November 23, 2016

November 23, 2016

"Believe" and "Gentleness". Two pretty safe cards today. Whew!  Both of these themes for the day kept us in a pretty quiet state.

While picking up the laundry this morning we learned something new.  Our place is called Rumah Kita and we knew from the time we booked it but what we didn't know is that the english translation of Rumah Kita is "my home". How perfect is that?!

Happy to report....all 13 pieces were returned from laundry.  It really is amazing to think how they're able to keep all of it straight!

Something else to report is a bit of a funny story on Lynda.  Yesterday while we were out walking Lynda thought she'd do a little shopping for an umbrella....we are here during rainy season after all and wouldn't it be nice to have an umbrella in case you wanted to run to the store or something while it was raining.  It was a great idea and so at the first shop she saw with umbrellas she asked the very sweet elderly man who was watching the shop how much the umbrellas were.  He replied that they were 60,000.  Lynda was aghast when she heard the price, so much so that she didn't even want to barter with him.  She just told him outright that it was way too much money and she turned to leave.  It was sometime later in the evening when it dawned on her that 60,000 is not $60 as she'd thought, but rather it was $6 which isn't too much to begin the bartering at all.  Understandably she felt so bad because she had reacted so strongly to his price.  The good news is that early this morning while she was out for her walk she saw him at the shop again and she was able to share the story with him and they both had such a good laugh about it that his wife even came out from the back to see just what was going on.  She too got in on the story and in the end everyone was laughing and happy.  We still don't have umbrellas but Lynda's got the money all figured out now.

This afternoon we walked down the lane to Julie's place and had a tour of her garden where we learned a couple of new tidbits of information.  When she first built her place she had a holy man come in to bless it (a very common practice in Bali-everything receives a blessing at various stages of it's building/development/lifespan).  The blessings typically include some kind of decoration and that decoration is never removed once placed there during the blessing.  Over time it will deteriorate and fall and eventually disappear but until it does....it will be left where it is.  Sometimes it might stay there for years!  Another thing we learned is about managing the evil spirits that might come to wreak havoc.  Julie has a statue of Ganesh sitting just inside her front gate.  The path curves to the right and Ganesh sits straight ahead from the gate.  The belief there is that evil spirits cannot turn corners and so when/if they enter the gate they will bump into Ganesh and be forced to retreat back out the gate.  Humans can turn the corner so Ganesh does not interfere with their entrance.  Julie's place is lovely in spite of the fact that she's currently got construction going on.  She is having a new outdoor reception area built and it was interesting to watch the workers in their process.  For those of you who saw the photo of the guy carrying the huge roll of something down the lane way this morning....that was going to Julie's place.  It will be used on the roof if I understood correctly.  Also in Julie's garden there is a section that is walled off for the spirits use and within that area there are two temples maybe about 7-8 feet tall.  The decision was made when the property was under construction that just these two temples would need to be maintained on site as all of the other many many temples that need a spot are covered off back in the village of the owners of the property.  For example, there needs to be a temple for the ancestors and there is one of those back in the village that is being maintained by the family and so no need to have another one here in town on this property too.  The two that were necessary though are: one for the gods of the mountains and above and one for the gods of the land and below.  The third aspect of addressing the need to observe that which is important is covered off by us humans.  The belief is that if all is good with the gods above (addressed through the temple for the mountain and above) and all is good with fellow man (addressed by each of us in the way we greet and treat one another) and if all is good with the land and the gods below (addressed through that particular temple) then all is good with the world.  It really is a nice way to move through life when you think about it!  Julie also introduced us to several different variety of fruit trees on her property as well as the massive snails that live among them.  In fact, we're now thinking that the thing the cat was eating the other day might have been a massive snail that he had extracted from its shell.......ewwwwwww!

After our tour at Julie's she invited us up to see her private residence too and join her for a drink on her balcony which we were happy to do.  The fresh fruit juice that Goodday served us was delicious!  There were four of us as Julie had also invited her new friend Joanna who'd just arrived from France for a 2 week visit at a villa just outside Ubud.  We were having a lovely visit up there on the balcony when Lynda noticed that the sky was changing quite quickly and not in a good way.  Within minutes it was as though someone had turned on the taps up above and the skies literally opened up.  The torrential rain that blew in with those grey skies meant that we weren't going anywhere for a bit!  So, in Balinese fashion, we used the rain as an excuse to have just one more juice and wait it out.  Sure enough within 1/2 hour the rain had stopped and we were able to head back to our own home to see what damage had been done to the stuff we'd left out on our patio.  As luck would have it the overhang of the roof over our patio protected all of our belongings and so we got off easy and learned a lesson about leaving anything outside during the rainy season - even if you're just planning to go for a few minutes!

We located another little local warung for a late lunch/early dinner.  This one featured a number of antique Vespas (motorbikes) some of which you could use as seats at the bar while you enjoyed your dinner.  As I read back over this....it sounds like it might be kind of fancy but its not.  It's super clean and comfortable but it is very rustic at the same time.  Once again our meal was fantastic and this time we topped it off with an order of black rice pudding that was AMAZING!  In the end, after 2 appies, 2 mains, 2 waters, 1 dessert, and 1 coffee our total bill was 98,000 or $10 which works out to $5 each for our total food costs for the day!  The only way that can get any better is if we don't eat anything at all which neither of us is willing to do given that the food here is delicious!

Somehow after that late lunch/early dinner we both found ourselves face down on massage tables!  Not sure just how that happened but it was nice. LOL. 90 minutes later we had one direction in mind.  Back home!  Shower!  Blog!  Bed!

Soooo.....nighty night,
L & L