Cremation

It's going to be the cremation of some one rich family from the village so they can do the cremation directly even the actual village cremation will be held next year for all of the dead in the village so we can share the cost together.

That's the way of the Balinese people do to reduce the cost of the cremation because it is so expensive. And we can do all things of the tradition and culture.

It's gonna be just one person, so I just come back to the village sometimes, because everybody have to do something else, like… working for a living.

Tomorrow, there will be a very big cremation in Ubud. It’s for the king of Ubud who past away two month ago. It's gonna be the biggest cremation we ever had. It's just great! All the hotel in Ubud are fully booked. Everybody (both local and tourist alike) wants to witness it.

I'll try to take some photo to share with you.

Home Sweet Home 2

The first stone had been put in place by the priest on 9th of July. The village is having some ceremony, so everybody is busy with their respective duty. So, the real work is starting next week.

Life's like that

Some French customer sent me email and booked me for my service. To locked down my time for them I have to turn down some of the other customers.

At the very last minute, they canceled the booking after we did all the arrangement.

Sigh... life's like that. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose...

Home Sweet Home

After much talking, surveying and advice from friends and contractor, I’ve decided it is cheaper to build a new house than just to fix the roof leaking problem.

I went to see the priest and he chose an auspicious date for me to start work. So we will start building a house from next month onwards, according to the structure of the old house but without the roof leaking problem. Hehehehe…

It may not be able to finish entirely by raining season (starting September), but at least I’ll solve the roof leaking problem.

I would like to thank my customers cum friend who helped me in many ways to make this happen. Thank you very much!

P.S. I will still fix the roof after I save more money :)

Time Difference

Internationally, Indonesia is +7GMT. That is if you follow the time in Jakarta.

In Bali, it’s +8GMT. That is if you follow the time in China.

A couple came to Bali. The husband goes to Jakarta for business all the time. So they assumed Bali is the same as Jakarta.

They were here for 5 days. First 3 days, they wondered why the hotel morning called them at 6am for breakfast (breakfast time at 7am). And then one day, they booked a shuttle bus to go to Kuta in the afternoon.

They missed it for obvious reason…

It took them 3 days to realize that they were 1 hour behind. It was not bad though, it just meant that they enjoyed themselves so much they forgot about the time.

They hired me the last 2 days they were here, and the wife said they were never late for any of their appointment.

Of course, I also didn’t forget to tease them, “Except????”

So, please note that Indonesia is very big. It has 2 time zones. Bali is +8GMT, not +7Gmt like Jakarta ^_^

Price hike

Starting from today, the government has just risen up the price of the petrol about 30%. It was 4.500 Rupiah per liter, now it is 6.000 Rupiah per liter. It will effect to the entire substantial thing in Indonesia.

I have to tell all of my customers that booked already in few months about this problem because I’m still charging them base on the price of the old petrol price. Hopefully they can understand if I need to rise a little bit of my fee.

The American's cow

My parents are farmers. We have a farm just behind the house. We are planting mandarin orange now.

To work the land, we need help. So we loan a cow from a neighbor with condition to agree upon – we get 70% of the profit, and the owner of the cow gets 30%. It’s just how this community works. By helping each other, all of us benefit from it.

Anyway, my parents can’t afford to buy a full size cow. It is at least 2.5 million Rupiah for a calf.

Last year, I had an American customer. He asked me about my family and I told him how we are like.

And then he told me he wants to visit my parents. I don’t see why not, so I said ok.

My parents never stop me from bringing my customers home. All I need to do is to just inform them we have guests coming over.

He came and looked around and spotted the cow. When he learned that the cow is not ours, he found it amusing. So I told him the problem.

“I have a deal with you.” He said, “I’ll loan you some money to buy a cow. No interest. You pay me back when I come back next year.”

The bottom line is he wants us to enjoy 100% of the profit.

I took his offer, that’s why we have 2 cows.

The big dark brown one belongs to my neighbor, and the small yellow one belongs to the American.

This fellow is one of the 4 reserves for special occasion.