Tampaksiring

On the 3^rd of March, Taka drives us to Tampaksiring near Ubud where we are booked to stay in the middle of a rice field in another airbnb place.

On the way we stop and drink Luwak coffee, made from the poohed out coffee beans of the Luwak, a kind of Balinese Mongoose, cat-like creature. The coffee does have a distinct earthy taste and I try not to think of why, as I savour my cup.

Taka’s motives become a bit more commercial on this trip and we realize that what seems like a little roadside enterprise is in fact a major tourist trap where we spend 60,000 rupiah (twice what most of our meals have cost so far) on a cup of coffee and buy a number of bags of coffee which is mainly sugar and creamer mixed together.

Our guide climbs trees, makes coffee, grows every type of plant imaginable and even plays an instrument.

It is hard to work out whether there is a collaboration between Balinese drivers and the places they take us to, but regardless it’s kind of fun and people have got to earn money somehow.

“Come and stay in the real Bali” is the selling point here and on arriving, as we walk our luggage about 400 metres along a narrow path with water-ways channelling water into a series of rice fields on either side and locals coming past with crops lashed to the backs of their motorbikes, we know we’ve managed to escape the craziness of Ubud where we saw more tourists in 5 minutes driving through than we’ve seen the whole time we’ve been in Bali.

The Swallow Guest House where we are staying is owned by a Canadian woman called Suzan, who runs it in conjunction with a Balinese couple Wayan and Putri. It’s all very beautiful and we feel very happy to have arrived. Our two story house is open and airy with views over the rice fields. We can spread out and everyone has their own bed.

Suzan, who has lived part of the year in Bali for the last 12 years, talks about Eat Pray Love and its effect on the Ubud tourist industry. Suzan is leading a bit of an Eat Pray Love existence herself and the whole idea of Bali suddenly becomes more intoxicating in this beautiful place.
Perhaps that’s because it’s a little higher and cooler here than on the coast, and we have our doors and windows open at night, to the sound of frogs and crickets. I imagine that before the five of us turned up, it was probably easier to hear the frogs and crickets. I can’t help feeling a little self-conscious about the noise we make as a family but it is nice to be staying with a kindred spirit.

Suzan genuinely enjoys introducing people to the Balinese way of life and knows about the spirituality and the daily rituals of the Balinese.

Unfortunately, Louie has had Bali Belly for the last few days and is starting to look alarmingly bony and lethargic. Unprepared to let that slow us down, we leave him behind on our first morning and set off with Suzan to explore some of the local industries.

The first is an organic farm a little different to what you might expect. The cows are tied up in stalls and have their food brought to them each day. Around every rice field is a line of long grass that is harvested for the cows to eat. They are very beautiful and seem calm and content despite the limitations of ropes through their noses.

We move on to what is essentially a battery chicken farm except again, the chickens are healthy and plump and despite an outrageous fly population, everything smells sweetly of grain.

On the way home we visit a fish farm and a school.

I like the Balinese Goddess of education. I believe her interests are music, art and religion.

Today is not such a happy family day, despite our beautiful surroundings. The children’s lesson today is “how to arrange your face in a more pleasing manner even if you’re extremely disgruntled”.

We’ve been invited to Wayan’s son’s 17^th birthday party. Apparently this is the only age that the Balinese celebrate with a birthday party.

We are going to play a few songs as the Fogorelli Quartet (this doesn’t include Roger as he is too musically unpredictable).

There are home-made fire works and Babi Guling (a slow roasted pork dish that is a party favourite in Bali).

Wayan and Putri’s family compound is very beautiful and I realise why our friend Michael Bennett always talks about living together in a family compound in Bali.

Our family is so small, we’d need to adopt a few others to live communally in Bali but the lifestyle is starting to look more and more appealing.

 

The whole of Bali is gearing up for Nyepi, the Balinese new year on the 9^th of March.

The night before the day of silence which is Nyepi day, the whole of Bali have parades of Ogoh Ogoh, giant hand-made sculptures representing evil spirits. Disturbingly, a large number of them have breasts.

Everywhere we go, there are tarpaulins erected with gangs of predominately boys and men busily creating the most grotesque and crazy figures out of papier mâché, wire and foam. Some are so elaborate they look like they’ve come off a film set.

On our second day in Tampaksiring, Suzan takes us to Tirta Empul (the Holy Spring). Being the day before Nyepi eve, Balinese are busy cleansing and the holy springs is a special cleansing spot.

The water bubbles up from the sandy ground like at Pupu springs and is channelled into a series of bathing pools.

Suzan and her friend from Canada, Charlene

On the way home we go Ogoh Ogoh hunting. Everywhere we find one there are groups of excited children gathered, watching the progress. The paint and materials to build the Ogoh Ogoh are expensive and teams of Ogoh Ogoh makers go door knocking looking for sponsorship leading up to Nyepi.

We sponsor an amazing dragon that we come across.

We’re still carrying around our box of cast-offs from our over-zealous packing in NZ.

Having tried to send the box from two different post offices and failing, the box has become a convenient excuse to purchase some shipping space and send some things home via ship cargo. We take a trip to a stone wholesalers and end up with 5 large Buddha.

This is the sort of thing that happens to us all the time!

We went to the ultimate junk shop about 3 times the size of Junk and Disorderly. It was like a heaven except we can’t bring anything home so actually it was quite torturous for a junk collector like myself.

One of the benefits of staying with Suzan is her desire to show us so many things that we perhaps wouldn’t have experienced, staying somewhere else.

On our last day in Tampaksiring, Suzan takes us to Goa Garba where a series of large flat boulders descend about 30 meters down to a river valley. Here there are 3 small caves that are perhaps even pre-Balinese. They are very sacred and it would be nice to spend a day quietly meditating (if I could get my three child companions to meditate too).

On the way home we go to the moon temple which has recently celebrated a one in 100-year festival. Although it is two weeks on, the offerings are still sitting where they were left, in a state of decay.

There is one made entirely out of pig bits, with the fat cut into beautiful twisting shapes. Although we are getting used to the smells in Bali, it really is quite a lot for the senses to take in on a hot afternoon.

There is one made from coloured rice and another from fruit. They are very beautiful despite their smell.

 

Our last meal at the swallow guest house is cooked by Putri. She is an amazing cook and we have had three meals here during our stay. Suzan has 3 other friends staying and we are joined by some more friends from Ubud. It’s been a really lovely stay and it’s times like this that having pre booked travel plans don’t always work out for the best. It would have been nice to stay on at Swallow Guest House for Nyepi but we are booked to stay in Ubud for our last four nights.