. The only negative was a mangy dog that barked aggressively at me and breathed hot moist dog breath on my leg. Didn’t like that. Anyway I turned around and pushed myself back up the hill, I even ran a bit.

My heart was bursting with happiness as I realized over and over again how lucky I was to be in this beautiful place, a place where you can easily get lost and find your way back home quite easily but also a place oozing with beautiful jungle, rice fields and people.

I walked back to Penestanan and dropped by Nyomans warung where I bought our lunch … Babi kecap, lawar and a few krupuks with a piece of sausage made from god knows what. Anyway we ate this later for lunch and it was delicious.

I took photos along the way, random clicks of our lovely village where almost everything is sumptuous.

I got back to the villa at around 8.45 a.m and found Georgie ready and waiting to head off for our 9 a.m yoga class at the new Alchemy Yoga Centre. I will tell you honestly that I have never done yoga in my life and my body is not limber like it could or should be. The yoga teacher is an intensely charismatic American named Ashton. A picture of health and virtue while covered in Tatts and with huge ear rings and matching muscles. The room was full. All young, slim fit good looking people as far as I could see but I took a deep breath and began.

I set out for Gary and Rosie’s house at 12.30 p.m to attend band practise for the party on Saturday. We have 2 parties this week. The soiree at The Edwards on Saturday where we are playing and then Patricia’s birthday party on Saturday. Anyway, the practise session went really, really well. There was another guitar player there today. A young guy named Colin from Sulawesi, makers to be more precise. He moved to Bali in January and met gary soon after. He’s a trained architect, photographer and a very good guitar player and 23 years old. The music gelled really well and even though we worked our asses off and my fingers hurt like hell we had a great session that lasted until about 5 p.m or maybe a bit later. By the time we finished we were sounding like a band, really great communication and compatible playing. We finished our night off at a small Warung close to their house where we ate a huge dinner for $12. The local village gamelan was practising next door which made our dinner experience very, very loud but interesting. Now we are back home and Georgie is on the phone with Kaye talking about Peter … who appears to be on the road to recovery.

Tuesday August 23, 2022

Turns out that yesterdays earthquake was 5.5 on the Richter scale and happened 140km down and about 60 kms south of Denpasar, it lasted for 10 seconds but there were no casualties and no major damage. A bit of excitement I say even though the Aussie newspapers have made it sound a lot worse than it really was.

Now it’s a new day. We don’t have any concrete plans as yet but I do know that we will be going on a decent walk very soon, as soon as I can get Georgie up and moving, maybe we’ll end up visiting Christine and Tim on the way back.

I realized yesterday that the villa always needs music. Music softens things down and creates an ambience or a mood. Maybe I need to really spent some time creating playlists so Georgie likes what I play as well. I realized the other day that familiarity is important for her.

Apart from anything else today is going to need to be a planning day. I might also go to the Tjampuhan sauna and cold plunge as well as having a hair cut. I need to hang some more pics and frames on the walls around the villa, so there you go …. I have a planned day.

It’s now approaching 7.30 a.m and I find myself getting impatient waiting for Georgie to appear and announce that she is ready to hit the road for our morning walk. The great thing about the past 3 weeks is that we have had so few disagreements and no real arguments That has been great, I’m loving not watching TV, I have no desire in Bali whatsoever to waste my nights sitting looking at a TV show although I’m still doing YouTube in bed but if the truth be told I often go to sleep as soon as I start listening.

12 Noon

We have returned from our walk. We stopped for a coffee at Mana, went to check out Gayatri again … poor Gayatri that looks like it has been abandoned for 10 years. Such wonderful memories from over a decade ago when Gigih looked after us during our 2 stays there. We dropped by the Gaia workshop and peaked in the back door and went to the retail shops as well. All in all a wonderful walk. I even picked up some Babi Kecap on the way back which by the way is absolutely delicious, better than I could have possibly imagined. Thank you for the recommendation Made and thank you Nyoman for preparing it!

We are listening to Oasis over our Bluetooth speaker as a sort of deja vu moment back to 1997 when we stayed at Kori Agung. Nice memories. I spoke to Lis a bit earlier she’s on the Valter Longo diet for a few days … doing well. Finn also, he sounds quite happy and poor Kaye is still in crisis mode with Peter and his pancreatitis.

Evening

We’ve just returned from 90 minutes at the Hotel Tjampuan Spa and dinner at Warung Mendez. The spa is eclectic, unique and highly effective. The small Finnish saunas a so hot that your bum burns when you sit on the wooden slats. Plenty of heat shock protein happening in these saunas. The cold plunge is also pretty close to perfect. Cold but not so cold that it’s unbearable and the hot is about the same. A real Goldilocks moment. We did 3 rounds of sauna, cold plunge and hot plunge before heading off. This spa is the closest thing to the mythical Greek Underworld that I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

During death, the soul and corpse is separated and the soul, guided by Hermes is sent to the Underworld. A bit of an exaggeration but it really feels mythical and when you are dizzy from the heat, cold contrast and look out across the river and ravine through the carved monkeys, frogs and other mythical characters including beautiful Balinese princesses you feel like you are in a strange and special place which even has special sound effects from the real insects and frogs that inhabit the space and all of this for less than $15.

I can’t wait to go back, especially on Saturday when we will be staying at Tjampuan for a few days while we have guests at Villa Tusk. We’ll have access to the spa whenever we want.

To end the night off we had a simple but delicious dinner at Warung Mendez where the kitchen staff cook the meals from scratch on full view in their open kitchen. Cheap, tasty and delicious food.

Wednesday August 24, 2022

Good Morning Kaye

Don’t let the guys appearance fool you, he’s a genius and really, really understands all of what he is saying.

He explains ….,

What the pancreas does and how it relates to the duodenum.
What the huge list of causes off pancreatitis is and what each one does. I’d say in Pete’s situation that it’s ethanol, or in other words alcohol but there are many other causes.
He explains what happens when certain enzymes get activated in the pancreas and why they cause inflammation.
He explains about the horrible pain that an inflamed pancreas causes and the best and worst position to be in.
He explains what the immune system does and how the cytokine storm happens.

I’ll talk to you later about this. I will send a link too the lecture to your email and also to WhatsApp.

It’s going to be worth the hard work and will weaponise you when it comes to helping Peter later on.

12 noon

I took photos along the way, random clicks of our lovely village where almost everything is sumptuous.

Thursday August 25, 2022

It has been raining vigorously since at least 4 a.m, that’s when I woke up and have been awake ever since but I don’t mind. I feel like I got a decent nights sleep and feel pretty damn good this morning. There’s something comforting about sitting shirtless in the villa with the doors open wide and the rain falling pretty heavily all around me. The only real issue is that it might thwart our desire to go on our morning walk but there again, who knows, it might just miraculously stop.

The days are moving faster but I don’t really mind. Each day is full of joy and happiness and I go to sleep happy at night. Good news on the family front. It looks like Peter is out of trouble on an immediate basis. The work will now need to begin. God knows what that means and what will eventuate but unfortunately it’s going to be up to Kaye to be the quarterback. Georgie, Finn and I can only be the support team. For now Georgie and Kaye can breathe a momentary sigh of relief.

It’s looking like Friday will be our day in Denpasar. We have to go to immigration quite early and then I have several tasks that need doing like checking out the screen for the projector, finding a safe and other bits and pieces for the villa. We still have quite a lot to get done for the villa but I’m not going to get stressed over it. Que Sera, whatever will be.

It’s funny in Bali, when you stop and listen there are sounds everywhere … roosters, birds, insects, the ambient background of motor scooter, the sound of the rain caressing the ground. Quite often I am not aware of the sounds but when I do put my attention on them I love filtering them to differentiate the layers.

It’s almost 8 a.m now and the rain doesn’t look like it’s going to submit to my wishes. Pitter, patter like a percussionist in a jazz fusion band.

Friday August 26, 2022

It’s 12.30 p.m on Friday on Day 26 of our current Bali adventure. We’ve just arrived back at our villa after a 5 hour journey to Immigration at Denpasar and back to get our photos taken for our visa extensions. God damn it went fast but having said that each way is one hours journey. We set off at 7 a.m while the clouds above Penestanan still released their tears of joy onto the surrounding terrain. Rain is Bali is really quite a pleasant experience as long as you don’t get so wet that you are waterlogged and uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

The trip down was quite smooth until we arrived at the outskirts of Denpasar City. We arrived at Immigration just after 8.15, got masked up and registered then sat down with all the other “bules (white westerners)” to be called to get our photos taken and fingerprints recorded. Maybe an hour or a tiny bit longer. We got through the photography section pretty quickly and I was pleased when the immigration guy who was looking after me took a double take at my passport photo and commented that I look a lot younger now after all the passport photo was taken over 3 years ago before we went on out trip to India and before I embarked upon my new healthy lifestyle.

Made was waiting for us when we got out and we walked back to his car together which he had parked out on the street due to the fullness of the government car park. We decided to drop into Naga Sanga Amurwabhumi (Dragon State), a totally over the top Balinese jewellery extravaganza that we have driven past so many times. It’s even more kitsch than Antonio Blancos in Penestanan, the chaotic, cacophonous, crazy statues and sculptures out the front have always put me off but as the years go by I am growing quite fond of them. After being there for just a few minutes I realized that they are an integral part of the overall experience. Very, very quirky.

I’ve never liked jewellery shops but this one was an exception. It’s huge and has so many pieces on display, I think that the overall effect of the sculptures that adorn the floor, walls and ceilings act as a perfect counterpoint to the jewellery. Georgie chose a couple of pieces for herself which we will return to buy and I purchased a new ring and a silver neck chain. Very happy with what I got. I took loads of photographs while we were there, Georgie even took a few of me sitting between 2 frog sculptures. We spent at least an hour at Naga Sanga and I loved every second of it. Funny.

Our next stop was a teak shop that sells huge slabs of timber. We are considering using something like this for our outdoor table on our deck. I got an idea of price and Ketut sent me loads of pictures of what the tables look like when they are complete. This could be an option.

It’s now 7.50 p.m and we’ve been back at Villa Tusk for almost an hour. We picked up our dinner and lunch at local Warungs today. Nyomans in Penestanan and also some tofu (Tahu) and chicken (Ayam) from Warung Jouse in Sayan, which is our neighbouring village. We also had some pisang goreng (fried bananas) and coconut cream for desert … forbidden food that I am allowing myself to have in Bali. We spent a grand total of $18 on food today and it was delicious.

Prior to eating dinner at the Villa I had a deep tissue massage with the lovely and very proficient Wayan. God almighty, she’s good at massaging. No messing around. It hurts like hell but after the hour is up you feel like you could float out of the body, and all for $15 plus a $5 tip. Therapeutic physically as well as financially. After the massage Georgie and I went for a walk across to Sayan down a new track that I found a couple of mornings ago. It goes down to the wonderful Ayung River that flows powerfully in a ravine next to the main Sayan road. The location of Taman Bebek that we stayed at so many times in the late 90s. The end of the 20th century. At the end of the track there is a temple, I don’t know what the temple is called but it’s small and is a water temple. I need to do more research. It is a dead end at this point so after taking a good look and some photos we turned around and walked back up the track which now presented itself as a rather steep hill.

I wish I could somehow express what it’s like having a villa in Penestanan. If the happiness could pour out of my heart and be expressed in words or images maybe I could share what it’s like. Each day unfolds in its own magical way, sometimes planned and at others completely unplanned.

Saturday August 27, 2022

This morning I want to explore the experience of loss. It comes in many forms but the aspect that I will address is the response and reaction to losing something you thought you were going to have or being thwarted when you thought you were going to pull something off to discover that it’s no longer going to happen.

The first thing that seems to happen is that my attention gets stuck on that Which becomes a problem or loss that needs to be solved or resolved. It’s a thick gooey sort of mental mass, like Golden Syrup or treacle. Once it starts it sort of gets on everything, into the pots of you my consciousness. It’s like sticking a coin on a piece of wood using super glue, immovable. I find that it lowers the overall vibration of my reaction to life. I have to admit that it has gotten better as the years go by, I mean my response. It is no longer so intense but needless to say it still happens and I want to do everything in my power to make the loss or feeling or problem go away or to resolve whatever it is that has been lost or not achieved.

My first realisation is that if I immerse myself in the loss then I am robbing myself of the space that exists between me and it. It is not me but it can become me if I create it that way and that’s the key. It needs to be created to have power over me. I need to create it. It has no life or power of its own. When I have a loss and cease to be an observer I lose my objectivity and hence my ability to let it go. The reality is that the loss and the feeling is transient. It is as solid as I make it. I could let it go if I wanted to and view it as an observer. Viewing what happened, how it happened, maybe why it happened. I could take responsibility for the parts of it that I did have the potential to have power over. I could also learn from it and resolve to repair whatever it was that I did wrong or not well enough. There its no point in wishing something did not happen after it has transpired. There are many things that cannot be undone. Life will go on regardless and there is no point in knowingly lowering the quality of life.

Having looked at that I have realized that the solution is about observation, space, planning, strategy and even intensifying the willingness and potential ability to create something new and better. Holding on to something that has gone is a lost cause.

Letter to John Poon re Villa Tusk AirBnB Cancellation

Hi John Gary here. Firstly let me commiserate with you and your family about the loss you must be feeling about not coming to Bali. Yes I agree, the airlines have a lot to answer for and now that have all sorts of excuses to mess things up! That feeling of anticipation and excitement being thwarted by some external and uncontrollable factor is horrible. So firstly I’d like to express my understanding of what you and your family must be feeling like this morning. Eka had also spent quite a lot of time organising activities and doing research for your trip. Made was excited about driving you and your family around Bali for the next 7 days. Your trip meant a lot to their family. Georgie also went to bed last night feeling really sorry for you guys. But the good news is that the world will go on as will our lives and Bali will still be here for future trips and adventures. In regard to your kind offer to approach your insurance company about the lost accomodation costs I would like to thank you for your understanding. We had the same “loss” from a different angle as we rely heavily on the villa to support our day to day living costs. We misunderstood the AirBnB refund policy due to the Covid period where we had to give many refunds. We decided to give full refunds to all of our guests during covid and left it on the current setting. I appreciate your understanding that it is now probably too late to find other guests who will be interested in renting the villa for the period that you were going to stay. If we can find someone it will be a bonus and I will let you know immediately, fingers crossed. I have been onto AirBnB and discussed the situation with them. It appears that a refund has been issued to you and the only option now is to present the situation to the Resolution Department as they cannot bend the refund policy that has been applied to the booking. I will contact the Resolution Department and explain what happened. They will more than likely contact you and ask for some information or something in writing about your willingness to pursue an insurance claim. I’m sure you don’t want to think about any of this now and I fully understand that. So I will contact the Resolution team and either myself or them will get in touch a bit later. Let’s hope that we can resolve this so we are all “happy” and no one is out of pocket. And once again I offer my condolences and also my appreciation that you are being so understanding and supportive of all of us. Have a great day and do something really exciting to get your attention off the loss you must be feeling. Regards The Villa Tusk Team

Sunday August 28, 2022

It’s what I would call a cold Sunday morning. I’ve got to admit that I’ve never felt cold in Bali before, I’m not adverse to it and I quite like it. As the day evolves it will become warmer and end up being another Goldilocks Bali day.

It’s sort of hard to believe that we’ve been back in Penestanan for one week now. Lembongan seems so long ago but in the same context I don’t know where the time went over the past 7 days. If I looked back at my “Defrag Blues” entrees for this week I would find words describing each wonderful day.

Well, we did our band gig at Gary and Rosies’s party. “Gary, Gary and Colin”: GGC. A 70 year old, a 69 year old and a very special young man from Sulawesi who is 23. We did great. Somehow I winged it and it sounded like we had been playing together for a lot longer than one practise session. In actual fact, I loved it. Bring on more music Into my life. There is a wonderful sense of communication between the 3 of us which others noticed as well.

The other significant experience at the party was catching up with Lynne Fox after 26 years. That was pretty interesting because time didn’t matter, didn’t even enter into it. It was as if we had only last ween each other yesterday. I’m sure there will be loads of conversations over the coming days and I’ll wait to see what unfolds.

Note to Rosie

Hi Rosie Thank you so much for all the love and care you put into the party yesterday. I loved every second of it. Great seeing Lynne after 26 years, the passage of time disappeared in a puff of smoke, it was like it was only yesterday when I last saw her. Georgie and I are both so happy that we’ve met you guys. Hey, I had a brief but intense conversation with Yolanda about her brother, who has cancer. Could you possibly send me her contact details. I’d like to get to know her a bit more, really liked her intensity plus I want to send her some info on cancer. The other thing is some other names. In the swirl of all the brief meetings I either didn’t catch names or have forgotten them. I had great conversations with the couple staying with Lynne and Michael but I haven’t got any idea what their names are. I might see them today so can you let me know their names! I’m waiting for Georgie to get out of bed so we can head off on our walk. Have a great lunch today and thanks again. Gary

Confession time. I’ve pretty much blown my diet. It’s not that I’m eating crap, although I have had a little bit. I haven’t even been able to confront testing my blood sugar levels. I could easily get back into ketosis but I might leave it until we get back to Australia.

We have new challenges ahead of us. There are quite a lot of items and jobs we need doing for the villa but now that we have lost our current 7 day booking we are behind the 8 ball financially. I had even planned to win Tatts last night but alas.

Message to Lis

The party and gig went really well last night. I felt like an aging rock star. Loved every second of it and we played really well together. We are doing another session in a club in Mas on September 7. I’ll be addicted by then. met some new people at the party yesterday. It’s like going to the market and having a huge choice of food to choose from. Interesting and exotic people from all around the world with a lifetime of experience to share. Seeing Lynne Fox after 26 years was really easy, it was as if no time had passed. She’s still lots of fun. We have another party this afternoon. Our exotic friend from Columbia/Venezuala Patrizia is having a birthday party tonight, she arrived back from Ulawatu yesterday and her 26 year old son was arriving from New York last night. Fun and games. We are off for our walk now. Love Dad

We just returned to the Villa after a morning walk that evolved into a social event, followed by a culinary event. We started at about 9 a.m when we walked into Ubud and then turned left just after the Museum Lukisan. We had never taken this path before so had no idea what to expect even though we had walked up nearly all of the parallel pathways. It started off a bit rough but soon panned out into a nice but narrow pathway that eventually edged into a small piece of concrete with a sub on one side and a steep drop into a ravine on the other. If I was own a slither of concrete this wide one kilometre above a valley I would be mortified that I would lose my balance and drop to my death. Isn’t it funny how your mind works. The track continued on as a small muddy walkway that snaked precariously up a slippery hill with a FEW FOOTHOLDS AND EVENTUALLY WE CROSSED OVER A SMALL BRIDGE ONTO CHRISTINE AND TIM’S TRACK AND MADE OUR WAY BACK DOWN TO Zanzibar, the name of their house. They weren’t home were they! But we both had a feeling that they might be out for a coffee close by and we were right. We went back and spent at least an hour chatting to them which was quite pleasant. It turns out that Tim has a lot of Trinidad’s qualities, he is quiet but friendly, doesn’t interact all that well in large social gatherings but is great one on one. He also shares an attribute that is quite “Trinidad” in that you might be discussing something and he well disappear and return with a book that is relevant to the conversation. He did this twice today and both times the books were spot on.

When we left Zanzibar we walked back down to Tjampuan and up the stairs to Penestanan Kaja where we ate lunch in a Warung. The food was simple but delicious or enak as you say in Bahasa.

Now we are back home and if all goes to schedule we will spend a couple of hours at the Tjampuan Spa before going to Patricia’s birthday party.

Monday August 29, 2022

My big challenge this morning is going to be my response to AirBnBs decision on not helping us with the refund of the Monet we lost after John Poon had to cancel his booking. I feel hatred for the person at the other end of the comm line and I don’t even know who they are apart from a name. For all I know it might just be a computer, probably not though. The simple truth is that hatred is not going to get me anywhere. If needs be I’ve got to let it go. They wear you down with their shitty unbendable policies and the sheer size of the corporation.

So my decision is that I will have to simply confront the way I feel and slowly (or quickly) work my way through it and create the future. If all of my attention goes onto attacking then I can’t put good energy and intentions into future bookings. One thing for certain is that we will now put our Villa on as many other platforms as possible.

Big corporations have tactics that leave very little leeway for people like Georgie and myself. No matter how ripped off we feel we have to stay objective.

Tuesday August 30, 2022

The whole trajectory of our Bali holiday changed yesterday when Georgie slipped and fell on the mossy road at Penestanan Kaja. She has a fractured bone in her left foot and for now she is villa bound. If nothing else it’s going to give her ample opportunity to read her books and plan changes at the villa, there’s got to be some sort of positive somewhere in all of this.

We’ve had a run of bad luck over the past few days. First one was the cancellation of the Poon family’s week at Villa Tusk and the ensuing loss of $4000 and now Georgie’s accident. There’s something going on but I haven’t put my finger on it yet. To make matters worse the weather in the mornings is completely weird. Wet and cold like an early spring Melbourne morning, a phenomena that I have never experienced in Bali. It’s actually cold until about 9 a.m and the idea of going out for a long walk in the early morning is not something to even consider.

On a positive note we really have made 2 new very dear friends. Gary and Rosie came to the villa as soon as they heard that Georgie was in trouble. They stayed until 9 p.m which was great because it took all of our attention off what was happening with Georgie and the whole dilemma of the potential repercussions of the accident.

Note to Gary and Rosie

Good morning guys. I just want to thank you for turning up last night in response to Georgie’s dilemma. It felt so comforting to see the 2 of you appear when we arrived back from the clinic. It’s been very, very special and magical to meet both of you this year, even making Bali feel even more like home. So once again, thanks for being there, supporting us and helping us to integrate into our life in Bali. Georgie is feeling a lot better this morning and we’ve organised our meeting to be earlier so all should be well and good for lunch at our place at 1 p.m

General

I went out walking around 8.30. The rain appeared to have finished but half way to Bintang the skies opened up again and the water pounded down from the heavens. Eventually it calmed down enough to walk to Bintang, buy some coffee, take out some money, go to the flower shop, buy some flowers and pop into the art gallery across the road. Quite a pleasant way to get the day rolling. On the way back to the villa I picked more flowers on the Yellow Flower path and by the time I arrived back I had an armful of brightly coloured flowers and maidenhair ferns.

We then had our meeting with our lawyer and our bookkeeper. She’s great, he’s great at talking in circles and not really saying anything. The goal is to get our Pondok Wisata which gives us permission to rent the villa out and pay tax. Unfortunately we’ve paid the lawyer $3000 nearly a year ago and have two movie ahead with him and all the confusion and greyness that shrouds him. God knows why it’s like this! The other lawyer we met a couple of weeks ago was so articulate and easy to understand.

I set the table and got the room ready. The table looked lovely. Rosie was ordering the food at Kemalun. Everyone arrived at 1 p.m. Gary first, then Rosie and finally Lynne and Michael. Lunch was perfect. Our villa was happy hosting a social event, even better than I had expected. Purnami picked up the food and overall it was a great success. Lynne and Michael departed first and Rosie and Gary stuck around for another “yak fest”. They are good friends.

Monday August 29, 2022

Big corporations have tactics that leave very little leeway for people like Georgie and myself. No matter how ripped off we feel we have to stay objective.

Wednesday August 31, 2022

I slept in this morning having very abstract, weird and exotic dreams so I didn’t leave the villa until 8 a.m. I went out on my own because poor Georgie is still on her crutches. So I walked up through Sangigan to the turn off toward Kedwatan but kept going straight past the gyms and then through the rice paddies to the road that comes back down from the end of the Tjampuan Ridge Rd which leads back too the Kedewatan Rd. Turned left at Jalan Sayan and sauntered down next to the crazy traffic dropping into shops I was curious about, walked in the driveway at Taman Bebek and then down to a Babi Guling shop. I ended up at my barber who gave me a great 30 minute haircut and beard trim for $5 and then next door to Warung Jouse to buy georgie some lunch. Because they cook the food from scratch I had a 30 minute wait,

Evening

After my massage with Wayan I took Georgie’s jewellery down to Chantra Bead Jewellery and organised repairs for Georgie’s necklaces then I headed back to the Tjampuan stairs gang to buy dinner, onion soup, veggie curry and god forbid, a banana pancake made with rice flour. I’m teaching myself the hard way that eating carbs is the complete wrong thing to do. I feel like I have concrete in my body or more specifically my gut. Not a great feeling.

I had decided that I would go to the Tjampuan Spa tonight. It’s such a magical place and I sure don’t want to miss utilizing it while I’m here. I’ve had quite a lot of saunas and cold plunges during this trip and I’m really, really enjoying them. Who would have thought that having saunas in bali could possibly be enjoyable.

I decided to walk to Hotel Tjampuan via the stairs that go down very steeply from Penestanan Kaja. The very same stairs that I first discovered in 1983 when we first stayed at Hotel Tjampuan but can’t remember going up them back then. The first time I am consciously aware of going up was in February 1997 when Allissa, Paul, Georgie and I stayed at Kori Agung.

I’ve been going on and on about how I remember seeing lots of fireflies in Ubud one night in 1987 when we drove up the road to Sangigan with Ayisha Davies. I was blown away and intrigued by the magic of an insect that could light up light a small electric globe. I haven’t seen fireflies in Bali for decades and really thought that they were all gone, extinct, but the other night my friend Gary told me that he sees them on his property which is off the beaten track so that made sense.

So I’m a few steps down the Tjampuan stairs tonight and I look out to the right at the quirky tower that has been there for as long as I can remember and there in the field right in front of me were hundreds of small fireflies lighting up and extinguishing like Christmas lights in December. I stood there flabbergasted with my jaw wide open. Truly a beautiful sight.

When I finally dragged myself away from the spectacular light show I plodded down the stairs (not bounded) because they were quite dark and I had promised Georgie that I would be careful. The same at Tjampuan. There are hundreds of steps down to the spa which is right down on the Wos River level. They do have tiny lights but they aren’t great and the steps are steep. It was 6.30 p.m and I had the saunas and hot and cold plunges 100% to myself. It was truly a wonderful experience and terribly exhilarating going from the very hot sauna to the cold plunge to the hot plunge where my body would tingle like it was being electrified. I did this about 4-5 times, backwards and forwards and before I imagined possible it was 8 p.m and time to come home.

Bali, August and September 2022

Tuesday August 23, 2022

Wednesday August 24, 2022

Thursday August 25, 2022

Friday August 26, 2022

Saturday August 27, 2022

Sunday August 28, 2022

Monday August 29, 2022

Tuesday August 30, 2022

Wednesday August 31, 2022

Related

Author

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Circulating Tumour Cells and Cancer Metastasis

Bali : My Found Paradise