Joel Singer is a our long-time friend, who was married to James Broughton, the poet & filmmaker about whom my husband, Stephen Silha, made the film BIG JOY over a decade ago.
Joel has been living in Bali for many years & we've visited him & his late husband Nirgrantha, before he died five years ago. We went down to Northern California several years ago to celebrate Joel's wedding to his new love, Nana, who is Indonesian. Now both couples (we and they) have developed a further mutual friendship. We traveled together around Sri Lanka in late 2024, with our friend Orlando.
Nana is an aesthetician & herbalist who peruses the early markets to collect the best of exotic fruits to offer for our breakfasts when we visit. He is a charming & sensible healer... always making some tasty tonic, with spices fruits & herbs... like his amazing jamu.
But the black garlic, aged for two weeks in a simple appliance (which is now my next desire), astounded because it was so rich that he served it like a side "candy" (see right, below durian and above pineapple) to the fruit plates, which were arranged like brilliantly colorful paintings, with sculptural fruits in their shells... I can only appreciate his skills, with a healthy appetite for more!
Joel now has acquired a significant portion of ownership of this wonderful property. It is called Villa Vajra (vajasra) -- that being the name chosen for the first & largest of several villas now built on the land. All in cooperation with the owner, as foreign owners are not allowed; just investors. They have a long-term lease. This, it seems, is the way the Island encourages the rampant growth which is the base of its current economy.
These villas are built on the edges of still-planted rice fields, with farmers herding ducks to clear the fallow patties of pests & grubs, to begin tilling the patties... before the priests of the nearby temple, the controllers of the irrigation system, allow them to flood again to plant with the rice seedlings, sprouted in a small nursery bed nearby. There is only a single bit of noise from a motorized machine to prep the mucky soil before the farmers settle them quietly by hand into remarkably regular rows to grow until the harvest.
That quiet lifestyle has been the way this gentle culture has become fabled for its art, dance & music... all as good & well-grounded living.
The view from the new opening dining room doors of one Villa looks across the reflection off the flooded paddy of the landscape around the larger part of Villa Vagra ...
When we returned a month later, that water had become an established crop.
Just out of sight is a grill kitchen, so that the space functions as a dramatic dining room... freeing the Villa Sati, which Joel & Nirgrantha designed for themselves... another tall traditional roof, quite a bit smaller, more intimate living-dining-kitchen space as an airy cube of glass in a lush tight garden with a small lap pool & a generous hot tub.
A separate bedroom with a bath, shower & a huge tub... big enough for both us us when Nana treats the two of us to one of his hand picked herbal baths. We so appreciate being spoiled by his artful craft.
A boardwalk, studded with pots, guides one on the traverse across the adventure of flooded rice-fields toward the largest villa, which is busy as a multi-use gathering & entertaining pavilion, with three bed/bath suites & another, used as a versatile library or guest suite.
Inside its front gate are stone pads to walk over a pond teeming with always hungry fish... following you until one gets to the two suites,
Beyond the villa, with its pools of lily pads & papyrus with active fish, then a cascade down to the swimming pool and hot tub alongside the vaulted roof sheltering a large open living area.
The core of the various reasons Villa Vagra was conceived & built as a versatile space, which has recently been used to be a part of Nirgrantha's bequest to invite selected serious souls to sit in silent meditation for a periods of at least a month. Other times it has been reserved for larger families or groups of friends, as part of the income to support this property. We are honored & pleased to have been included in the sometime guest list.
Across the pool is the lower suite, which we'd never yet been given as our quarters before, but the meditators were leaving as we arrived.
Just beyond the room, down the slope, is a roofed area where folks meditate and where Nana gave each of us massage.
Beyond are stairs down to a roofed bale... then more stairs down passing the small & well outfitted gym before continuing to drop through numerous landscaped terraces down into the steep ravine, ending at a small river... all of this originally landscaped by Nirgrantha, when he was more spry. I was quite inspired by my exploration of this walk on an earlier visit some years ago... when I too was more spry. I'm glad for that memory!
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