Bali : Monday April 25th, 2022
Georgie and I started coming to Bali together in 1997. In 1998 we spent 4 weeks in Sayan which is when these photos were taken.
We are about to embark on Day 7 of our trip to Bali. Yesterday was a day of rest and relative tranquility. I cooked 2 yellow curries, one with tofu, tempe and root vegetables and the other for me with “keto” vegetables, both had moringa scattered into them. I’ve still got a lot to learn about Balinese herbs. I have done some research on moringa though and it sounds like a miracle tree, amino acids and other nutrients that can really boost nutrition.
I feel like I can have bragging rights about my curry, it was absolutely delicious, one of the best curries that I had ever made and eaten but I had the advantage of a beautiful selection of organic vegetables as well as freshly ground spices like cardamon, nutmeg, chilli, coriander, fresh ginger, turmeric, garlic and galangal plus fresh limes, moringa and a selection of fresh herbs like mint, parsley and basil. Georgie told me her curry tasted pretty good as well. I also made a desert with coconut yoghurt, coconut cream, “frozen” berries topped with coconut butter, chilli flakes, nutmeg, turmeric and a scattering of monk fruit. The coconut butter gets hard and goes all crunchy. Yum. We’ve decided to give eating and cooking at home more of a go unless we are on the road. Having said that we have a guy making us a vegan pho later today for our dinner tonight. he has a vegan, Ayurvedic restaurant in Penestanan Kaja just near Cafe Vespa. I’m looking forward to that. He has a huge list of what I can’t eat and seems to welcome the challenge of making something special for us that fits into the guidelines of keto. Ubud could really do with a keto restaurant. It is something to consider for the future.
The reality with keto though is that most people tend to look at it as a short term weight loss diet as opposed to the healthy permanent eating regimen that I see it as. When you walk into the supermarket in Australia now it is full of keto treats that have hijacked the name but are really just low carb junk food. I suppose it’s OK to have something like this once in a while but people will fall for it and think if it says keto then it must be healthy or have some weight loss attribute. This is so far from the truth. Big business always looks for loop holes to hijack and compromise health as they can get away with charging huge prices for substituting the carbs with some other crap.
My braces started playing up again yesterday and I may have to make another trip to the dentist at The Mansion. It appears that something has come loose at the back of my lower left jaw. I can readjust it with my fingers but that is a bloody nuisance so I will write to Chris a bit later and let him know. The braces are a bigger challenge than I could have imagined but hopefully they will be worth the pain and inconvenience when my jaw is aligned in 12 months time.
We had a few tense moments yesterday in regard to our agreement with Made and our driving arrangements. It is all part of ironing out out interaction with Balinese mores. There is still a lot that we both have to learn about dealing with the Balinese as there is a thing where they say “Up to you” when you ask how much something will cost. I also realize that we need to make an offer to get the negotiation underway. The abstract “you decide” really doesn’t work for me as it is so easy to err in both directions which always ends up being embarrassing for somebody. This happened to us in India as well. I will talk to Purnami about this so we are on the same page. I wrote a note to her this morning which is below.
Good morning Purnami
I hope yesterday was a good day for you and Made. I used the moringa in 2 curries that I made. I still have lots left but it worked well. I will do more experiment. Today I am not certain what we will do, Georgie is still asleep but when she wakes we will walk into Ubud and walk up Jalan Suweta because I want to visit a balinese man named Ocky. Can you say thank you to Made about the car and agreement to drive us. I know I still owe him 300,000 for the other day, can you also ask him how much he thinks for petrol for that day. Today I will find a bank and get some money from the ATM if I can. I will also take out 3,000,000 as 50% of the money for driving for next 4 weeks and give it to you I hope. I put cooking oil on some of the kitchen benches and it works good. Bagus … I am happy with the finish. You will see when you come, maybe we will need to do again every 2 months, not certain yet. Today I will also talk about the “Flower Arangements” I have an idea that might not cost money and I will also buy big glass vases from Razer shop in Kerabokan when we go. I will show you. I am sorry if there was any misunderstanding about the driving yesterday. I hope that Made is happy with our agreement. If there is ever any problem it is 100% OK for us to talk about it. We will see you after we return from our walk and if there is anything that we need to do today we will let Made know later.
I got a very positive response to this communication within minutes of sending it. The only thing to do now is to work out our arrangement with petrol. I will talk with Purnami.
We both now have a responsibility to work harder to understand the Balinese psyche which is different from the west. each culture has it’s idiosyncrasies and it is up to the visitor to become well versed in the manners and eccentricities of the culture that are now a part of.
Our trip to Sayan Point yesterday was pretty idyllic. We needed up lazing around for about 4 hours until the late afternoon. Soree (pronounced sorey) … this is the late afternoon greeting “Selamat Sore”. We walked home, stopping at the pho shop to let him know what I couldn’t have in the soup and then came back to the villa. Soon after we went down over the bridge at Tjampuhan to have a $10 massage which is more about relaxation than therapy. But it’s a nice way to spend an hour or so.
The next issue is to eat our dinner earlier as we are meant to be in bed by 9 p.m and need to have eaten at least 3 hours prior to going to sleep which seems to be around 10 p.m.
