Scattered Stories

On the afternoon of the morning when I found myself chasing the ducks in the rice fields, I was walking back from yet another unsuccessful query into accommodation when I tumbled into another beautiful Bali moment. A delightful looking lady was being called excitedly by an old Indonesian lady to come and sit upon her bamboo platform and enjoy a coconut. I was then excitedly called by the delightful looking lady to join her in this pursuit. I was much to curious to decline, as the delightful looking lady had one of those open, loving countenances that makes you want to sit by her and talk. This is exactly what we did, while each drinking the coconut water straight from the coconut using hollowed out bamboo straws. What ensued was a precious two hours, where we were entertained by the chattering Indonesian granny who enthralled us with her stories – of which we could not understand a word, or at least very little. Later the Indonesian lady’s son arrived and still more conversation, as he told us about the problems of modern day Ubud and modern day rice farming and duck keeping and the workings of black and white magic. By the time I lifted my bottom from that bamboo seat I had decided that what I had just experienced was special, and best of all, the delightful-looking lady is as delightful as she was at first sight.

I have found accommodation! I am staying in a beautiful house just outside Ubud for the next five nights, until I move into my little magic cottage at the bottom of a garden, my new home for at least the month of February – but more about that later. I am in self-imposed exile for the next few days, as Ubud is a good ten minutes motorbike ride away and since I am motorbike-less for the moment (and certainly not quite qualified to push forth into the Ubud traffic on a scooter), I have to rely on the good-nature of passersby to give me a lift into town. Ubud is chaotic when you are not reading your book against a tree in a rice paddy. It is noisy and littered, crowded and full of cars and scooters and shouting and action. You can usually find a semi-quiet corner in a café, but the noise was getting to me and I was desperate to find somewhere to unpack my bag for more than a night and cook my own food. So, I was delighted to wake up this morning and spend the morning grounding myself – with absolutely no plans to venture into the hustle and bustle for at least today. I woke up early though, at 6:20am I was off down the street heading towards the early morning market. Once there I enjoyed picking out some fruit and vege, trying out my limited Indonesian (it mostly consists of the numbers 1 to 10) and being laughed at by the locals as I counted ten tiny onions into my hand – ‘no, I do not want satu kilo’. I then went home and soaked my produce in vegetable cleaner for half an hour, praying over it – hoping that my good vibrations would do away with any baddies. The pictures below are not of the market I went to this morning; I took them last week when I was shown around the early morning Ubud market by some new friends.

Some interesting looking young chicks…you decide how you feel about them…

Snapshots from my evening walk.