Tag Archives: Bali

Occasionally you meet someone who is extraordinarily generous. It doesn’t happen very often, but today it happened to us. We are talking to the Taiwanese woman over breakfast and she introduces us to her sister. We chat a while, exchanging the usual chit chat about where we come from, our travels mentioning we are leaving today for Bali. On learning that we are taking a taxi to the airport, she offers to take us in her car. This is young woman who have only known for about 15 minutes and who asks nothing in return. We exchange email addresses; perhaps one day we can return the favour should she every visit London.
The Virgin Blue flight to Bali is uneventful and arrives slightly ahead of time. We are met by a driver for the homestay we have booked and spend the next hour or so negotiating heavy traffic as we make our way to Ubud, Bali’s alternative tourist hub in the hills north of the capital, Denpasar. Cars and mopeds jostle for position on the narrow roads which are built up all the way to Ubud with only the occasional glimpse of paddy fields coming into view. After the expanses of Australia, there is an overwhelming sense of being hemmed in by the buildings and the encroaching jungle . Just south of Ubud the road is lined with what must be 100s of craft and artisans’ workshops displaying what seems to be an endless supply of stone and wood carvings on display. Posing the question, just how many stone masons are there on this small island?
Jati Homestay is something of a revelation; a short walk from the centre of Ubud village and set back from the road, the long, narrow entrance ginnel opens into a large family compound comprising several buildings arranged in a spacious court yard. The guests quarters run along one side of the compound on the edge of a lush, green rice paddy surrounded by several varieties of palm and bounded by an irrigation channel. The room has only bamboo poles and netting at the window and the walls are decorated with rattan and is surprisingly cool. The faint sound of gamelan music can be heard in the distance somewhere as the breeze rustles through the trees. A veranda provides the perfect place to sit and enjoy this little piece of paradise just off one of the main thoroughfares in the village! By the time we have settled in it’s time for dinner and we go in search of somewhere to eat. We stop at the first restaurant we come to which, we discover later, has a reputation as one of the best in Ubud.

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