Taking a warm shower in Bali is a matter of timing, especially if you live in Jimbaran. Usually, the best times are after 10pm at night, and before 10am and after 2pm in the day. At any other time, you either have insufficient water to trigger the heater for a hot shower, or you just have to make do with a cold shower.

Water is transported from somewhere else, possibly Denpasar, to Jimbaran in pipes. The water pressure may remain constant throughout the day, but there are more people using water in the day for household purposes. So at times the water pressure is too low and there may even be no water. When this happens, we just wait until the water comes back on, which usually is between 30 minutes to an hour.

While showers and shower heads are not uncommon in Bali, most locals have never seen a shower head before, much less know how to use one.

The S.O. was telling me a story about the first gal he went out with when he first arrived in Bali: she came from a village and had never before seen a shower head or known the concept of taking a shower. So amazed was she by this, she brought another friend to take at look at the shower that was at the villa he used to rent.

Most Balinese bath with water from the tap, collected from in a tub in the washroom. So even when the water supply from the tap is dead, they still have water to flush the toilet or to have a bathe with. Due to this, they are used to washing themselves with cold water and are unaffected if there is no warm water.

Growing up in Singapore, I remember taking baths out of a red plastic tub, especially when I was a girl of five-years-old. However, these were warm baths: my grandmother would boil water in a metal kettle over the stove, then add the hot water to the cold water from the tap in the tub, creating a warm and soothing bath. Then in the years when I became a teenager, heaters were installed in bathrooms and we enjoyed warm water from the tap.

But these heaters that we have in Singapore run on electricity: you flick a switch on the wall to turn them on. Here in Bali, our heater runs on gas – liquified petroleum gas – as it is cheaper than having it run on electricity. So instead of having only one tank of gas for cooking, we have another one to heat the water for our us to enjoy a warm shower.

I miss the conveniences, such as an instant warm shower, that I had in Singapore. But each thing here, even the experience with the shower, brings back childhood memories that have been dormant for the past 10 years. And I like it.

Last Saturday night, instead of staying home to sleep, we went to Kuta beach. No, we were not moon-tanning. Rather, it was my first clubbing night in Bali. We went to Paparazzi Lounge where DJ Small, resident of Attica in Singapore, was spinning as part of the Double 6 presents Wonderland event, with vocals by Hanna Hais.

Small rocked the place with his good mix: from his second track onwards, the dance floor remained crowded despite the constant flux of customers at the club. I enjoyed dancing to his tunes; deja vu, if you know what I mean.

But before the music took over and brought me to the dance floor, I scanned the lounge. About 90 per-cent of the customers were non-locals. There were those who are fair-skinned, some boasted golden brown tans, and others were naturally dark brown or coffee. The few locals present were either friends of the promoter, or girls looking to get lucky.

This last group of customers brought me back to the kind of clientele that some clubs in Singapore have: local girls on a night out, hoping to hook a foreigner for a boyfriend. The guy can be old, fat, ugly or absolutely rude, by his own country’s standards. But to these girls, all they see is money and possibly a way out of the country. Sounds familiar, does it not?

Some of these girls were staring daggers at me when I was dancing. I do not know whether they were jealous that guys were checking me out, or that I had a buley (literally means ‘albino’ but here it refers to white people) guy with me, or that I was enjoying myself dancing.

But I had to laugh at it because this proved how some things are universal, wherever you go in the world. I guess there are some things in the world that you cannot possible hope to get away from. And this is one of them.

Many things have happened since the last post. Or perhaps, when you take the time to appreciate everything that you do in life, each day seems to be equally eventful as the previous one.

For a start, we have been enjoying the fruit of the belimbing tree in the garden. The starfruit are sweet and juicy, especially when they have been plucked by our maid. We served some to a Polish couple, who are in Bali – and Asia – for the first time, during lunch. Now we are looking forward to the mango season to ‘harvest’ the mangga tree standing in a corner of our garden.

Also, ever since the pond clean-up, our garden seems more beautiful, with the flowers seeming to have taken on a colourful radiance that attract a variety of butterflies; one even flew in to our study a couple of days ago. Our adopted cat Fiona has been getting some sun in the garden, and even our maid likes to sit in the garden to read or relax when the sun is not too strong.

We also like to think that the daily prayers and offerings from our maid gives the compound an added aura. We may not be Hindus, but we respect the culture and are happy to see that she is happy to fulfill her religious duties.

Being a couple who are curious about other cultures and religion, we welcome any chance to understand them better. Thus when we were invited by one of the S.O.’s employees to the blessing ceremony of his three-month-old daughter, we went.

Although the family lives in Denpasar, the ceremony was held in the village where the husband’s father’s house was. This meant a two-hour drive from our home. Thus we were up at 6am and on the road by 7am to arrive at 9am for the ceremony.

Unlike other ceremonies that I have witnessed, Balinese ceremonies seem to have an air of casual friendliness about them. Even during the ceremony itself, there are on-going exchanges about what steps have to be taken next or what has to be done. While some are mainly family affairs, they delight in having guests present and the hospitality is warm.

Balinese guests to the ceremony are dressed in traditional Balinese outfits meant for ceremonies. The tops for ladies are similar to the nonya kebayas, and the bottom is usually a sarong. The males too have to wear a sarong and this is matched with any short sleeve shirt. One cannot simply put on any top or sarong – they have to be of a certain design and print meant specially for ceremonies. The ladies normally have a sash to tie around the waist before they can enter the temple of the house during ceremonies.

When each guest arrives for a ceremony, they bring with them a gift for the host-family. This is usually packets of rice, which can amount to between 2.5kg to 5kg, and a present suited to the occasion. They are then offered tea and some cakes, while waiting for the ceremony to begin.

As there was no one available to guide us through the baby blessing ceremony, we just watched and tried to ask questions later. The baby was dressed in bright colours and her father carried her through the ceremony.

For the first part, prayers were made and incense was offered, along with other items. From what we saw, items such as charcoal-grilled pig, cakes and traditional snacks are used as offerings. An interesting addition to the ceremony for blessing a baby is the presence of a live chicken. The mother fo the baby explained that the chicken acts as the baby’s guardian, and so is part of the ceremony. Plus, her daughter’s guardian chicken is a chick from her son’s guardian chicken.

After the end of this part of the ceremony, the father placed silver jewellery on the baby. There were new hoop earrings, bracelets, anklets and a special pendant that contains a bit of the baby’ dried umbilical cord. Balinese believe that the umbilical cord gives the baby protection and health: for example, when the baby is unwell, a small amount of the dried umbilical cord is crushed into powder and added to milk for the baby to consume, and this will help the baby to recover.

Then, everyone stops for lunch and some conversation before the next part of the ceremony where the baby’s hair is shaved off. We did not stay for this part of the ceremony as we had other plans, but it would have been interesting to watch.

As it was our virgin baby blessing ceremony, the experience was interesting for both of us. But what remained with me was the warmth I felt in this family activity, and the unhurried manner that they had for the entire activity, much like their attitude toward life: “We will get to the end eventually, but we shall enjoy the journey too.”

And this is a little thing that we can learn from the Balinese: that the journey is just as important as the destination.

It should come as no surprise that Bali has MacDonald’s outlets, since the island relies heavily on tourism dollars. What should be surprising is that these outlets have been operating for 24-hours since two or three years ago, while – correct me if I am wrong – I think that Singapore only had its first 24-hour MacDonald’s outlet sometime in late 2004.

While there is no 7-Eleven chain store here, they do have a similar chain called Circle K. Another American chain store…

Other familiar names cashing in on the tourist dollar in Bali – that I can remember at the top of my head – include BreadTalk, Starbucks Coffee, Gloria Jean’s Coffee, Pacific Coffee Company, KFC, Thai Express, Lotus Cafe chain (Italian owners whom we have met), Dunkin’ Donuts (see previous post on our experience with DD), Planet Hollywood, Quiksilver, Billabong, The Body Shop, Charles and Keith, Giordano, and Guardian.

August to October, and even up to November, is peak period in Bali. This is when tourists come for their summer vacation. So far for this year, tourist spots such as Kuta, Sanur and Ubud are busy. This is a relief to both the residents and long-time expratriates – the bombings at Jimbaran and Kuta in 2005 kept tourists from the island earlier this year.

However, the numbers are still not as much as before. Just a few days ago – think it was Aug 20 – the Australian government issued a warning to its residents to avoid coming to Bali during the exact peak period.

I do not fault the Australian government for issuing such a warning – it has the interests of its residents at heart. However, it is wrong to say that all of Bali is unsafe.

There are other non-tourist-filled areas that are beautiful and safe. I am sure the bombers will not think of planting a bomb at the Tanah Lot temple, or around the rice fields, or near Mount Batur in Kintamani, or at Dreamland beach, or among the dolphins at Lovina Beach.

Besides, there is already a shift in the kind of visitors to Bali. There are now more budget travellers than those who have a bit of cash to spend on a relaxing yet luxurious get-away.

Bali is a beautiful island with more than just Kuta, Sanur, Ubud and Nusa Dua. So come and experience Bali, away from the tried-and-tested areas. Experience the real Bali, not the made-up one for tourists.

I am already here, and loving it.

Despite having lived at the house for two weeks, no one is ever used to opening the door to the bathroom, to be greeted by a toad or frog perched on the toilet seat or bathtub, just staring at you. Or stepping out of the door to find a toad high on the wall of the house.

Then there was the problem of existing mosquitoes, despite having emptied a can of insect spray and following up with a few strategically placed mosquito coils. Even the presence of geckos and spiders did not seem to eleminate them, and the fact that there were geckos and spiders proved that blood suckers are abundant around our place.

While the S.O. was not that sure that the pond was the main cause of these other adopted residents of the house, I was certain that it was so. The water had turned dark, and falling leaves from the trees and plants had not been removed from the pond for more than two weeks.

Thus I woke last Friday morning with one thought on my mind: remove all the fallen leaves from the pond first, then we shall take things from there.

There were no proper tools for the operation, except a changkul that I spotted in a corner of the garden. With it, I slowly scooped out the leaves, as mosquitoes tried to assail me. Luckily I was prepared: I had inserted burning sticks of incense near my feet to keep the blood suckers at bay.

As more leaves were removed from the pond, a very interesting sight appeared: the pond was swimming with tadpoles. Not just a small amount, but probably a few hundred! I had never seen that many tadpoles in one pond before, and neither had the S.O.

The sight of so many potential members of a toad/frog choir prompted him in to action too. He changed out of his ‘desk work’ outfit in to a ‘doing menial work’ outfit, picked up a plastic pail, and started to scoop out water from the pond. As there was no where to throw the water, it was all dumped on to the ground.

Along with the water came the tadpoles, more leaves, and some small fishes. As the S.O. was helping to remove the leaves with his scooping, he ordered me to rescue any fishes that were spotted.

This resulted in me trying to scoop up the fishes and transport them to a pail filled with water. As is natural for fish who are struggling to try and survive out of water, they were flicking about and this caused me to scream out a few times. In the end, about 18 fishes were rescued from the pond, and given to the kids next door to play with.

After about 40 minutes of scooping out water, the pond was emptied, and the tadpoles lay dying on the ground in a few patches. The S.O. then washed the pond clean, sprayed the surface with insect spray and placed another mosquito coil on its now dry base.

So now we have a dry, empty pond. The tadpoles are all gone, thus eliminating the toad/frog orchestra of the upcoming rainy season. There are decidely less mosquitoes as well, since the breeding ground is gone.

What do we plan to do with the pond now? No more stagnant water in there, for sure. We are going to fill it up with soil, and make it a part of the garden by putting plants in there.

Thus ended the great pond clean-up and the start of the changes to our garden.