A Millionaire’s life

Bamboo 'retreat' hut Ushludin



Final ceremony Pat and new householders in village


4 May

Being in Bali I am still in Indonesia and therefore still a millionaire and here we are in a different world to Java though, being woken not by the wailing from the mosque at 4.30 but by the uncaged birds flying in the sky with the kites and the sound of distant cockerels. In my air-conditioned room with hot water for the shower a four poster double bed (no one to share it with but even millionaires can’t have everything), with a tailored mosquito net and a comfortable mattress after months with a poor substitute. Outside, the pool surrounded by exotic flowering trees and shrubs invites use at any time of day. Morning breakfast with toast and coffee and life seems quite attractive.

At the vso headquarters my programme leader, Lily says she will recover the money already recklessly paid to Pak T.O. for the planned toilets and kitchens that have never been built for my houses. I again offer to eat my hat if she is successful and we leave it at that although she misses my blue hat which, though not eaten has found a new home with pirate Priyo because it suits him so well.

A meeting with the disabled centre of Senang Hati goes well, I am dressed in my executive gear and straw hat so everyone accepts that I am indeed an expert and can explain the complexities of planning and building a new complex. Good to so be in there again, see the friends I made last time and enjoy the more temperate climate of the wooded hills

An evening meal shared with Athena who is passing through on her way to the vso annual conference, and she briefs me on how Thomas and Alice are getting to grips with their laundry’s 24 hour service claim and promises to keep an eye on them. She asks me for my kedgeree recipe which is flattering especially from such a good cook as her!

It seems that there is a suitably beefy motorbike at the vso office which I will be able to borrow for a week while most of the staff are away at the conference and I have daughter Hazel’s guide to the island so I am looking forward to a pleasant time before my flight back to the real world next week.

At the hotel, as in Senang Hati it seems that one lady’s full time job is to prepare food for the gods and to serve it at the boundaries of the property. Personally I reckon that it gets eaten by the birds and the hoards of feral dogs but I’m just a cynical old man. Those dogs though are a downside to Bali life, nobody likes them but since they are still humans who have been re-incarnated as dogs because of their previous wickedness you can’t kill them or run them over, just ignore them. If you haven’t been quite so wicked in this life then you may only come back a a cripple to be shamefully hidden away – unless you can get to Senang Hati that is.