BEING BALI… Post two...

 

Our Bali experience was more fulsome than I shared in the first post. I am offering more about the month of February during which we leased the Bali Beach House in the fishing village of Amed...

 What I called the "Water Spider Boats" were the traditional fishing boats - a constant feature of the visual environment, whether at sea or moored on the beach. Graceful & quite useful for fishing or touring visitors to the many underwater wonders of the Amed coast. Narrow deep hulls stabilized by twin bamboo out-riggers & an engine made them graceful & swift... a bit of romance to the eye.

They could also use triangular sails... adding yet more spice... 

These fishing boats are simple, while being also complex, with wrappings of rope or tape to hold the out-rigger parts to the hull. I made observation of the devices when I accompanied Stephen's snorkeling exploration one day... also experiencing the feel of the ride at various speeds in quiet water & with a rainstorm pending. Unfortunately, our captain did not have enough English to answer my curiosity questions. But I was impressed by the boats' engineering, which allowed them to be quite efficient for moderate skills on a beach acting for a dock or dry-dock.

The beaches frequently were crowded with these boats, as they were mainstays of livelihood.

We hired one of them to take SFS out to snorkel, giving me the experience of the ride & to examine the way they are put together...

Pardon me if I get repetitive. It's one of the blessings of maturity!

There are so many ceremonial observances in their daily lives; here we are almost posed with the very friendly owners of the house: Nengah & Putu. (I'll write more about her later in this post.)

I'm sharing several rather long, not much edited videos of the House-Blessing-Cleansing Ceremony  which took place while we were there, & to which we were invited....along with all the staff, who are like family...

We practiced new rhythms for our days... finding bits of unusual play & fun... sometimes even quite silly! 

SFS in Hammock demonstrated hanging-out comfortably...

I was drawn by the pool during sunny morning hours...

We enjoyed the staff, who, after making our breakfast, tidying the house & cleaning the pool... left us to our privacy

The three guys, each being named Wayan, which means they were first born in their families, each acquired descriptive nick-names we used to identify them in our stories. One Wayan liked dancing to our music & would dance playfully as he went about his yard work. 

He also had the job of doing some clean-up out on the beach in front of the house... beyond the purple door in the enclosure of the wall...

 

 

 

We loved the complicated sculpture of the roots of a tree close to the Balle [the roofed outdoor bed with views over that wall to the constant sounds of the surf... ]

 

The interior structure of roof of the Bale, above its cushion was dramatic...

 

From there we could look up to the balcony/deck of our second floor bedroom...

The bedroom on the ground floor below that was nice... 

... but that space felt too-enclosed... with heavy furniture.

 

 We preferred the more open & airy one above it, feeling more like a tree-house, with views of the sea & weather from its deck. 

But, I certainly liked to choose the bathroom on the ground floor... which was almost not a room at all, being more like a greenhouse with a shower... open to the sky.

I am also certainly choosing to share more "food porn" from the kitchen...

One of the cooks made us a cake with a Jack-fruit... which was over-the-top- delicious

The bakery also furnished delicious pastries...

A tree by the pool proved to be a Calabash as we researched on-line... curious about which grew the hollow bulbous gourd-like fruits having been tucked into the forks of its branches, which have been used historically as containers... ... a fascinating sighting & discovery to me as a gardener.,,

This simple shrine hung on the wall facing the sea...

 

It was part of the example of the way their culture, even as it is Hindi, was also quite animistic... honoring the life of the mountain & sea.... of plants , home & daily life itself. There were several stations where honor was paid... from the altar just inside the purple gate at the street, inside the courtyard of the house's front door then at this shrine marking where would be the house's "back door" entrance from the purple gate opening through the wall to the sea where, when we'd first arrived, there had been a similar shrine, mounted on a stone pillar, still remaining outside the house's wall... having been taken temporarily away to the temple for a larger ceremony, not yet having taken place before we left.  Putu, the lady of the house, left floral offerings & lit incense every morning at dawn. I would often be wakened curiously, given my life-long proclivity to sleep late... but that habit seems also to be changing to enjoy earlier morning activities. Proof that this ol'dog can learn new tricks... & enjoy them!

 

 

 One of those early mornings I caught the  incense  still smoking, tucked in a crevice... 

 

Mount Agung, a volcano still frequently active & considered sacred,

reminded us of our own volcano Tahoma temporarily sleeping at home...

We could see Gunung Agung from one of our favored restaurants... with one ambitious young waiter who we liked & could jokingly have brought home with us... we do love sweetly collecting memories of attractive young men during our travels.. appreciating their presence & their potential futures, as booty of our travels.

 

In all, we had a grand, indulgent month of education in ourselves!

This is how we practice the arts of "retirement"!