Hello from Bali!

Hello from Bali! This is the view from our window - a much different life lies ahead of us for the next 365 days. The next year of Senso Unico will be devoted to our year here in Bali - more specifically in a little village on the outskirts of Ubud called Bangkiang Sidem. We have very limited internet access right now so this blog may have several days under one entry. We're working on it though so bear with me!

10 August

Our first night we had a delicious dinner (I ate some of the best vegetable curry ever) and then settled in for the night in our new home. There are all kinds of insects and other night creatures that create quite the symphony and every once in a while the peculiar sound of one of the several geckos in our house chimes in. Earlier there was someone playing gamelan music in the distance.

The trip was grueling only in the sense of its length, otherwise, Singapore Airlines is my new favorite airline. After the appalling treatment of the staff at Delta and virtually everyone I ran into at JFK during my recent trip to NYC - it was like being transported into a parallel universe where people are actually treated humanely and compassionately by the airlines rather than like animals.

The flight attendants on Singapore were so composed, so efficient and professional - they seemed to actually care and performed their job flawlessly. Singapore Airport is probably the quietest, cleanest and most beautiful airport I have ever seen. We hung out at one of several koi ponds they have and fed the fish. Koi are such amazing and if possible to say - animated - fish! The girls got a kick out of how they took food from the hand of the attendant. We visited a butterfly pavilion and their fern and orchid garden. There were loads of shops, but most were high end - Burberry, Chloe, Hermes, etc. that made it only possible to window shop. We sat in comfortable chairs where the children were actually able to sleep for a time.

After being awake for more than 24 hours, I was shattered by the time we reached Denpasar in Bali. Two cars waited for us when we could have realistically had one, but Jared - a transplanted New Yorker who helped us find the house as well as organizing many other things, decided to be safe than sorry. We had been allotted 20 kg per person and had been granted an extra 10kg in total, and even though on average our bags weighed probably 23-24kg each - we ended up having the same experience as Megan and Nazza in that at Rome - we had no problems - they just sent them through.

Going from Singapore airport where we had a 7 hour layover to the airport in Denpasar was like night and day. Singapore airport - cool, modern, clean and quiet - Denpasar airport - stuffy, dated, crowded and noisy. Thankfully, there was absolutely no queues for the foreigners with visas so we were able to get through quickly enough after a small stop in the immigration offices and a stop by customs. We found our drivers and had to split up for the long drive to Ubud.

There are no autostrade/highways in Bali and traffic there made Rome seem like Mayberry, but after the slow crawl around the main city of Denpasar - the rest of the drive was fairly quick. Our driver didn't really speak any English so it was a quiet drive which was fine with me as I slept most of the way.

We arrived to our house and it was nothing like the photographs Steve had taken - it was actually better. The view into the jungle valley is gorgeous - you can see houses and rice paddies in the distance. We have neighbors and can hear them, their gamelan music, their roosters extremely early in the morning - so it's a wonderful combination of rural life, but without isolation.

Tomorrow we have a lot of errands to run, but it also Giulia's birthday. We'll see how well we can work out that conflict of interest!

11 August
In the rental of the home was included the services of a couple who live next door. Made, the wife, is supposed to be the housekeeper and her husband Wayan Karma, takes care of the grounds and had expressed an interest in being our driver. Made broke her arm about 2 weeks ago and did not find a replacement for herself so our home while ready in the sense that there were clean sheets on the bed - is in a less than a clean state. The kitchen is particularly dirty with ants taking up most of the space and not wanting to battle it out with them quite yet - we've just kind of left it as is. We managed to clean some things up to give Giulia the traditional Martinez-Brenner birthday breakfast in bed, but we ended up going into town later that morning for a second breakfast.

Ubud is crowded right now with many tourists and I can't imagine what it will be like when they film "Eat, Pray, Love" here later this year. Because of the amount of traffic, much to my disappointment, it made it very hard to take a look at the many interesting and gorgeous shops there are as we drove by. We ate lunch in one of what seems the many delicious, organic cafes and the living here is definitely easy on our wallets. Afterwards, we attempted walking around, but the sidewalks and the amount of traffic don't make that a very pleasant experience either. Drivers here are worse than Italian drivers in a few senses - while Italian drivers can drive like maniacs, for the most part - they are good drivers. Drivers here drive like maniacs and they are also just terrible drivers. People here make just basically stupid maneuvers and you have to be constantly vigilant especially at night. The mortality and accident rate due to cars and scooters is much higher here.

We made it to Ubud market and Giulia got herself a sarong and a new pair of Balinese style pants. Later on at the supermarket, we bought her a wooden, decorated pointed Asian style hat. Giulia doesn't want much, but what she does want - is definitely particular to Giulia!

The husband of our cleaner had taken us into Ubud and then drove us over to Jared's office. He had organized a year long car rental for us that turned out to be about €150/month. That's less than just our insurance in Rome! So thankfully - we are mobile straight away. Our car for the year is a 7 seater Daihatsu Xenia so we are all comfortable in a car now, but somehow the girls still manage to squabble.

I had been in e-mail contact with one of the new parents at the school who turns out to be one of our neighbors and so we met her and her family today. They will be carpooling with us to the school in the mornings, but we've decided to hire a driver. The fact that Viola gets out at 12:30 (the older girls don't get out until 3:15) combined with the fact that the school is about a 30-45 minutes drive away makes it so that we would end up spending most of our day doing the school run if we didn't have someone to help out.


17 August

This week has just flown by! We've had very little internet access and in fact when I am finally able to post this, it will be under the same date. We have no internet access at home until we buy our USB modems otherwise. We had been offered to have constructed an internet tower, but the quote turned out to be about $900US with a 30 meter tall tower right smack in our yard. We declined. So this has left us going over to our new neighbors - LeAnn and Carlos who have two daughters going to Green School one who is Giulia's age and while they have been very generous - we feel uncomfortable going there especially after the last time we were there when Steve and I were stressed out with the amount of work we had, banking woes and Viola who was having a crisis and crying every two minutes.

Since then we've avoided going over there to use the internet and choose to make the long, winding drive into town (we are about 4-5 kilometers outside of town) to frequent one of the many cafes that offer wireless internet access. Last night, for example, I went alone - ordered a pot of ginger tea and peacefully sat and caught up with Beehive e-mails so it really isn't too terrible.

This past week a lot has happened, but we've essentially been busy trying to put our house together, exploring the town a bit (our favorite places so far - the library and a few cafes), visits to the school including a welcome party by one of the parents - talk about major house envy!). Today is the first day Steve and I are finally experiencing a bit of stomach discomfort. They have a great remedy here though called Bali Belly Buster that is essential collodial silver. Paloma is the only one of the girls who had one bout of diarrhea and then seems to have been okay - I'm hoping they remain unscathed, but we'll see. Today is a national holiday - Indonesia's own Festa della Reppublica, but here in Bali which seems very removed from the rest of Indonesia - we saw only a small celebration in a football playing field next to the library that lasted about a couple of hours and that was it. Otherwise, everything remained open and it was business as usual.

The girls start school tomorrow! I think Steve and I are more excited about it then they are.