I woke up at 8am and felt completely refreshed. It has always been my dream to wake up to green pastures, although today I woke up to yellowing paddy fields, it’s near enough to the dream I had since I was a child.
Dream, better be slightly far-fetched than near reality, if we dream of reality, it’s a waste, we already live in grim reality.
The breakfast was brought to us on the villa’s veranda.
Mike had japanese breakfast; I had banana pancake.
It was very enjoyable to have breakfast in a somewhat tucked-away location. The surrounding was strange and foreign to me, yet it felt more comfortable than the familiar.
The hotel staff was hard at work, gardening.
The very sweet lady came by to make offerings to the Gods, I assumed. We noticed that there is a small alter, or similar, built on one corner of the veranda of each villa. She has the kindest smile on her face, I have to believe that she has deep kindness in her heart too.
I wanted to read a book and do nothing important for the day, but also planned to go Ubud market when the sun began to set so that it’s not so hot.
Mike stayed on the veranda while I sneaked into the air-conditioned indoor.
I took a bath using Kajane’s bath foam lotion and the lavender salt from Muji.
I planned to read a book while soaked in the tub, it proved to be quite impossible since the tub was really large and it was too slippery so I merely rested. It was quite liberating to lie in a bath tub that is partially exposed. For one, it felt better than having a bath in a hotel bathroom, because the natural breeze in the openness is warmer.
After bath, I found the room very stuffy and hot, and for a minute, I thought it was the effect of the bath salt.
I examined the air-con and suspected it was not working, so I called the front desk to check on the aircon.
It was steaming hot by noon, so the heat was unbearable. The hotel staff came by to check the air-con and confirmed that the air-con unit was not working.
Meanwhile, the front desk sent someone here with a plate of pastries – complimentary afternoon tea from 3pm onwards.
He went and returned with a canister of gas and pumped into the compressor, it still didn’t work, he went again and returned with another compressor – probably from another vacant villa. Ok, I was beginning to think that the bizarre sleepless nights at Barong were just warming up to a dramatically different holiday that we had originally planned! Seriously, changing the compressor, from under the villa in the pond!
After changing and re-gasing, it seemed to be cooler.
We decided to go out as temperature outside started to cool – cloudy weather in a split second.
We went to ubud market by the complimentary car service and planned to have the car pick us up after dinner at Dirty Duck diner at about 8pm.
(Kejane Yangloni provides complimentary car service to most places in Ubud, but charges if you are going to places further)
Ubud market is like the Singapore’s parsar malam or Thailand’s chachuchuk, it’s tightly packed with stalls selling repeated items.
Prices may be staggering high at first, but it’s up to your bargaining skill to get you a good deal.
We bought a small owl ornament which was initially offered to us at RP70,000, and Mike managed to negotiate to RP40,000 which is about SGD5.80.
A caucasian tourist bargained for a hippopotamus at USD10, apparently, she must be offered a higher price earlier. At USD10, it’s still overpriced.
We also bought me pants and blouse, at amazingly low prices. we were ‘advised’ by our driver that we would be lucky if we were able to negotiate for maximum 30% discount. Obviously, the united Balinese wanted to protect their own people and not encourage tourists to undercut the price by too much.
We don’t usually get to buy much at such markets due to poorer quality items and the aggressiveness of the vendors.
This is a place where vendors are tuned-in to survivors’ mode and they might act aggressively by pulling customers to view their products.
When we walked past a small fruit stall, a caucasian couple walked past and the male asked ‘what’s that fruit?’ and the female companion replied ‘I don’t know, it’s crazy organic’. The fruit they were talking about is the purple fruit that we know as Mangoesteen. It’s interesting to observe how people react to things that are naturally familiar to us; I bet we did the same when traveled to an unfamiliar country.
A well paced holiday allows us to pause and sight. Mike spotted another paddy fields and asked if I wanted to take photos. I was thrilled! It’s like a science trip!
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