Life . . . Reframed: Lodtunduh Sari and the Four Seasons Ubud

There is a small villa complex at one end of our road called the Lodtunduh Sari, and they have a little outdoor restaurant that caters to the tourists staying in our area. It’s a beautiful spot set on a ledge above the rice fields, and is perfect for going to watch the sun set in the evening. We sit at the edge of the rice field with a beer or fresh-made juice, watch the sun set, and then move back past the infinity pool to the restaurant patio for dinner and conversation.

The entrance to Lodtunduh Sari. They have Schnapper here, not Snapper.
Although every night we went there, we tried ordering it with a large
Bintang, but they never had it. They also never had large Bintang . . . only
small Bintang. It became a joke! (Bintang is the local beer)

Love these flowering trees. Our friend Anthony's villa
is in the background.

There were two matching chairs at the end of the
infinity pool, overlooking the rice paddies. We
came here to watch the sunset many evenings.

A bit of a crooked picture! View back from our sunset chairs to
the restaurant. There are villas on both sides of the pool.

Not the best picture of the rice field . . . it was getting dark.

Glen's position until the sun sets. He has a LOT of sunset pictures!

From inside the restaurant looking out over the pool

Two people from Germany took our spot this night. Glen
is not happy!

The kitchen at Lodtunduh Sari. Everything you
order to eat is freshly prepared. Takes about
an hour for most meals. Or two Bintangs!

We’ve shared meals a few times now with a fellow called Anthony who is English, but resides in France. He has been here for 3 months. Another man, Erik from Holland, stays here 6 months out of the year and has owned his villa for about 12 years. There’s a little cat called Princess that is more like a dog in that she is quite adept at begging for food from the dinner table.

Erik in a typical pose with beer and cigarette.

Glen and Anthony having a backgammon showdown.
I think it was a draw.

Always a pleasant evening at the Lodtunduh Sari.

Princess - a very adept beggar. She'll practically
climb on the dinner table looking for scraps.
More of a dog than a cat.

Both their homes are much more ‘Balinese’ than ours, and we were lucky enough to be given tours by both of them on different days. They don’t seem to like each other much, so we’re usually chatting with one or the other, but not both.

On the pathway to Erik's place.

Erik and Glen at Erik's pool

Interesting bedroom. The walls on the two sides are completely
open to the outdoors. Loved the roof. This villa is
constructed of ironwood which is less likely to rot.

Erik's outdoor shower. Stunning.

Erik's living room and a little private plunge pool

Some of the fun decorations at Anthony's place

We’ve been out on driving tours a couple of days with Wayan to explore a bit more of Bali than our little town and Ubud. Traffic here is ridiculous, no matter where you go. The fastest he ever got going was about 50 km/h, but most often it’s about 30 km/h. So anywhere we want to go, we need a lot of time. For 30 minutes of seeing something, expect to spend 3 hours in the car. It really wasn’t much fun, so we decided that we’re going to stay put and really experience living in Bali in our neighbourhood of Lodtunduh and the main town area of Ubud. And it’s been much more relaxing than trying to go here, there and see ‘everything’.

The scene every evening at the end of our driveway. The local
men gather with their roosters to chat. Sometimes there are
three or four, sometimes nine or ten. Always there though!

They have the roosters do mock fights.

On our friend Erik’s recommendation, we visited the Ubud Four Seasons Hotel one afternoon. It is a spectacular building set on a hillside beside the Ayung River. The grounds are immaculate, no garbage, a good cross-section of rice fields and jungle. The patio, restaurant, grounds and lobby areas were gorgeous. And I’m so glad we didn’t stay there. There was no feeling of anything other than ‘white bread vacation’ without any of the experience of the way people live here.

Entrance walkway to the Four Seasons Ubud

Four Seasons Ubud - looking down from the central
stairway. I liked this bit of art that travels between
the floors

Glen trying his hand at playing a Balinese instrument. The
two musicians thought he was pretty funny. This is in the
main lobby of the Four Seasons Ubud.

Christmas tree decorations

The lobby is open to the beautiful outdoors
behind these guys.

Nice patio for enjoying sunsets. Although I think I like the
Lodtunduh Sari better.

A partial view of the grounds at the Four Seasons. There's a
river down there. Very pretty.

Now that we’re on the downside of our time here, I’m recognizing that I like the place in a warped kind of way. I won’t miss the roadside garbage burns, the crazy traffic, the incessant flies and some of the barnyard smells and sounds that can put me off my food. But I’ll miss the wonderful weather, the pool, the rice paddies, the ready smiles of the locals, the roosters in the morning, the crickets and frogs at night, the wonderful people I’ve met, and especially the way my hair always looks just fine here.

This little flower bloomed every evening just as the sun set.

Love the shape of the leaves. See the flower bud near the centre?
It looked like that each evening when we arrived.

Harvested rice plants. So neat and tidy.

My biggest frustration here has been the internet - I must admit I’m spoiled having the super-fast, always-on service of Canada. It often fades out here, and uploading pictures to the blog is a 2 hour exercise for one post. I have no idea when I will post any of these pages. It will happen when it happens. Maybe I came here to learn patience. :-)

And if that’s my biggest problem - I’m a damned lucky woman. Which I am.