In a strange twist of fate, our landlord arrived at our place yesterday afternoon with his neice, telling us that she can be our live-in maid for the price that we offered.

What had happened was that we had approached our landlord to help with finding a live-in maid, someone who can cook & clean; do the laundry; upkeep the garden; make offerings and also be willing to learn how to speak English, Italian and maybe even Mandarin. She must also not be afraid to ask when she does not understand something, and be eager to learn when we teach her something.

As with past experiences, we thought it might take a month or so to find someone. Even then, she may not be be suitable for us, or us for her.

To lessen the trouble, we decided to ask our landlord whether he will know of anyone from his village that can be our live-in maid. That was Wednesdy, and there were no further details from him, except a request for us to meet him yesterday to meet his neice.

So imagine our surprise when she turns up with a small bag with her belongings, telling us that she can begin work immediately.

We were totally unprepared: the spare room with attached bathroom meant for the maid needed to be renovated; we had no rice cooker and the gas cooker had no gas; there were no tools for her to do our laundry, and there was no proper place for her to wash up and sleep. But our landlord pushed our concerns away by saying things to the effect that they slept on the floor in the village, and they can sleep anywhere.

Thus, our 19-year-old Balinese maid stayed the night, sleeping on the couch in the living room. As of this morning, we have purchased a rice cooker, gas for the gas cooker, spices and condiments for her to prepare meals, and items for offerings.

Still, it feels weird to have someone living with us, 24-hours a day. She has been with us for less than 24-hours, and so far so good.

So yes, we have a maid!

One of the little luxuries that we can afford here is having hired help. Unlike in Singapore where the maids are foreigners, a lot of the local ladies and men are hired help. Of course, the men do not cook or do the laundry but they are helpful when it comes to general maintenance of the house.

Most times, a family will hire a female to cook and clean, do the laundry by hand, upkeep the garden, perform offerings at the house shrine and take care of the house when the owners are not in. It is much more economical to have a live-in maid than to have one that comes and goes.

At the moment, we only have one that comes every other day to clean the house and clean the garden, as we do not have the financial means yet or the required facilities for a live-in maid.

But having a hired help around the house is something that I am not used to.

I grew up without any domestic help. My parents made my brother and I learn many housekeeping skills: how to wash our own clothes by hand; how to iron clothes the right way; to sweep the floor everyday, and before mopping once a week; the proper way to clean the toilet bowl and toilet; how to wash my father’s Honda Accord; how to empty the trash bins when they are full; how to remove weeds and upkeep the garden; how to cook simple dishes; to wash up all tableware and utensils immedaitely after use.

Thus leaving my cups in the sink for the maid to wash is something that needs some getting used to. Or not picking up the broom to sweep the floor just because it feels a little dusty. Or just throwing the snack wrapper in to any bin in the house, and not only in to the one in the kitchen.

In short, it requires some getting used to, even though she is here for only two hours each time. Still, this means that I am on my way to semi tai-tai life, no?

Next entry: the one about our ‘pond’.

The S.O. picked up a flyer yesterday.

The front read:
the Tuesday Night Pizza Club
Delivery * Takeaway * Eat in
0800-1-4-PIZZA
direct line 730614 toll free 0800 1474992
7 days a week * 9am – 11pm

The pizzas had interesting names, with inspiration taken from well-known Hollywood movies/series: The Italian Job (fresh mozzarella & cherry tomatoes); Hawaii Five-O (ham & pineapple); The Gods Must be Crazy (peanut sauce, chicken satay & onion sambal); A Passage to India (tandoori chicken, roast capsicum & red onion); Finding Nemo (red snapper, marinated calamari & fresh tomato salsa), plus E.T., or the Extra-Toppings.

Then there are the salads (My Big Fat Greek Salad; Kickboxer – Thai beef salad w/ spicy Thai dressing; Twister – pasta salad of fusili, baked bell & chill pepper, fetta & parmesan w/ lemon vinaigrette);
pastas (Dodgeball - sphagetti w/ meatballs & tomato sauce; Casablanca - linguine in gorgonzola sauce;La Dolce Vita – classic creamless sphagetti carbonara);
drinks (Freshly Squeezed BeetleJuice – apple, carrot & celery; papaya, orange & yoghurt);
and desserts (The Sweetest Thing – chocolate mousse cake; hand-made ice creams).

Reading the names and descriptions of all the items made us salivate and had us all excited. Let us not forget that the S.O. is Italian and appreciates a good pizza any time.

The S.O. naturally was excited as this would mean we could get delivery of food to our house instead of having to ride out for every meal.

Then I saw the fine print at the bottom:
The prices in this menu are in thousands of rupiah and do not include the delivery charge for pizzas.
The prices are shown as MINI, S, M, L, XL
Delivery is charged ar Rp6000 per 2km from the restaurant location (Jln Oberoi), so sample charges are as follows:
6000- Seminyak, Legian, Batubelig, Umalas, Peritenget, Semer
12000- Kuta, Kerobokan, Anyar, Tandeg, Berawa
18000- Canggu, Sesh, Tuban
Please confirm this charge with the operator when you order.
Tuesday Night Pizza Club, Jln Laksmana [Oberoi], Kuta, Bali

So this meant that the delivery charge for Jimbaran would be much more, considering that we are about 20 to 30 minutes away from there. Oh well, if we really crave a pizza from The Tuesday Night Pizza Club, we will just hope on the motorbike and head down there.

For now, we will continue to marvel at the marvellous idea that the eatery has come up with. We sure hope it looks as good as their menu!

When people talk about Bali, there are some things that are always mentioned: clubbing at Kuta beach; surf at Dreamland; shopping at Seminyak; luxury getaway at Nusa Dua; the famous Tanah Lot temple; dolphin watching at Lovina; mushrooms and other forms of excesses, and of course, how everything is cheaper than back home.

For me, Bali is about nature. Especially the expansive rice fields that we pass on our way from Jimbaran to Ubud, or on the road up to The Viceroy Hotel. They are a vivid green and always a refreshing view to the eyes.

Then there are the stray dogs and cats, plus the chickens and cows owned by families. There seems to be one stray dog to every house on each street, no matter which part of Bali you are at. You probay will not be able to see this many dogs on Java because Bali is a Hindu state. Cats are fewer in comparison, but equally tame.

But there is a side of Bali that people do not see mainly because it is not abundant at the tourist areas. That is, the amount of pollution and waste that the island experiences. There is no proper waste removal or drainage system in place.

Where do I begin to describe it? Maybe I shall begin with the fact that the front of our house faces an empty plot that I call the ‘rubbish dump’: our maid, and the neighbours too, throw all trash on to this plot. Thankfully, there is no stench because the humidity here is low, and I think most of the things that are thrown there consist mainly of non-biodegradable stuff, mainly plastics.

But wait… This empty space is also sometimes used by one of the neighbours for drying their laundry. We returned one day, some time after lunch, and found that freshly washed laundry had been laid atop the barren bushes to dry in the sun. We were amazed at the sight of clean laundry, drying a few metres away from a pile of trash.

Anywhere that trash can be dumped, it is dumped. In the drain, on the road, in an empty field. Sometimes, someone would burn the trash, so you can imagine the amount of damage done to our ozone layer as the plastics crackle and melt away in the fire. Most times, the trash is left as it is and most clog up the drains that run along the by-pass.

I have also noticed that in the house and around most housing settlements, there is no proper drainage system. So the soapy water from laundry or from washing a motor vehicle is emptied in to the garden or the field. Even if there was a drainage system, most of the water ends up back in the fields. And these fields are used for – you guessed it – growing rice, that the families eat.

The mounting waste problem seems to be exactly what every developing country faces – with the influx of consumer goods in fancy packaging, there is more waste. More than what the country is equipped to handle. It will take the population an awareness of how the environment sustains humans, if it is taking care of, for the ‘pollution’ to stop. Either that, or an organisation to execute a major clean-up of the mess and the island’s infrastructure.

For now, Bali hides its ugly side from tourists, but bares its true self for those that calls it home.

So this sign was staring at us as we paid for two donuts and one iced cappuccino at the Dunkin’ Donuts outlet located at Sanur, Bali, Indonesia (tried looking for an exact location address but according to the Indonesia Dunkin’ Donuts website, there is only one outlet in Bali, at Kuta).

Naturally, after we paid for our purchases, we were not given a receipt. What happens is that instead of entering the purchases in to the cash register, the amount is added up on a calculator. We hand them the cash, the change is returned to us and we do not get a receipt.

However, this is done selectively. When someone is Indonesian, regardless whether they are Javanese or Balinese, he/she gets a receipt. But all tourists or expatriates are not given a receipt.

Why is getting the receipt so important? The receipt is a record of all purchases, which equates to money that the outlet has earned for each day. Any purchases that is not recorded in the cash register means extra ‘pocket money’ for the staff working at the outlet.

Now any person would automatically say: just tell them that you were not given a receipt and demand for a refund.

That would be easy if the S.O. had not tried that already. He paid for his purchase, took his time to enjoy his meal (a total of three hours to be exact), walked out the door and waited five minutes to see if anyone would hand him a receipt, before going back in again to ask about what the sign stated.

What did the staff do? They immediately printed out the receipt and gave it to him.

It would not be so bad, if there was no sign stating that the purchase is free if no receipt is given. We would probably not know better, and walk out feeling satisfied after satiating our donut craving.

But to have a sign there and not present us with a receipt, then expect us not to kick up a fuss, seems to indirectly taunt us.

After all, we would not know whether we get a receipt or not, until we have paid for our purchase. Then when we point out that we are not getting a receipt and should thus have a free meal, there is nothing to stop the staff from printing the receipt there and then, and avoid either refunding us the cost of our purchase.

It probably is none of my business to bother since the loss eventually matters more to the company – take the amount made from a minimum purchase of one donut multiply by five customers per hour, multiply by eight hours a day, multiply by seven days a week, multiply by 52 weeks a year and the amount is no small matter.

But the customer is made to look dumb and the company loses money. My suggestion: remove the stupid sign and install security cameras in each outlet. I am sure that the staff of the outlets in Bali are not the only ones who are helping themselves to some extra cash.

Hopefully someone from Dunkin’ Donuts reads this and realise how their employees in Indonesia are riping them off. And then again, DD is an American company, so should I really bother in the first place?