Someone we know in the Bay has just announced that he - well, they - are off to Bali. Lucky devils! My travelling days are over but I envy them. Not that I haven't had my fill of Bali in years gone by, and a Bali you don't find in any Lonely Planet Guide.
It wasn't long before I found my very own piece of paradise in Bali up in the hills south of Lovina: the Banjar Hill Retreat which consisted of just four exotic bungalows, NUTMEG, CINNAMON, CLOVE and GINGER. I always booked into GINGER!. I could easily have stayed there forever! - and back then I still entertained the thought that maybe one day I would.
In the mornings I would go for a walk through the village of Tegehe, feeling like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, as a string of laughing and smiling kids would follow me. I was always ready for them with the Indonesian equivalents of MARS Bars, 'Biskuit Coklat dengan Krim Susu', and 'Coklat Keju'. What a friendly and open society where people still trust each other and enjoy each other's company! In Australia they would already have me locked up as a suspected pedophile!
I would then follow a dirt road into the rice paddies where I met barefoot farmers with leathery skin, heading out to their fields, and school children in cute uniforms on their way to school. As I passed, each person gave me a soft morning greeting. 'Paahggeeeee'. At first I replied with good morning but then I got enough courage to imitate the musical rise and fall of their word. 'Paaaahgggeeee', I answered and the smile I got in response was worth the effort.
One morning I met cute little Putri and her grandmother. I had bought her an icecream and we had communicated with smiles and gestures before. And there she was again, seemingly waiting for me. 'Di mana Air Panas, Putri?', I asked her. She simply took my hand and lead me along. When I smiled, she smiled, when I whistled, she whistled, and so we passed the time until we arrived at the hot-springs, which is how I discovered the shortcut to Air Panas and to my morning's ablutions. They were a real treat!
Staying at Banjar Hills Retreat, surrounded by sweet scents and soft gamelan music, I felt like having died and gone to heaven! There wasn't much to do up there in the hills; in fact, there wasn't anything to do, so in the evenings I would rummage through the hotel's small reading library.
The only book of any literary merit I could find was "The Wind in the Willows". As I began to read it, I was immediately struck by the sentence, "The best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working", which may be true anywhere else but not in Bali where the local people just hang about, sit, squat, chatter, and laugh with each other. I'm sure there must be some stressed people in Bali but I had yet to see them.
Ever since that first visit, I went back again and again. Often I was the only guest staying in one of its four beautiful bungalows. Just me and a few good books and fine food and drinks in total peace and privacy! The retreat had been bought by a bunch of Australians from Canberra at about the time I discovered it. They were absentee owners who found it difficult to make the place pay its way, so when in early 2014 a German couple offered to lease it from them, with an option to buy, they quickly accepted.
The German couple, all starry-eyed, explained on their since-gone-off-the-air website how they had always wanted to turn their back on Germany and how they had immediately fallen in love with Bali and Banjar Hills Retreat and how they wanted to stay forever (I saved the text here).
Nothing is forever because less than two years later, in early 2016, they handed back the keys and returned to Germany. Their farewell message, written in German, read something like this, "The time has come to say goodbye to Banjar Hills Retreat. It's been two years and a beautiful experience. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, beautiful fresh seafood, friendly, smiling people - in short, everything Germany is not. And yet, we were surprised how fast our initial holiday mood was replaced by the monotony of everyday life as we had to deal with utility bills, traffic police, and government bureaucracy ..."
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And they continued, "... We wouldn't have missed this experience for the world but have to admit that there are many things that still tie us to Germany: its culture, excellent health care, stable social and legal system, boundless opportunities - to mention just a few. What we have learned from our Bali experience is that people the world over want the same: happiness for themselves and their children, a fair chance to get ahead, and a safe place they can call home. We also learnt that even a simple life can bring happiness, and that a sense of family and helping each other and meeting even strangers with a friendly smile are more important than material possessions. We've learned all this in Bali and we hope we won't forget it. Nothing is forever, not even Bali, but no one can take away our wonderful memories. Thank you, Bali, and goodbye!"
The Australian owners then decided to close it down which came as a bit of a personal loss to me. After having serendipitously found it all those many years ago, I had come to regard it as my own piece of Bali.
(or in the ocean which is a short, death-defying bejak-ride away)...
No tourists, no television, no a la carte meals, no regulated swimming pool hours, no minibar which transmogrifies a can of Coca-Cola sold for 3000 rupiah at the local 'warung' into a ludicrous $4.50 (plus service charge). I loved Banjar Hills Retreat! Goodbye, and thanks for the memories!
Anyway, even though it's now a long time ago, I've been to Bali too!
