colonial days

2nd July Guest Editor: Hilary Hodge.

Slight exhaustion from yesterday has set in – even I stayed in bed to some late hour (unheard of until recently – perhaps I’ve reached the teenage stage at last) We just pottered around, had lunch – only left overs said Luke then produced a lovely meal – no idea where he got such useful skills from – not his parents! Time for an after lunch nap. Then when the pool was in shade we had a really nice swim and laze about – what about a Pimms before dinner was the cry – delightful. We have moved the arm chairs onto the veranda where we spend quite a bit of time reading etc – Luke keeps referring to colonial times – the maids come and clean every day – not always the case when you hire a villa - the driver is coming for us again tomorrow – you get the picture. Later we walk down to the beach and along the path with restaurants on our left and the sea on our right. It is a beautiful evening, we sit and have cocktails before dinner, watch the sunset over the hills with mist swirling around them and then move to a fish restaurant for dinner – the colonial overtones reemerge.

Just some initial impressions of Bali before I forget them. I have already described the chaos on the roads so I won’t return to that. To get to the main road from our villa you walk along narrow lanes with houses of different types on either side most enclosed by high walls. Cars just about get along these, but as you walk it is mopeds, motorbikes and bicycles that keep passing you always ringing the bell so that you know they are coming particularly if they are behind you. Many of the houses on the lane have the front open to the lane selling a variety of things but often with not a lot of goods. All along the lane people place offerings to the gods which consist of little baskets of flowers which have been arranged in different ways. Sitting typing this I can hear a bell being rung – it is 1pm – which tells people that the street food vendor is doing his/her rounds pushing a cart with whatever food has been prepared today – I have yet to try any but the boys have eaten from street vendors many times on their travels. The more negative aspects include the amount of rubbish which is strewn alongside the lanes and roads and the dogs wandering around, although these are obviously domesticated as they all have collars and seem quite docile. I suspect that it is a nation of public squalor but private cleanliness.
A note for Carole, Sarah, Griz and Sandra plus others – I have been thinking about you ‘enjoying’ yourselves at Youth Band camp – hope you have survived and that all has gone well – there has been just a hint of a guilty feeling at not having been able to help as had been promised but fortunately the feeling soon wore off!!!!