At the moment we are spending a lot of time going back and forth from Bali. Needless to say this is expensive, between the boat tickets and the rooms, and I have been out of work for months now and starting a dive shop, so I am pretty much broke.
So when Ketut, the owner of the land we have contracted, offered us his spare room outside of his house for free, we didn’t think twice before saying yes. First it is conveniently located a couple of minutes away from our land. And second, did I say it was free?
The room was empty, so we bought the minimum necessary for survival: a mattress on the floor, a fan and a fridge. And of course I bought a coffee maker. No big project has ever happened without ridiculous amounts of coffee.
Julia likes the bed
The village where the house is doesn’t seem to see many tourists so we are probably now identified amongst the locals as “the 2 bule chicks that come back and forth and stay with Ketut” or something similar.
We share their bathroom (or should I say their bucket in a traditional Indonesian fashion) and their yard. Their yard is a very lively place. First, there are 3 dogs. They all hate our guts. Literally each time we walked through the door, the big one barks for 10 minutes. We tried to buy his affection with rice and chicken like you do around here, but so far we are having very little success. When the dog doesn’t stand up to bark at us but does it sitting we consider it as a win.
Second, a bunch of little birds in cages, like people enjoy having around here. These ones I won’t complain too much about, most of the time they keep quiet, thank God.
Finally, the roosters. Of course. No good Balinese house without a few chickens. Ketut is taking it to the next level, as he owns TEN of them, all trained for fighting. One of the evenings that we were here, I am watching him quite puzzled while he is filling a bucket with water and soap and wondering in awe if this was the first time of my life I was going to witness a Balinese man do laundry or some sort of domestic chore.
Of course not. It was time to bathe the roosters. Which he did very carefully, scrubbing their feet and everything. This took a good while, it seems to be an important Sunday activity.
The said roosters are located about 20 meters from our room. I don’t know what it is with Balinese roosters that they don’t understand it is time to sing when the daylight comes, not 2 hours before. I have noticed this is a constant over the last 6 years. Maybe all the roosters on this island just think they are in a different time zone, say in Pakistan or something. The stupid animals love a good song around 3 or 4 in the morning.
Julia is totally not bothered by it, I think she could probably sleep on top of the excavating machine soon to be digging our road. Me on the contrary, light sleeper borderline insomniac, not enjoying it so much. In between the dog and the chickens, the first night we spent here, well…. let me put it this way: I did not get up with my heart filled with joy and gratitude for the beautiful animals. Instead I thanked myself for the coffee maker, that saved my life at 5am.
So this is our current part time living arrangement when we are here. Needless to say, for my own sanity this needs to be temporary. But hey, it’s free. As you say in French (approximately translated), “when you get given a horse you don’t look at its teeth” (so glad there is no horse on top of everything else).
Little video tour, can you hear the roosters?....
Also, a photo from the pretty view the other day. Can't go wrong when that's on your front door....
Finally, the most exciting photos I have seen in a long time. The road work GETTING STARTED (after the mandatory blessing and ceremony of course).
