2017
The Buzz Begins
24 October 2017
The rainy season is starting. Let’s hope is doesn’t rain on our parade starting tomorrow. There was a massive downpour last night and it’s building up to another.
The buzz begins, with bright festival flags outside all the event venues. The box office is open and I now have my “show bag” and festival pass -we translators get a free $400 four day pass, so that’s not to be sneezed at! Have my copy of the bilingual anthology of this year’s selected emerging writers - more of my translations in print. Friends will be arriving in Ubud today and tomorrow. Getting excited.
The buzz begins, with bright festival flags outside all the event venues. The box office is open and I now have my “show bag” and festival pass -we translators get a free $400 four day pass, so that’s not to be sneezed at! Have my copy of the bilingual anthology of this year’s selected emerging writers - more of my translations in print. Friends will be arriving in Ubud today and tomorrow. Getting excited.
In the meantime I have been seeing Bali. Yes, it’s true, there is still much of Bali I have not yet seen, it seems. Yesterday the intrepid Barbara and Kate whisked me on an all day excursion to the northwest. We revisited the UNESCO world heritage rice growing area of Jatiluwih (where I have been before) and enjoyed a lunch overlooking the vast valley of neat green fields where rice is grown by traditional methods. We not-so-young ladies were happy to take in the views without undertaking the two hour guided trek through them.
We were also in search of a remote hot springs and a very sacred temple, one on the level of a “cathedral”, on the slopes of Batukari, set in the silence above a forest of beautiful ancient trees.
Went to the wrong hot springs first - not Ketut, the driver’s fault when the name Yeh Panas is both the name of a particular hot springs and also means just “hot springs”. The bathing pools were down 70 steps (no handrails) which I alone braved - but called on Ketut waiting on the top step to come down and be my “handrail” for the last flight up. The search for the springs in Kate’s guidebook took us on a wondrous winding road through forests and fields of padi Bali- the old rice before the “miracle rice” developed in Thailand, now in its 64th incarnation - IR 64. I remember back when it was IR 13 when I first started teaching about Indonesia. We found the springs way down the slopes of the mountain by a clean bubbling river. Not going to immerse myself in hot water pools in this climate, thank you, but loved the gardens and the setting. The way home at this stage was only via the south western town of Tabanan where we met horrendous peak hour traffic jams and crawled back to Ubud muttering curses all the way.
Barbara and Kate have gone on another excursion today, way down to the southern tip of Bali to Uluwatu temple but I opted out of this one to get to the festival office and to do a bit of necessary business and grocery shopping in town on the back of Josh’s bike. Staying home was an excellent choice considering the demands of the coming days. (B and K are only here for the first two days of the festival - have to be home for B’s son’s PhD graduation). They are going to pick Cathy up at the airport on their way home this afternoon. I had intended to surprise Cathy by being there to greet her and not just a sign held up with her name on it.
Jazz is almost better from the rubella and is to go back to school on Thursday, but has developed a terrible cough!
Ah, it is raining the proverbial “anjing and kucing” now. Not tomorrow, please! A grand outdoor opening ceremony is planned for all the VIPs - (I am not one of them this year!) but it would be such a shame if they had to transfer it from the spectacular palace courtyard to the dull local hall.
Wet world from my bedroom window.
Jazz is almost better from the rubella and is to go back to school on Thursday, but has developed a terrible cough!
Ah, it is raining the proverbial “anjing and kucing” now. Not tomorrow, please! A grand outdoor opening ceremony is planned for all the VIPs - (I am not one of them this year!) but it would be such a shame if they had to transfer it from the spectacular palace courtyard to the dull local hall.
Wet world from my bedroom window.