Pastuah

Ubud, Bali is prolific with art that I had a sensory overload very soon into the trip. I was so satiated that I decided to take off 'painting', the first word in my must-buy list that I'd prepared in Singapore just before leaving. Instead Kumar and I went looking for for thin quilts made with lots of different patches of Balinese cloth stitched together. At Gunung Kawi, the lady offered us a double-size quilt for 120.000 Rp. I wanted a better deal with better options. Finally I found a friendly less menacing lady with quilts, sarongs, kabaya (a traditional knit top worn by Balinese women to their temples) and the like in her humble shop. She showed me quilts that were bigger that queen-size. After a bit of browsing through them, I found the exact one that I was looking for. I wanted a white/0ff-white border and also blue patches in the quilt. It was then time for something I detest very much - Bargaining.
This is what how she began "I usually give it for 270.000/- but for you I give special price 175.ooo/-". This price was way above my budget and expectations so, Kumar and I vigourously shook our head. After a lot of discussion we got it down to satisfying 90.000/-. As we were leaving she said "Wah, you are very lucky, you got this pastuah with extremely small patches of cloth, I should have asked for 120!" I pounced on the new word that I'd just heard. Pastuah. I wanted to learn how exactly it was to be pronounced. As I stumbled through the pronunciation, Kumar asked her "Do, you mean... Patchwork?" to which she said, "ya, ya, Pastuah".
Well, I felt quite silly learning to pronounce a mispronounced word!

Our eventful holiday.

We'd initially planned a trip to Tioman which was called off due to severe weather conditions in Malaysia. After cancelling that almost too close to new years it was difficult to get flight tickets to anywhere. Either they were not available or we had to bust an entire year's vacation budget on just flying!

We decided to do an impromptu backpack trip to Bali. And how do we get there.

A 45 minute ferry from Singapore to Batam
Flight from Batam to Jakarta and Jakarta to Denpasar (Bali)

and back the same way.

The next few posts will be about the trip to Bali, the lessons we had to learn there and the people we met. And some free advice to people who will be visiting Bali.

Happy 2007!

May this year be wonderful and meaningful for you. May it also bring pots and pots of success and happiness.