A Balinese village

The last day we were in Bali, Audrey's friend, Nicky, invited us to his village; to see his new born baby girl. From our resort, his village was about 5 minute highway ride and what seemed eternity rough & broken road to the village - probably about 15 to 20 minutes. Getting bounced up and down in a small Susuki jeep on benches was interesting. That was rougher than the Safari rides in South Africa.

The road from the turn off toward the village was amazingly broken up. Not potholes, but "broken"; repeat "broken". Worse than the secondary highways in Saskatchewan by 500 percent.

Nicky's house was not just a house; but a series of houses. Generations live in the same premise. There were buildings - living quarters, "traditional" bathroom and work shed. There were two trees with fruit similar to Kiwi; when riped, they fell to the ground; the two trees produced over 100Kg of fruit; you then sold to the market. Nicky is in the middle of collecting building materials for his new house on the premise.

We had some fresh coconut juice while visiting; the taste was a bit salty; not the same as we experienced in restaurants; wondered if there were other additives to the coconut when being served in restaurants. Didn't have much as the hygiene factor - his dad, just picked freshed from the tree; dropped to the ground, hacked up the top, made a hole with whatever, then a straw. But the straw was a bit "muddy". They were great hosts but ....

We walked a bit around the village; saw real grove trees and coco trees. Rice fields. And a 70 odd years old woman balancing two long tree barks on her head walking.

One thing you need to get used to was seeing dogs everywhere in a village; then the occasional open drainage; OK, that was the second thing.

I finally saw tempe (or tempeh) in one of the village's stores. It is a staple diet to the Indonesians. Very healthy. You can get some in health food store in Canada or the US I believe.

Every house in a village has a temple. And every village has a community hall that meetings are held; and the population statistic is recorded and displayed. Also, there is a temple for the village.