Missing the small 'luxuries'

Taking a warm shower in Bali is a matter of timing, especially if you live in Jimbaran. Usually, the best times are after 10pm at night, and before 10am and after 2pm in the day. At any other time, you either have insufficient water to trigger the heater for a hot shower, or you just have to make do with a cold shower.

Water is transported from somewhere else, possibly Denpasar, to Jimbaran in pipes. The water pressure may remain constant throughout the day, but there are more people using water in the day for household purposes. So at times the water pressure is too low and there may even be no water. When this happens, we just wait until the water comes back on, which usually is between 30 minutes to an hour.

While showers and shower heads are not uncommon in Bali, most locals have never seen a shower head before, much less know how to use one.

The S.O. was telling me a story about the first gal he went out with when he first arrived in Bali: she came from a village and had never before seen a shower head or known the concept of taking a shower. So amazed was she by this, she brought another friend to take at look at the shower that was at the villa he used to rent.

Most Balinese bath with water from the tap, collected from in a tub in the washroom. So even when the water supply from the tap is dead, they still have water to flush the toilet or to have a bathe with. Due to this, they are used to washing themselves with cold water and are unaffected if there is no warm water.

Growing up in Singapore, I remember taking baths out of a red plastic tub, especially when I was a girl of five-years-old. However, these were warm baths: my grandmother would boil water in a metal kettle over the stove, then add the hot water to the cold water from the tap in the tub, creating a warm and soothing bath. Then in the years when I became a teenager, heaters were installed in bathrooms and we enjoyed warm water from the tap.

But these heaters that we have in Singapore run on electricity: you flick a switch on the wall to turn them on. Here in Bali, our heater runs on gas - liquified petroleum gas - as it is cheaper than having it run on electricity. So instead of having only one tank of gas for cooking, we have another one to heat the water for our us to enjoy a warm shower.

I miss the conveniences, such as an instant warm shower, that I had in Singapore. But each thing here, even the experience with the shower, brings back childhood memories that have been dormant for the past 10 years. And I like it.

Flashback to Singapore

Last Saturday night, instead of staying home to sleep, we went to Kuta beach. No, we were not moon-tanning. Rather, it was my first clubbing night in Bali. We went to Paparazzi Lounge where DJ Small, resident of Attica in Singapore, was spinning as part of the Double 6 presents Wonderland event, with vocals by Hanna Hais.

Small rocked the place with his good mix: from his second track onwards, the dance floor remained crowded despite the constant flux of customers at the club. I enjoyed dancing to his tunes; deja vu, if you know what I mean.

But before the music took over and brought me to the dance floor, I scanned the lounge. About 90 per-cent of the customers were non-locals. There were those who are fair-skinned, some boasted golden brown tans, and others were naturally dark brown or coffee. The few locals present were either friends of the promoter, or girls looking to get lucky.

This last group of customers brought me back to the kind of clientele that some clubs in Singapore have: local girls on a night out, hoping to hook a foreigner for a boyfriend. The guy can be old, fat, ugly or absolutely rude, by his own country's standards. But to these girls, all they see is money and possibly a way out of the country. Sounds familiar, does it not?

Some of these girls were staring daggers at me when I was dancing. I do not know whether they were jealous that guys were checking me out, or that I had a buley (literally means 'albino' but here it refers to white people) guy with me, or that I was enjoying myself dancing.

But I had to laugh at it because this proved how some things are universal, wherever you go in the world. I guess there are some things in the world that you cannot possible hope to get away from. And this is one of them.

Half the fun is in getting there

Many things have happened since the last post. Or perhaps, when you take the time to appreciate everything that you do in life, each day seems to be equally eventful as the previous one.

For a start, we have been enjoying the fruit of the belimbing tree in the garden. The starfruit are sweet and juicy, especially when they have been plucked by our maid. We served some to a Polish couple, who are in Bali - and Asia - for the first time, during lunch. Now we are looking forward to the mango season to 'harvest' the mangga tree standing in a corner of our garden.

Also, ever since the pond clean-up, our garden seems more beautiful, with the flowers seeming to have taken on a colourful radiance that attract a variety of butterflies; one even flew in to our study a couple of days ago. Our adopted cat Fiona has been getting some sun in the garden, and even our maid likes to sit in the garden to read or relax when the sun is not too strong.

We also like to think that the daily prayers and offerings from our maid gives the compound an added aura. We may not be Hindus, but we respect the culture and are happy to see that she is happy to fulfill her religious duties.

Being a couple who are curious about other cultures and religion, we welcome any chance to understand them better. Thus when we were invited by one of the S.O.'s employees to the blessing ceremony of his three-month-old daughter, we went.

Although the family lives in Denpasar, the ceremony was held in the village where the husband's father's house was. This meant a two-hour drive from our home. Thus we were up at 6am and on the road by 7am to arrive at 9am for the ceremony.

Unlike other ceremonies that I have witnessed, Balinese ceremonies seem to have an air of casual friendliness about them. Even during the ceremony itself, there are on-going exchanges about what steps have to be taken next or what has to be done. While some are mainly family affairs, they delight in having guests present and the hospitality is warm.

Balinese guests to the ceremony are dressed in traditional Balinese outfits meant for ceremonies. The tops for ladies are similar to the nonya kebayas, and the bottom is usually a sarong. The males too have to wear a sarong and this is matched with any short sleeve shirt. One cannot simply put on any top or sarong - they have to be of a certain design and print meant specially for ceremonies. The ladies normally have a sash to tie around the waist before they can enter the temple of the house during ceremonies.

When each guest arrives for a ceremony, they bring with them a gift for the host-family. This is usually packets of rice, which can amount to between 2.5kg to 5kg, and a present suited to the occasion. They are then offered tea and some cakes, while waiting for the ceremony to begin.

As there was no one available to guide us through the baby blessing ceremony, we just watched and tried to ask questions later. The baby was dressed in bright colours and her father carried her through the ceremony.

For the first part, prayers were made and incense was offered, along with other items. From what we saw, items such as charcoal-grilled pig, cakes and traditional snacks are used as offerings. An interesting addition to the ceremony for blessing a baby is the presence of a live chicken. The mother fo the baby explained that the chicken acts as the baby's guardian, and so is part of the ceremony. Plus, her daughter's guardian chicken is a chick from her son's guardian chicken.

After the end of this part of the ceremony, the father placed silver jewellery on the baby. There were new hoop earrings, bracelets, anklets and a special pendant that contains a bit of the baby' dried umbilical cord. Balinese believe that the umbilical cord gives the baby protection and health: for example, when the baby is unwell, a small amount of the dried umbilical cord is crushed into powder and added to milk for the baby to consume, and this will help the baby to recover.

Then, everyone stops for lunch and some conversation before the next part of the ceremony where the baby's hair is shaved off. We did not stay for this part of the ceremony as we had other plans, but it would have been interesting to watch.

As it was our virgin baby blessing ceremony, the experience was interesting for both of us. But what remained with me was the warmth I felt in this family activity, and the unhurried manner that they had for the entire activity, much like their attitude toward life: "We will get to the end eventually, but we shall enjoy the journey too."

And this is a little thing that we can learn from the Balinese: that the journey is just as important as the destination.

The heart of Bali

It should come as no surprise that Bali has MacDonald's outlets, since the island relies heavily on tourism dollars. What should be surprising is that these outlets have been operating for 24-hours since two or three years ago, while - correct me if I am wrong - I think that Singapore only had its first 24-hour MacDonald's outlet sometime in late 2004.

While there is no 7-Eleven chain store here, they do have a similar chain called Circle K. Another American chain store...

Other familiar names cashing in on the tourist dollar in Bali - that I can remember at the top of my head - include BreadTalk, Starbucks Coffee, Gloria Jean's Coffee, Pacific Coffee Company, KFC, Thai Express, Lotus Cafe chain (Italian owners whom we have met), Dunkin' Donuts (see previous post on our experience with DD), Planet Hollywood, Quiksilver, Billabong, The Body Shop, Charles and Keith, Giordano, and Guardian.

August to October, and even up to November, is peak period in Bali. This is when tourists come for their summer vacation. So far for this year, tourist spots such as Kuta, Sanur and Ubud are busy. This is a relief to both the residents and long-time expratriates - the bombings at Jimbaran and Kuta in 2005 kept tourists from the island earlier this year.

However, the numbers are still not as much as before. Just a few days ago - think it was Aug 20 - the Australian government issued a warning to its residents to avoid coming to Bali during the exact peak period.

I do not fault the Australian government for issuing such a warning - it has the interests of its residents at heart. However, it is wrong to say that all of Bali is unsafe.

There are other non-tourist-filled areas that are beautiful and safe. I am sure the bombers will not think of planting a bomb at the Tanah Lot temple, or around the rice fields, or near Mount Batur in Kintamani, or at Dreamland beach, or among the dolphins at Lovina Beach.

Besides, there is already a shift in the kind of visitors to Bali. There are now more budget travellers than those who have a bit of cash to spend on a relaxing yet luxurious get-away.

Bali is a beautiful island with more than just Kuta, Sanur, Ubud and Nusa Dua. So come and experience Bali, away from the tried-and-tested areas. Experience the real Bali, not the made-up one for tourists.

I am already here, and loving it.

The Great Pond Clean-Up

Despite having lived at the house for two weeks, no one is ever used to opening the door to the bathroom, to be greeted by a toad or frog perched on the toilet seat or bathtub, just staring at you. Or stepping out of the door to find a toad high on the wall of the house.

Then there was the problem of existing mosquitoes, despite having emptied a can of insect spray and following up with a few strategically placed mosquito coils. Even the presence of geckos and spiders did not seem to eleminate them, and the fact that there were geckos and spiders proved that blood suckers are abundant around our place.

While the S.O. was not that sure that the pond was the main cause of these other adopted residents of the house, I was certain that it was so. The water had turned dark, and falling leaves from the trees and plants had not been removed from the pond for more than two weeks.

Thus I woke last Friday morning with one thought on my mind: remove all the fallen leaves from the pond first, then we shall take things from there.

There were no proper tools for the operation, except a changkul that I spotted in a corner of the garden. With it, I slowly scooped out the leaves, as mosquitoes tried to assail me. Luckily I was prepared: I had inserted burning sticks of incense near my feet to keep the blood suckers at bay.

As more leaves were removed from the pond, a very interesting sight appeared: the pond was swimming with tadpoles. Not just a small amount, but probably a few hundred! I had never seen that many tadpoles in one pond before, and neither had the S.O.

The sight of so many potential members of a toad/frog choir prompted him in to action too. He changed out of his 'desk work' outfit in to a 'doing menial work' outfit, picked up a plastic pail, and started to scoop out water from the pond. As there was no where to throw the water, it was all dumped on to the ground.

Along with the water came the tadpoles, more leaves, and some small fishes. As the S.O. was helping to remove the leaves with his scooping, he ordered me to rescue any fishes that were spotted.

This resulted in me trying to scoop up the fishes and transport them to a pail filled with water. As is natural for fish who are struggling to try and survive out of water, they were flicking about and this caused me to scream out a few times. In the end, about 18 fishes were rescued from the pond, and given to the kids next door to play with.

After about 40 minutes of scooping out water, the pond was emptied, and the tadpoles lay dying on the ground in a few patches. The S.O. then washed the pond clean, sprayed the surface with insect spray and placed another mosquito coil on its now dry base.

So now we have a dry, empty pond. The tadpoles are all gone, thus eliminating the toad/frog orchestra of the upcoming rainy season. There are decidely less mosquitoes as well, since the breeding ground is gone.

What do we plan to do with the pond now? No more stagnant water in there, for sure. We are going to fill it up with soil, and make it a part of the garden by putting plants in there.

Thus ended the great pond clean-up and the start of the changes to our garden.

This time, it is for real!

In a strange twist of fate, our landlord arrived at our place yesterday afternoon with his neice, telling us that she can be our live-in maid for the price that we offered.

What had happened was that we had approached our landlord to help with finding a live-in maid, someone who can cook & clean; do the laundry; upkeep the garden; make offerings and also be willing to learn how to speak English, Italian and maybe even Mandarin. She must also not be afraid to ask when she does not understand something, and be eager to learn when we teach her something.

As with past experiences, we thought it might take a month or so to find someone. Even then, she may not be be suitable for us, or us for her.

To lessen the trouble, we decided to ask our landlord whether he will know of anyone from his village that can be our live-in maid. That was Wednesdy, and there were no further details from him, except a request for us to meet him yesterday to meet his neice.

So imagine our surprise when she turns up with a small bag with her belongings, telling us that she can begin work immediately.

We were totally unprepared: the spare room with attached bathroom meant for the maid needed to be renovated; we had no rice cooker and the gas cooker had no gas; there were no tools for her to do our laundry, and there was no proper place for her to wash up and sleep. But our landlord pushed our concerns away by saying things to the effect that they slept on the floor in the village, and they can sleep anywhere.

Thus, our 19-year-old Balinese maid stayed the night, sleeping on the couch in the living room. As of this morning, we have purchased a rice cooker, gas for the gas cooker, spices and condiments for her to prepare meals, and items for offerings.

Still, it feels weird to have someone living with us, 24-hours a day. She has been with us for less than 24-hours, and so far so good.

So yes, we have a maid!

Another person in the house

One of the little luxuries that we can afford here is having hired help. Unlike in Singapore where the maids are foreigners, a lot of the local ladies and men are hired help. Of course, the men do not cook or do the laundry but they are helpful when it comes to general maintenance of the house.

Most times, a family will hire a female to cook and clean, do the laundry by hand, upkeep the garden, perform offerings at the house shrine and take care of the house when the owners are not in. It is much more economical to have a live-in maid than to have one that comes and goes.

At the moment, we only have one that comes every other day to clean the house and clean the garden, as we do not have the financial means yet or the required facilities for a live-in maid.

But having a hired help around the house is something that I am not used to.

I grew up without any domestic help. My parents made my brother and I learn many housekeeping skills: how to wash our own clothes by hand; how to iron clothes the right way; to sweep the floor everyday, and before mopping once a week; the proper way to clean the toilet bowl and toilet; how to wash my father's Honda Accord; how to empty the trash bins when they are full; how to remove weeds and upkeep the garden; how to cook simple dishes; to wash up all tableware and utensils immedaitely after use.

Thus leaving my cups in the sink for the maid to wash is something that needs some getting used to. Or not picking up the broom to sweep the floor just because it feels a little dusty. Or just throwing the snack wrapper in to any bin in the house, and not only in to the one in the kitchen.

In short, it requires some getting used to, even though she is here for only two hours each time. Still, this means that I am on my way to semi tai-tai life, no?

Next entry: the one about our 'pond'.

An almost delivery

The S.O. picked up a flyer yesterday.

The front read:
the Tuesday Night Pizza Club
Delivery * Takeaway * Eat in
0800-1-4-PIZZA
direct line 730614 toll free 0800 1474992
7 days a week * 9am - 11pm

The pizzas had interesting names, with inspiration taken from well-known Hollywood movies/series: The Italian Job (fresh mozzarella & cherry tomatoes); Hawaii Five-O (ham & pineapple); The Gods Must be Crazy (peanut sauce, chicken satay & onion sambal); A Passage to India (tandoori chicken, roast capsicum & red onion); Finding Nemo (red snapper, marinated calamari & fresh tomato salsa), plus E.T., or the Extra-Toppings.

Then there are the salads (My Big Fat Greek Salad; Kickboxer - Thai beef salad w/ spicy Thai dressing; Twister - pasta salad of fusili, baked bell & chill pepper, fetta & parmesan w/ lemon vinaigrette);
pastas (Dodgeball - sphagetti w/ meatballs & tomato sauce; Casablanca - linguine in gorgonzola sauce;La Dolce Vita - classic creamless sphagetti carbonara);
drinks (Freshly Squeezed BeetleJuice - apple, carrot & celery; papaya, orange & yoghurt);
and desserts (The Sweetest Thing - chocolate mousse cake; hand-made ice creams).

Reading the names and descriptions of all the items made us salivate and had us all excited. Let us not forget that the S.O. is Italian and appreciates a good pizza any time.

The S.O. naturally was excited as this would mean we could get delivery of food to our house instead of having to ride out for every meal.

Then I saw the fine print at the bottom:
The prices in this menu are in thousands of rupiah and do not include the delivery charge for pizzas.
The prices are shown as MINI, S, M, L, XL
Delivery is charged ar Rp6000 per 2km from the restaurant location (Jln Oberoi), so sample charges are as follows:
6000- Seminyak, Legian, Batubelig, Umalas, Peritenget, Semer
12000- Kuta, Kerobokan, Anyar, Tandeg, Berawa
18000- Canggu, Sesh, Tuban
Please confirm this charge with the operator when you order.
Tuesday Night Pizza Club, Jln Laksmana [Oberoi], Kuta, Bali

So this meant that the delivery charge for Jimbaran would be much more, considering that we are about 20 to 30 minutes away from there. Oh well, if we really crave a pizza from The Tuesday Night Pizza Club, we will just hope on the motorbike and head down there.

For now, we will continue to marvel at the marvellous idea that the eatery has come up with. We sure hope it looks as good as their menu!

Of Bali's two faces

When people talk about Bali, there are some things that are always mentioned: clubbing at Kuta beach; surf at Dreamland; shopping at Seminyak; luxury getaway at Nusa Dua; the famous Tanah Lot temple; dolphin watching at Lovina; mushrooms and other forms of excesses, and of course, how everything is cheaper than back home.

For me, Bali is about nature. Especially the expansive rice fields that we pass on our way from Jimbaran to Ubud, or on the road up to The Viceroy Hotel. They are a vivid green and always a refreshing view to the eyes.

Then there are the stray dogs and cats, plus the chickens and cows owned by families. There seems to be one stray dog to every house on each street, no matter which part of Bali you are at. You probay will not be able to see this many dogs on Java because Bali is a Hindu state. Cats are fewer in comparison, but equally tame.

But there is a side of Bali that people do not see mainly because it is not abundant at the tourist areas. That is, the amount of pollution and waste that the island experiences. There is no proper waste removal or drainage system in place.

Where do I begin to describe it? Maybe I shall begin with the fact that the front of our house faces an empty plot that I call the 'rubbish dump': our maid, and the neighbours too, throw all trash on to this plot. Thankfully, there is no stench because the humidity here is low, and I think most of the things that are thrown there consist mainly of non-biodegradable stuff, mainly plastics.

But wait... This empty space is also sometimes used by one of the neighbours for drying their laundry. We returned one day, some time after lunch, and found that freshly washed laundry had been laid atop the barren bushes to dry in the sun. We were amazed at the sight of clean laundry, drying a few metres away from a pile of trash.

Anywhere that trash can be dumped, it is dumped. In the drain, on the road, in an empty field. Sometimes, someone would burn the trash, so you can imagine the amount of damage done to our ozone layer as the plastics crackle and melt away in the fire. Most times, the trash is left as it is and most clog up the drains that run along the by-pass.

I have also noticed that in the house and around most housing settlements, there is no proper drainage system. So the soapy water from laundry or from washing a motor vehicle is emptied in to the garden or the field. Even if there was a drainage system, most of the water ends up back in the fields. And these fields are used for - you guessed it - growing rice, that the families eat.

The mounting waste problem seems to be exactly what every developing country faces - with the influx of consumer goods in fancy packaging, there is more waste. More than what the country is equipped to handle. It will take the population an awareness of how the environment sustains humans, if it is taking care of, for the 'pollution' to stop. Either that, or an organisation to execute a major clean-up of the mess and the island's infrastructure.

For now, Bali hides its ugly side from tourists, but bares its true self for those that calls it home.

I feel sorry for Dunkin' Donuts in Bali

So this sign was staring at us as we paid for two donuts and one iced cappuccino at the Dunkin' Donuts outlet located at Sanur, Bali, Indonesia (tried looking for an exact location address but according to the Indonesia Dunkin' Donuts website, there is only one outlet in Bali, at Kuta).

Naturally, after we paid for our purchases, we were not given a receipt. What happens is that instead of entering the purchases in to the cash register, the amount is added up on a calculator. We hand them the cash, the change is returned to us and we do not get a receipt.

However, this is done selectively. When someone is Indonesian, regardless whether they are Javanese or Balinese, he/she gets a receipt. But all tourists or expatriates are not given a receipt.

Why is getting the receipt so important? The receipt is a record of all purchases, which equates to money that the outlet has earned for each day. Any purchases that is not recorded in the cash register means extra 'pocket money' for the staff working at the outlet.

Now any person would automatically say: just tell them that you were not given a receipt and demand for a refund.

That would be easy if the S.O. had not tried that already. He paid for his purchase, took his time to enjoy his meal (a total of three hours to be exact), walked out the door and waited five minutes to see if anyone would hand him a receipt, before going back in again to ask about what the sign stated.

What did the staff do? They immediately printed out the receipt and gave it to him.

It would not be so bad, if there was no sign stating that the purchase is free if no receipt is given. We would probably not know better, and walk out feeling satisfied after satiating our donut craving.

But to have a sign there and not present us with a receipt, then expect us not to kick up a fuss, seems to indirectly taunt us.

After all, we would not know whether we get a receipt or not, until we have paid for our purchase. Then when we point out that we are not getting a receipt and should thus have a free meal, there is nothing to stop the staff from printing the receipt there and then, and avoid either refunding us the cost of our purchase.

It probably is none of my business to bother since the loss eventually matters more to the company - take the amount made from a minimum purchase of one donut multiply by five customers per hour, multiply by eight hours a day, multiply by seven days a week, multiply by 52 weeks a year and the amount is no small matter.

But the customer is made to look dumb and the company loses money. My suggestion: remove the stupid sign and install security cameras in each outlet. I am sure that the staff of the outlets in Bali are not the only ones who are helping themselves to some extra cash.

Hopefully someone from Dunkin' Donuts reads this and realise how their employees in Indonesia are riping them off. And then again, DD is an American company, so should I really bother in the first place?

Bali 'shenanigans'

It is almost the end of my first week in Bali. It has not been an exact vacation, yet the pace for working has not kicked in yet.

So what has been happening?

The most major event so far, is falling sick on Wednesday. For some unknown reason, I had a really bad cash of the runs. Between 4pm to 9pm, I think I went to the toilet at least 10 times. Thankfully, things slowed down in the night and I only made two more toilet visits. But all the activity made me exhausted, so I spent Thursday morning sleeping and regaining energy.

This leads me to a small discovery: There is a Guardian pharmacy at the Bali Mal Galeria Kuta, located on the outskirts of Kuta, and they sell Po Chai Pills!

There was also the realisation that the island possibly does not sell o.b. brand tampons (only Playtax, Tampax and Safetax; Johnson&Johnson, do you hear my cry for help?!); tampons are more expensive in Bali than in Singapore; regardless of brand, contact lens solution cost about S$1 more; toilet rolls can be bought individually; the ladies here are also concerned about getting fairer skin through the use of various beauty products, and beauty products from brands like L'Oreal do not seem to be available.

The S.O. has thoughtfully purchased a year's subscription to the gym at the Sanur Beach Hotel, so that I can accompany him and his business partner on their almost daily workouts; I have bargained it to about three times a week, with the other days spent at the hotel pool instead.

The gym is undergoing some minor facelift but the equipment there is more than adequate. As for the pool, everything about it is pleasant, except for one male staff that mans the booth by the pool where hotel guests obtain their towels from.

He is friendly to hotel guests, but utterly rude to gym members even those who speak to him properly and with respect. Sure, hotel guests have paid for their stay. But an annual fee has to be paid by gym members who wish to use the hotel pool. We are all paying individuals, and what we pay to both the hotel and gym contributes to his pay. Perhaps something may have happened to cause him to be in such a miserable state. At the end, he is leading a life worse off than me. So that is some consolation.

Where food is concerned, we are both exploring the immediate area around us, because the S.O. was previously living in Sanur. We are both 'Jimbaran virgins'! But the biggest plus is knowing that we live about 5-minutes (on the motorbike) from the beach.

Tomorrow, we will be spending time in Sanur, where we will be having dinner at an Italian restaurant, by invitation of the owner himself. He has a Singaporean friend visiting Bali, and he also wants to introduce me to some people who might require my expertise. I look forward to the weekend!

First post from Jimbaran, Bali

It is the fifth night that I am spending in our little abode at the top of a hill in Jimbaran. It is not huge, but it is big enough for us. I am currently typing from my PC that has been set up the study, R is next to me, chatting with his business partner online. It is another quiet night, except for the air planes that fly by twice each evening.

Our 'square' house has a living room, a bedroom, the study, and an empty room meant to be the dining area. The toilet is next to this dining area, and its door is next to the door of the dining area. To enter the kitchen, we also have to step through the door of the dining area and take two diagonal steps to get there. But if you take about 10 steps forward, you reach a really small room, which we intend to transform in to a maid's room.

Outside the main house, there is what we call the garden. It is essentially a sand pathway where we can park the motorcycle, abd there are some plants, as well as a pond. Much has to be done to transform the garden in to something that we prefer. For now, it is alright as it is.

As 95% of Bali's population of Bali are Hindus, there is a small shrine in almost every Balinese abode for making offerings to the spirits of the island. We are both Catholics, but because we respect the religion and culture of the country that we are residing in, we are getting someone to come and perform the offerings for us.

The street where we stay is quiet. We have three immediate neighbours, one each to the left, right and back. Then there are two diagonally opposite us on the left. Further down the road on the way out, there are a couple of villas and a few other houses.

The neighbours on our right are noisy from early in the morning to late afternoon - I get back at them with our bedroom hysterics *winks*. The neighbours on the left are pleasant and we just greet them when we see them even though we do not really know them. We have no contact with the other neighbours.

We have a stray cat - named Fiona by the previous tenant (R's business partner) - who visits us every evening, and has been getting more than some from the other male strays cats; there are a couple of frogs who strike up a symphony when the mood hits; geckos tend to appear in the toilet, and mosquitos are kept out of the house by the netting that R has fitted on the windows.

While we have a stereo; the computers (we are working from home) with Internet connection; a television; a refrigerator; flush toilet & bath tub; DVD player (mine from Singapore), we do not have a washing machine. For now, all our laundry is sent to the laundry - we pay about S$6 to wash a pile of tops, bottoms, underwear and towels, and they come back pressed and folded neatly for us too!

In the long run, we hope to have a live-in maid to help us with the laundry and upkeep of the place. This means we have to redo the kitchen and put in a washing machine as well.

After all that is said, it is early times yet. Will update again with links to pictures once I've taken them, as well as news on what I have been up to for the first week.