2011
Today's the Day
4 October 2011
It all starts today. Having woken early I thought I might get a few words down before heading into the fray in a couple of hours time. It’s raining! Has been all night. Does this mean the musim hujan (wet season) has begun? The current dripping rain is hardly monsoonal though. I think I left my umbrella at Josh's, which mean a damp run between venues a few times today.
Cathy and the others have arrived - met Sally and Vivienne on Tuesday evening and took them to a nice place for dinner - Bumbu meaning "Spices". Did not see Cathy until yesterday morning when we moved down to Puri Saraswati as hers was a very late flight. It was a good thing she travelled on the same flight as Alex's dad as he was bringing up a second-hand BBQ for Alex!! - and a 10k box of groceries (like olive oil, olives, lentils, etc). Cathy was able to share the weight load with him - seems like you can have 30k on Garuda these days. They just made it under 60k between them.
Anne and I saw something very special on Tuesday - a museum which I only recently heard of - that was set up by the man who built the Javanese-style restaurant in Ubud that I've mentioned before. He is an art dealer and collector from Java - lived in Bali for 40 years though. On his property just out of Ubud he has re-erected five large Javanese joglo wooden houses in splendid gardens. They are over 100 years old and house his vast collection of puppets and masks, open to the public. It is an extraordinary collection and covers the puppetry and dance masks of other Asian countries too. Puppets originally were used to retell the old Hindu legends that are basic to Indonesian culture for imparting moral values, but also later used to spread new ideas like Islam. There’s even a set of Christian shadow puppets. I'll put in a few photos to give you some idea. It will be on my "tour guide" list of must-see places when friends come to Ubud in future. The buildings alone are worth seeing. They are pulling these antique beauties down all over Java and building concrete monstrosities in their place! But they are being given a new life here in Bali, thanks to this extraordinarily man - I met him again in the gardens of the museum with his wife, and was able to tell them how I felt about what he was doing. The museum is free to visit!
Cathy and the others have arrived - met Sally and Vivienne on Tuesday evening and took them to a nice place for dinner - Bumbu meaning "Spices". Did not see Cathy until yesterday morning when we moved down to Puri Saraswati as hers was a very late flight. It was a good thing she travelled on the same flight as Alex's dad as he was bringing up a second-hand BBQ for Alex!! - and a 10k box of groceries (like olive oil, olives, lentils, etc). Cathy was able to share the weight load with him - seems like you can have 30k on Garuda these days. They just made it under 60k between them.
Anne and I saw something very special on Tuesday - a museum which I only recently heard of - that was set up by the man who built the Javanese-style restaurant in Ubud that I've mentioned before. He is an art dealer and collector from Java - lived in Bali for 40 years though. On his property just out of Ubud he has re-erected five large Javanese joglo wooden houses in splendid gardens. They are over 100 years old and house his vast collection of puppets and masks, open to the public. It is an extraordinary collection and covers the puppetry and dance masks of other Asian countries too. Puppets originally were used to retell the old Hindu legends that are basic to Indonesian culture for imparting moral values, but also later used to spread new ideas like Islam. There’s even a set of Christian shadow puppets. I'll put in a few photos to give you some idea. It will be on my "tour guide" list of must-see places when friends come to Ubud in future. The buildings alone are worth seeing. They are pulling these antique beauties down all over Java and building concrete monstrosities in their place! But they are being given a new life here in Bali, thanks to this extraordinarily man - I met him again in the gardens of the museum with his wife, and was able to tell them how I felt about what he was doing. The museum is free to visit!
Yesterday with everyone, we went on a drive though the countryside near here to the pretty water temple of Gunung Kawi Sebatu that the Swiss friends enjoyed so much when I was here in August - and to the famous rice terrace views at Tegalalang. We have the same driver as then, Ketut Yogi - who is just lovely. He looked after the Swiss women beautifully.
The Australian writer Benjamin Law (The Family Law) is staying here at Saraswati and we adopted him at breakfast yesterday. Gorgeous young man. We heard him speak at Byron Bay and loved his sense of humour. Australian-born Chinese.
Feeling a bit seedy today after being unusually exhausted yesterday and a restless night - hope I am not getting ill! Very bad timing!!