Bali - Part 1 of many!

After a very long night (and not in a good way), in an over priced hotel in Sanur we were picked up in the morning outside the hotel by a chap called Putu. Putu was to be our Villa manager, organiser, driver and tour guide for our stay in Bali. It was New Years Eve and after a sleepless night of crying kids and firecrackers (the latter causing the former), we were heading north, away from the south of the island which had been our brief, tourist haven home for the night. As we headed out of the suburbs and towards the country Bali started to come alive. Carved Hindu Gods started appearing on every street corner. Then soon enough along every road until there seemed to be little room for anything to fit, including the houses behind them. Carved from dense grey stone these physical incarnations of the Hindu Gods are one of the mainstays of the community's income and are big business with a thriving import/export business going on locally. Onwards into the mountains with our assured driver. A constant diatribe of tidbits coming from him as he amiably answers our questions (which I'm sure he has heard a thousand times before). Putu is a local, local to the villa that we'll be staying in that is, not just to the island. I am suddenly even happier with this arrangement as we start to climb into the mountains that we see shrouded in mist ahead. The potholes become more pronounced (by which I mean bigger and deeper), and more frequent. Now, I expect that we might find a kamikaze approach by the driver to be the norm, but on the contrary, Putu's speed was rarely above 40kph and he did his utmost to avoid these holes in the road. Soon we settled into happy a rhythm, trundling along the roads at a very sedate pace. Even the kids seemed to enjoy the ride. Just as well because, by the time we reached the summit of the mountain (about 3000m), the visibility was down to about five metres in places and the temperature had dropped to about 10C (from around 30C). People up here were obviously used to it wandering around in jumpers and hats. The first time I had seen that since moving to Singapore. From the top we could see the base of the nearest volcano to our villa. However, due to the inclement weather that was all we could see (much to my disappointment). And so we headed down the other side towards the north coast and our home for the next nine days. Well, the trip down was.... interesting..... no wait..... treacherous, yes that's what I meant! We at this point were in full praise of Putu's local knowledge, ability and lack of need for speed. It was steep, narrow and as you can imagine in a tropical country the roads were somewhat wet, well, river like really. This prompted a lot of shouts of "hold tight" from the kids who thought this was a great wheeze. T slightly less I suspected as she obeyed the kids' commands herself! As the rain began to ease a bit we started to come across the local people starting to celebrate New Year (it was about 4:30 at this point), massive speakers set up with a heavy baseline pumping through them and alcoholic beverages well underway. Putu pointed out that the rain had in fact probably worked in our favour as most of these guys would probably have been out driving on the mountain if the weather had been good. I watched one of the party goers trying to just stagger to his neighbours house and wondered if maybe we'd had a lucky escape. The Gods had been smiling on us after all.

Finally, after three and a half hours of travel, we arrived at the fabled villa. We are greeted by our staff members for the week (yes, I said staff members). Our cook (and as we were to find, cleaner, washer and part-time child-minder), Made pronounced Maday. Our gardener/pool cleaner Wayan and our very nice security guard Kadek. In Hindi tradition we are presented with garlands of flowers round our necks. The kids dion't want to know. They are far too interested in getting out of the car and running hell-for-leather in to their new house. And what a place! Absolutely enormous and really way too big for us but what can one do? D immediately finds a hosepipe in the garden and that's him done for the  next hour, day, week given half a chance. The rest of the family meanwhile took a turn around the grounds and then inspected the chambers. Yes, I was starting to feel like the landed gentry. Then the kids reminded me that we weren't by promptly demanding this that and the other as soon enough it was like we'd been there for ages. After grand plans for eating Beef Rendang to celebrate New Year, we were so late that it turned into Chicken and rice instead. However, due to Made's cooking this was of course delicious. About half an hour before we were going to put the kids to bed the rain started. And the thunder. And the lightning. And the Lightning! Wow, big, BIG sky filling lightning. The villa was practically on the beach and the lightning was lighting up what looked like the entire ocean between us and the next landfall, Borneo. The waves are crashing agaisnt the breakwater by this point and it is loud. Much louder than anything we'd experienced in Singapore. I love it! Unsurprisingly, the kids are a little scared but soon come round to the fact that even the minor blackouts (in the villa, not from New Year imbibing), we are experiencing are not that bad and they go to bed with no problems. Bless them. The bedroom D is staying in (along with me, the idea of him stumbling into the pool in the middle of the night is quite scary),  is partially open to the elements and yet for all the racket of weather outside he doesn't bat an eyelid. Remarkable. T and I celebrate New Year with a vodka and coke. T turns in for the night and I watch the storm outside in awe.
I think we're going to be happy here, I thought to myself, Bintang in hand.