Bali - Settling in Canggu

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10 December 2010

Ubud was not going to become our base (in truth, it never was, but we did think that we might stay there a few days whilst the surf was lacking and Gregg would want to be closer to the coast) and we therefore needed to make a plan. After a bad night’s sleep last night neither of us wanted to spend another night in the same hotel and I had seriously had enough of Kuta. There are many beautiful parts of Bali and Kuta is not one of them. It is busy and dirty, but on the upside, it is generally easy to find what you need as there are shops a plenty. It is now even more developed than it was when we were last here (warungs have been replaced by new hotels and more and more shops have become air conditioned) and not the kind of place that we want to spend our month in.

We therefore decided that we would take a drive out towards the place that we had our yoga lesson yesterday and try to find some accommodation out that way. First, however, we had to check out of our current accommodation. In addition to the lack of air-conditioning, we hadn’t had the hot showers this morning that we had been promised either, so Gregg was unhappy about paying even the amount that had been paid last night. Unfortunately, whoever Gregg had spoken to about our air-con was no longer around and the daytime staff refused to accept anything less than the full amount. A high octane debate followed and eventually agreement was reached and we left. Already, today was gearing up to be as unkind to us as the previous few have been. Delightful.

We headed out towards Canggu and the yoga studio in search of a long term home. This was a task that was far easier said than done. Desa Seni (the resort that is home to the studio) is in Canggu which appears to be an rapidly developing high end tourist destination. The upside of this is that the we were leaving the grime of Kuta’s hotels behind us in favour of life amongst paddy fields but, on the downside, most places that we stopped at were very expensive indeed.

We drove around for what seemed like an age, every so often stopping for Gregg to run in to reception desks and enquire as to the cost of their accommodation. The previous morning, we had seen a number of signs stuck in hedges in the locality advertising accommodation however, on closer scrutiny, they were nearly all for large villas and many were actually for sale rather than rent.

Of all of the places that Gregg went into, one actually gave him a monthly rate without being asked. It sounded like a huge amount of money but I got out the calculator, did the maths and the conversion and we worked out that, if we didn’t find anywhere else, we could afford it. We therefore agreed to keep trying for a while longer but to use this place as our fall back position. In the meantime, we decided to go to Desa Seni and buy our monthly yoga pass so that we would have at least achieved something today. The place is unbelievably beautiful and so calming, not to mention how friendly all of the staff there are - if only rooms there were in our budget! Talking of which, we still had to sort that detail out.

Sure enough, after further fruitless searching, we found ourselves back at the fall back place and asking to see a room. It turns out that what we were being offered was a serviced apartment. So, with some relief, and a small amount of fruitless bartering, we took it.

It is some of the nicest accommodation that we have stayed in whilst we have been away (although there is a slight damp problem which seems to be due to poorly sealed fittings in the bathroom) and is part of a complex of 6 apartments and 5 bungalows/houses. We have access to a pool and there is wifi- except really weak in our room and VERY slow, but beggars can’t be choosers (this accounts for the delay in blogging recently). The icing on the cake is that we actually have a kitchen. There are virtually no utensils and only a one ring gas stove but it means that we can provide for ourselves as frequently as we want.

Without a doubt, the most exciting thing about having found this place is that we now know where we are going to be going to sleep until we leave Bali on 5 January.

We unpacked, luxuriated in English language trash on the TV and then set out to make use of our monthly yoga passes. This class was with the same teacher as the previous day and was hard. I have concluded that they give you the toned down version in Chiang Mai because they know that most people aren’t hanging around that long. Me and “downward facing dog” (which is supposed to be a resting pose) are currently entrenched in all out war, but I am determined to conquer it in the end.

We returned ‘home’ via a convenience store where we had picked up a couple of noodle pots - that’s right, pot noodle by any other name! It was actually edible and filled a hole until tomorrow when we plan to go to the supermarket and stock up properly. Besides which, we only have two kettles so cooking is not really practical until we have rectified that.

11 December 2010

There is a Carrefour supermarket just outside Kuta and it was today’s destination of choice, not least because we were pretty sure that we would be able to buy a pan there in addition food. The outing necessitated a journey in the boneshaker and we weren’t in any particular hurry so, after a leisurely start to the day, we set out.

We hadn’t made a list before we went, since I was working on the presumption that we needed everything. Now, we can normally waste silly amounts of time in supermarkets at home - Gregg is convinced that it is vastly quicker if we don’t go together and, he is right of course, but on this occasion we both needed to go to see what was available. We are both out of practice in supermarket shopping and also in a new country so this trip lasted well over two hours and, if we are honest, probably closer to three. Since Bali has become fertile second home/retirement/new life territory for large numbers of Aussies and Europeans, we had some help in that many items were labelled in English but what this expedition showed me was how much we shop by labels and brand names that we recognise without having to scrutinise the small print.

One example was the search for cleaning materials. I wanted something multipurpose and in Tesco I would have recognised the bottles of ‘Flash’ stopped at that shelf and surveyed the alternatives on the same shelf before making a choice. Here, working out which of the many cleaning products were anything like flash was a near impossibility. Same goes for tinned tomatoes - if there were any I missed them. Another factor that slowed us down was, of course, trying to work out how much items that we chose were going to cost us. When you are dealing with an exchange rate of 14,000 rupiah to a GBP and prices of thousands it can be slightly challenging.

Eventually, we found our way to the till complete with wok and then back home to unpack, clean out kitchen shelves and then head off for our next Yoga class.

On our return, it was time to bust out the wok and for Gregg to create us our first home cooked meal since 28 August. Bearing in mind that we only have one pan, two kettles and one gas ring, our options are somewhat limited. So, today’s feast was Italian Sausages courtesy of Carrefour and vegetable fried rice a la Gregg. He did very well, especially considering that we don’t have a sieve or a colander so draining the rice was a near impossibility. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can pull off Christmas dinner this way but it is great not to have to eat out all of the time nevertheless.

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Photos

Kitchen & seating area
...plus my rear end whilst undertaking the obligatory clean

Hall way
that is a whole wall of cupboards...we have nothing to fill them with!

Enormous bed
very comfortable too.

Our first home cooked meal
It doesn't look like much but it tasted great.