Villa Kalisha

Villa Kalisha is showing her age just like us.  The pool tile is cracked here and there, the patio is a bit rough; paint is peeling in spots. Rust, insects, mold, mildew all take their toll in the jungle. Overall, it stills takes your breath away to walk through the rice fields, through the gates and into the villa compound.

Geckos bring good luck if they honor you with their presence. Zuzu doesn't think so. A big fat one showed up on the wall in her bathroom last night. Scared her to death...slithery things of any kind invoke serious terror in her heart. Gradually she calmed and by the time the evening was over, she'd developed a bit of respect for them - their incredible agility and their appetite for mosquitos. I know she was deeply frightened and admire her courage at "grinning and bearing" it. As we ate dinner she had her eyes riveted on the various smaller geckos working their way up and down the patio pillars cleaning up the insects.

This morning we walked through the fields and along the road for about a mile, past some family compounds and a community temple. We watched a woman working on drying her rice, raking it back and forth in the road on a kind of tarp. Enjoyed the radiant warmth from passing walkers and their wonderful Balinese smiles. 

On the way from Candidasa we stopped at the salt panning town and bought a kilo of the famous bali salt. 

I'd forgotten how noisy the jungle is. All day there's non stop buzzes, creaks, hisses, chirps of frogs, cicadas, geckos. At night it gets even louder.