Villa Indah

And now for three days of absolute relaxation before getting back to the serious job of driving the rest of the way round Australia.

Many Balinese live in “compounds” in extended family groups with the sons staying on in the family compound with their wives after marriage whilst daughters leave to live in their new husband’s compound. These compounds, usually surrounded by high walls and each with their own shrines to honour their ancestors, line the streets and, in addition to living quarters, are often the base for the family business. In many cases this takes the form of a shop fronting on to the street and selling an amazing range of oddly assorted goods, one of my favourites being the shop that seemed to specialise in bananas and petrol sold in Absolut Vodka bottles. To the stranger these compounds are pretty inpenetratable (although Sandra managed) and the streetscape presents as high walls, shrines, shops and the usual swarms of small motorbikes. However behind the streets it is possible to find some amazing contrasts and so we came to the Villa Indah.

The main street though the village of Kedewatan was not particularly prepossessing and we were not hoping for too much from the Villa Indah – the name means Beautiful. However behind the run down façade of the main street was a surprise – a villa perched high on the edge of a steep valley with views over manicured rice paddies through which ran the Ayung River. Over the river the valley rose sharply, covered by thick forest and beyond were the mountains. All in all not a bad view for a few days R & R. The house itself had a broad verandah with magnificent views over the valley and on to the mountains and was very comfortably furnished for both lounging and dining. The bedroom had the usual enormous bed but this time with an ornate mosquito net which, although totally unnecessary as there were no mozzies, did add to the atmosphere. All topped of by a nice swimming pool with similar views of the valley.

Meals were taken on the veranda, in candlelight in the evening, served by the very pleasant staff who were able to be highly attentive as we were the only people there. In three days we only ventured out of the house on two occasions, the first of these being to walk the “2.5k” into Ubud. In inverted commas because the Balinese seem to have no concept of distance and we thought a short 2.5k walk into town for a meal would be enough to work up a bit of an appetite. After an hour or so, and with darkness approaching, we discovered it was considerably further – several times further in fact.

Walking in Bali, particularly in the dark, can be an interesting experience not least because of the combined pavements and drainage system. The drains run down both sides of the street and are basically an open channel 2 to 3 feet deep. To create pavements a series individual concrete slabs are laid over the channel and this deals reasonably satisfactorily with rain water and all other manner of festering rubbish which finds its way into the system. All would be well if all the slabs were in place, however, with many of them missing, there is a high chance of the unwary walker, particularly at night, disappearing into the drainage system. After an excellent meal at Restaurant Pundi-Pundi we took a taxi home!

Our second, and final, expedition was to risk life and limb by climbing down the steep slope to the bottom of the valley i.e. below our house, to explore the rice paddies. A friendly (they’re all friendly) local gave us a guided tour and explained about rice and other crop production. We were able to take a photo of the Villa Indah from below however the scene was apparently spoiled by my leaving a towel over the balcony. Then back up the slope – me to go for a swim and Sandra, ever the nosey one, was taken back to his compound to see his house and meet his family returning with photos and his e-mail address.

This evening we have a late night flight back to Darwin and will probably get back to Humpty Doo at about 5am Saturday morning – a few hours kip, then Sandra will be hard at it preparing her stock and stall for the “Craft Fair by the Sea” in Darwin on Sunday.