So yesterday was a big expedition. I took so many photos but they don’t really seem to capture the essence of the unique experience – the smells and sounds and conversations.
We started on very little sleep as we had a late night visit to a cousin and then a midnight online discussion with our guests as the electricity was out in the bungalow. Followed by a 4am wake up due to noise from the traditional Balinese Hindu gamelan (a cacophony of percussion) – yep, there was another ceremony that day – and the Hindu habit of sweeping the entire homestead and garden before dawn.
A trip to the market saw Made going to town! We bought so many kilograms of fruit and vegetables there was no way we could carry it back to his place by motorbike so no worries, we stashed it with the parking man (who looks after the hundreds of motorbikes parked outside the market) and it just appeared at Made’s place in the bemo he had surreptitiously booked via a 5 second chat across the road when we first arrived at the market. This place baffles me with its organisational procedures. Sometimes the most simple plans take hours of laboured discussion and sometimes complex schedules are sorted in seconds. I really don’t understand how!
A quick visit to the atm and a kitchenware shop to search for better quality cutlery, and home to meet the bemo.
Then off to the harbour stopping at the cousins place where we had been gifted a few plants the night before, and to the local shop where I had gone crazy the afternoon before buying general groceries and kitchen supplies.
At the harbour, we waited for only a few minutes for our chartered landlord’s boat to arrive and once again ladies carried the goods onto the boat, including the fridge on top of their heads. You are not allowed to load things yourself, instead you must pay the workers there as part of harbour usage fees.
The boat trip across was glorious and a refreshing change to being crammed in the public boat. I sat out the front and saw the most enormous turtle I’ve ever seen.
We had timed the pick up specifically to arrive at the beach closest to the bungalows at high tide, so we could ‘dock’ right at the beach. We actually unloaded the cargo ourselves.
Then a long unrewarding wait for a horse and cart to take our “stuff” on the last leg of the journey.
Made and I walked back and left everything at the beach as we needed to see to our guests.
Whilst home the wind blew up a bit and all of a sudden a fire started and took hold three properties
along from us and for a moment it was incredibly scary!
Made and about 20 other men ran over to the fire with hoses and tools and the neighbours started hosing down their house. Visions of Australian bushfires went through my mind and my heart was racing! I grabbed my iPad and phone and the bit of cash I have left and thrust them into my bag, ready to evacuate and run for my life… and whilst waiting I hosed down our boundary. The photo doesn’t depict the growling and crackling of the fire and the fear in the air. The flames lapped up the trunks of many coconut trees and burnt all the dry tinder. Approximately 5 acres was burnt before it came somewhat under control but it was still smouldering this morning. Apparently someone chucked a cigarette aside when they rode their bike past.
Anyway things settled and we went back to organise another horse and cart as the first didn’t show. And finally our fridge was installed! So exciting 
🙂.
This morning Made cooked nasi goreng and cah kangkung for our guests, two young ladies from UK and we sat and ate on the berugak, surrounded by building materials and dust.
We are still waiting for the windows and door and something to sit on, but hooray, the kitchen is a happening thing!!! 