Three Days in Paradise

14.4.06

Coming..

It’s good to be back home. Bali is home. Ubud is home. Room #12 is home. I love the smell of the room. The same room of almost three years. I know every corner; how to use the broken remote control, where I put hangers (I slipped it in one drawer long time ago and it’s still there!), how to turn on the broken hair dryer. I even know that the hot tap in my alternate room – #20 – is on the right side (= cold tap); and the aircon needs new remote control ha ha.. KIE stayed in that room once and she said that she suspected that I had share in this hotel. Ha ha.. of course, all eight staffs are under my control.
(Photo of room #12 -- room below)

Bali was hot hot hot. Sun was shining so brightly. Standing under sun was almost unbearable, sooo hot. I went shopping at BEN -- the Happy beads. He reminded me my promise to him. Yaa I forgot. I promised him to share Majapahit books. I turned on my reminder. I like to know him, man with lots of interest and hi spirit. He designs beads he sells in his shop, so authentic. He studied geology! So interesting. His interest in art wins. I bought quite a lot of his Majapahit beads today. I liked the way he colored the beads, matt like antique, perfect for ethnic accessories.

Next shop was ABANG – big accessories shops with large collection. I’m lucky to find this shop a year ago. This is the only shop which offers me the most reasonable price for reselling. Other shops may offer the same but… they want us to buy in big volume like 100 pieces/item. How can I have a nice small shop with variety if I have 100 pieces per design? Therefore I prefer this Madurese shop. I learned from them that many in bead biz in Bali are from Madura. They create and make the accessories in Bali. In this shop, at least twenty men are involved and they are all relatives. It was fun to meet them. They liked singing a cappella and joking with customers. One guy who always helped me adores my silver bracelets; he always asked me to share one. Today he gave me one nice blue shell bracelet. Nice friends I have in Bali.

Next visit was a shop as huge as hangar. No hyperbolic. I knew when they had half the space empty and now… merchandise spills into the parking space. They have huge range of bronze things, big and small. They present it nicely with base and frame, in big volume, in very reasonable price. Now they add the variety; they have women things like beadwork and linen. This time I came to shop wedding memento for ATO. I just mentioned the price range, they took care. I got six items within the range for sample. I know well one attendant who always helped me. One of my friends in Bali.

Heat had stopped me from eating well. I didn’t feel like eating. I wanted to have nice drinks more. I had tuna puff and ginger tonic before ABANG and later in the afternoon… I had one lumpia, one-third banana pancake, strawberry lassi, and cappuccino. A bit of everything. Trip to Ubud was tiring. Sitting in the back of Kijang is always painful – non-ergonomic seat. But returning home is always wonderful. I look forward to having nice time at PLV tomorrow. (Photo of my ginger tonic) 23:25


15.4.06

Sitting..

I slept early but at 4:00 I awoke. It was a bit hot. I waited. Half an hour passed and I knew that I had to do something to get to sleep again. I walked and adjusted the aircon temp – 4 degrees down. Good. It put me to sleep in no time.

It was a nice morning. Quiet. I tried to use dial-up again and no connection still. CDMA doesn’t work in Bali. Good GPRS thru PDA is still working -- in the past even GPRS didn’t work. Ubud is so unique. 8:49

At 10:00 I was half wet walking from supermarket to parking. It was raining so hard but the sky was blue. I tried to buy new phone card for internet. All connections failed in hotel. I ended up stopping by silver shop owned by a Jap lady and ordered four bracelets for PEN. I bought one and a pendant for myself. I never missed visiting this shop when I went to Ubud. Always have something new. I also bought ceramic plate n bowl for self and a vase for Mama, designed by a Jap girl. Lucky women who have opportunity to show their art far from their homeland.

PLV looked great. Believe it or not, I forgot how it looked the last time. It looked new today. Then I remembered that we put new floor lamps the last time we visited, we changed the display. I walked around and tried to recall each item. Nice. I asked staff for tripod and started to take pictures.

I just found out that CDMA worked at PLV when IN – an abstract painter – and wife dropped by. They knew we were at PLV. He texted me every now and then. So I had to turn off computer and talked to them. An hour and half passed. We asked them to go out and have lunch with others too. Returned to PLV, we had Bali coffee. RAD came over with friends. So good to see her again in Ubud.

More than five hours, IN and wife went home. Ehm. Javanese hospitality -- silaturahmi. So nice of them to drop by… but I didn’t have time left for working more at PLV. I did some photos checking while they were there. It was not polite I know, but I needed to use my time wisely. I didn’t want to make staff worked overtime although the idea of working till late is nice. This is part of living in kampong. We respect our neighbors as they respect us.

I tried to blog post but could only manage posting it as draft – forget about uploading pictures, signal was too weak.

I wrote above before midnight and went to sleep. Too tired of not having too much physical activity. I spent almost all day yesterday sitting. Hm.

16.4.06

Going..

It’s Sunday again. On the first day I kept thinking it’s Saturday and was glad to know that still a full day left. Now it’s gone. Going on 16:00 flight leaves very little time to do many. I thought last night; I really have to stay in Ubud for minimum two weeks. Holidaying the first few days and working the rest of the stay.

I looked around room now. All gadgets are on the floor. I want to go to Pasar Ubud but sun is already high. I noticed my skin has changed color, now with tee pattern I wore on the first day. So quick to get tan here, especially in Legian area. Mm.. get up now. Get ready for Malang. 7:32

I did stretching under sun by the pool. It was so good. Like having my back ironed.. warm. Now finished packing and missed my big tote bag. My really nice ceramic bowl could not be put inside luggage. I once took the risk and broke a really nice bowl. I’m thinking of how to hand carry it now. Not big but high… Makan pagi now.
(Photo of trees seen from the pool) 9:01

Haa.. Long breakfast, very short visit to PLV, and went to see MM next door. PLV’s ex-manager. Nice Balinese guy. Diff-s (-erent and -icult). I still treasure him as good friend tho. I brought him nice linen shirt. We chatted over Bali coffee I like – tho I felt it's too early to have. I learned something from him today. About wedding gift. In Indo it’s common to drop an envelope after signing guest book. In the past, not only cash, but could also be check. And today.. They have a small room with curtain, inside there's one person sitting with.. credit card authorization machine!! I never heard of such thing in Jakarta. I know Jakartan prefer to pay cash always, not minding about how thick the 'envelope' could be.

We chatted for an hour then off checking out hotel. It was a really hot day. Airport was still quiet in the afternoon. It could only get worse after 18:00 on long weekend with many extra flights to many destinations. Good my flight was on time. I napped from taxiing to taxiing -- 25 minutes. Only woke up short to submit a lucky draw.

It was perfect to arrive in Surabaya at 16:30. Nice weather, nice driver. Lucky. I didn’t chat with him. He had Indo pop songs played. I enjoyed. Later he had keroncong. Trying to soothe me? It was quite a long ride, one n half hour. Arrived Mama’s street, he knew where to go. In fact, he had taken Mama to airport twice! It’s a small world..

Mama is well. Full of spirit as always. She sewed tag on batiks for exhibition. Full agenda for tomorrow and day after. Always nice to get a short brief of my short stay. Ha ha..