Bali Holidays

September.  It’s the Ramadan holidays here and other Muslim holidays now.  That means that ALL of the Javanese workers are gone from Bali for 20-30 days.  Javanese do everything from hair cutting (I’ve needed one from before I arrived in Bali) to woodworking.  No one has done “anything” since I arrived and will not for another week, I fear.  My whole warehouse staff, wood carvers, villa staff, and drivers are Balinese, so no immediate problem for me.  I don’t have to make coffee, breakfast, drive, or do the gardening!  Haha.

Beyond that it seems nothing moves, especially the traffic.

The same thing happens for the Bali staff when they have their holidays, except the Balinese year is 7 months long, so every holiday happens twice during our calendar year.  It’s also cremation and wedding season in Bali.  Everyone needs extra time off for both.  Someone in Dek’s village was thoughtless enough to die five days ago.  That means he just got 100 hour of work added to his schedule over the next 12 days.  I’m not at the bottom of his priority list, but got bumped from what I’d hoped was #1 position to a “fit-in-where-I-can-once-in-a-while” position.  My clothes are still ironed, the bed is made in the morning and turned down in the evening, and I get food.  The rice fields are vibrant green, the village is quiet, the staff sweet, the wi-fi works, and I am at peace.

What more do I need?

David

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dacman

Having journeyed to the Far East and Asia over 20 times in the past 20 years, I’ve been intrigued and inspired by the ingenuity, craftsmanship, balance and human spirit that have gone into the making of those works I have seen and collected.

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