March 12, 2006
How to be Zen
This is Gunung Agung in Bali as it was, not Photoshoped (!!!) I went to Bali last weekend to visit Kaj.
He is renting a house there for a month, waiting for me to wrap up at work. If you ask me, our Bali experiences have almost always been as close to decadence as I can imagine. This house was truly beautiful, full of balinese crafts, and tidy with a nice kitchen, laundry machine, everything that makes your life comfortable, safe and easy.
A decadent colonial oasis, isn't it? Just a few things that come with it - the old owner of the house, an American, has died 2 months ago. The caretaker Wayang was apparently very attached to the old guy and obviously they had some sort of agreements of how things are done in the house. Kaj still freaks out whenever Wayang marches into his kitchen, snatches a coffee pot (Kaj has not finished with it!!) and walks out. Where does he take the pot? Do they drink our coffee just like that? I freaked out when I saw that Wayang still cooks coffee and puts a piece of bread for the old guy (2 months dead!) every morning. I guess, his spirit still comes for breakfast... :)
Besides slightly weird relationship with Wayang, the major disappointment for Kaj was that they cropped rice everywhere around the house and brought ducks in. I find them quite cute, besides, they're feeding on bugs and snails (and fertilizing the fields:). Good! But at this point of time when the bird flu threat is supposed to be very real, it actually feels a bit uncomfortable to have so many birds (lots of chicken too!) around.
Out of 5 days that I was in Bali, 3 days was pouring rain. When you look outside from the balcony and everything is grey, wet and muddy, you truly get a very rural feeling. I could see some charm in that and I didn't mind to sleep through days, but, I guess, Kaj had difficulties getting the real Zen feeling.. You know, - yoga in the morning at sunrise, tea on the terrace, green fields around, seen by noone. The place that he's staying in is quite far from that. It is actually a village and it comes with neighbours, chicken (plus loud roosters!), people burning ricefields and garbage (sometimes gets a bit difficult to breathe), people washing in the stream, rain pouring just when you want to go motorcycling and you also kind of get a feeling that people are watching you all the time.. :)
Probably it would be fine by me (well, I don't have to stay there for a month :), but Kaj is planning to come to Singapore on 17 March to do visa run and not to go back. I guess, this idea of luxurious month of relaxiation didn't quite work out. For the rest of the time that I'm serving my notice, he's planning to go to Hanoi and up to the highlands in Northern Vietnam. I wish I could go there too...
We managed to walk a bit in the rice padis around Ubud before it started raining again.
Still beautiful, actually completely amazing, I'd say.
But this time I didn't get the feeling that I'm on an exotic holiday at all!
Everything seemed to be so common and familiar.. Beautiful beyond belief, but still so normal! I remember my first trips to South East Asia when each corner was full of promise, each turn of the road was hiding something unexpected, the streets felt full of danger and the food was fascinatingly weird and delicious.
How its going to be in Finland? Right now I can just walk out of the house in the middle of the night in a T-shirt, all year round, I don't need heavy boots and long coat. Green colour in a month of January doesn't cause me heart palpitations anymore, its normal, everything is green all the time! If you eat out, its not going to cost you your arm and your leg and you can even take a cab home without feeling guilty and calculating when your next salary is coming in... We'll see, we'll see...
We've noticed with Kaj though, that we're craving for western delights more and more.. The first times we'd come to Bali we'd look at these western style cafes that charge 5 times more than local eateries with despise - stupid foreigners, they don't know any better, why don't they try the REAL thing at the corner shop?! Nowadays we just indulge in all the pleasures of not being adventurous anymore - we live here! :) So I can have a cake instead of black rice pudding (well thats not true, we actually had black rice pudding in this particular cafe.. :)
Natalia, Borzin and Kian are still in Bali, Kian is happily growing, enjoying overwhelming attention from everyone. Natalia said that they want to record the "Good Morning, Kian" that they hear from Made or the staff at Made's warung, so that they can play it back every morning when they come back to Finland and the person that you see in the elevator every day just look stern and doesn't say a word.
While Kaj is away, I've been practicing Finnish etiquete of not-speaking and my social skills have been significantly improving, as you can see.. :)
On my last day in Bali the weather cleared up and we went up the highlands to the Lake Batur.
The air was fresh and clear, the views - magnificent!
I think I'd still come to Bali again and again, no matter what.. Its such an amazing piece of land, a tiny island that is more special than other places that almost take up whole continents.. :)
