A morning to remember

Our morning yesterday was quite an unusual one…

First fishmonger at 5am

We woke up at 3.30am to be among the first ones to welcome the fish at Jimbaran Bay. As we approached the beach everything seemed very quiet but amidst the dark we were greeted now and then by several “Selamat pagi!” (good mornings) that revealed the fishermen already waiting. They were having a coffee (a super “manis” one… very, very sweet!) and chatting among themselves so we joined in and later followed them as they make their way to the sea shore.

Waiting time

Some fishmongers beat us there and were already displaying their fish from their evening’s catch but most took positions squatting and looking fixedly at the sea. The water was spattered with bobbing boats and we were wondering what would happen next as none of the boats seemed to be approaching us.

Boats at Jimbaran Bay

After an hour or so, when the sun had already risen, the fishermen came back to life and started to gather empty baskets that were soon loaded into small wooden boats. Men jumped in the boats and went out to sea while the women remained on the shore. Quietness returned to the beach for another hour and we were starting to grow impatient when suddenly the whole beach went crazy with activity. The small boats were returning and women and children started to run towards the water. Not wanting to miss whatever was coming next, we imitated them and had a privilege view of what was happening: the fishermen unloaded the baskets full of fresh fish on the heads of the waiting women while the children stealthily snatched small fish from the baskets ignoring reprimands from the adults and putting away their loot in small plastic bags.

Innocent looking children wandering around :)

Our cameraman filming the women carrying the fish

This scene took place every time one of the boats reached the shore and kept on happening for a couple of hours, every single time with the same excitement. Slowly the beach filled up with fish baskets and an equally mysterious activity developed… some people started to check the fish and shout prices while others were taking notes. Although the scene was mesmerizing, we realized that the children were nearby holding their own little auction and selling the few fishes they had managed to grab from the grown-ups.


When the commotion died down, we looked at our watch. It was already 9am! We had spent the last 5 hours captivated by a glimpse at the everyday lives of the fishermen at Jimbaran Bay.

Location, location, location

The first thing which strikes the visitor to Jimbaran is that the landscape is totally different from the rest of the island. Jimbaran is located in the “Bukit” (the hill), the peninsula at Bali’s southernmost tip, and has an ecosystem characterized by its lack of surface water so during the dry season the vegetation looks more Mediterranean than tropical. During the raining season, however, the vegetation becomes quite lush as it rains profusely. 

View Jimbaran, Bali in a larger map. 

Zoom in or out to get closer to Cuca real life location!!!!

The Bukit rises to about 200 meters above the sea level and it is ringed on all sides by steep cliffs overlooking white rollers world famous among surfers. To the north it is connected to the rest of Bali by a narrow isthmus, where lies the village of Jimbaran and the broad expanse of the tranquil Jimbaran Bay facing the Indian Ocean.

Since the weather does not allow for wet-rice farming the population looked to the sea for survival. Almost all fishermen in Jimbaran use "jukung" (traditional wooden boats) and fish with gill nets or large round cast nets. The nets are set out in the bay in the late afternoon and the catch is collected early the next morning. 

Everyone in the family helps to take the fish from the nets

Jimbaran went unnoticed by tourists until only a few years ago when world class hotels and resorts realized its extraordinary natural beauty and the unusual tranquility still prevailing in the area. A few months ago we also felt the magic of this place and found the perfect spot to build Cuca...  

Isn't it gorgeous? Just seems to be missing Cuca!

Unity in Diversity

There are few places in the world that offer such cultural variety and geographical complexity as Indonesia. Blessed with a phenomenal array of natural resources and unique cultures, Indonesia has been a magnet for every shade of entrepreneur from the west: determined missionaries, unscrupulous traders, unruly adventurers, artists in search of inspiration… The country has been occupied by Dutch and Japanese armies, surveyed, drilled, dug up and shipped off by foreign mining companies, analyzed and written about by ethnologists and anthropologists and more recently invaded by tourists. Despite this fatal attraction, Indonesia’s thousands of islands remain barely touched. 

Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world after China, India and the United States with 237 million people (2010), comprising some 300 ethnic groups who speak an estimated 583 languages and dialects. The glue that binds the people together is the usage of the Bahasa Indonesia, the national language, and Pancasila, the national philosophy, which stresses the doctrine of unity and universal justice for all Indonesians.

Over two thirds of the population resides in Java. By contrast, the province of Papua represents 22% of the total land mass, yet has only 1% of the population. A government transmigration policy resettles people on the less populated islands, and Indonesians have been alerted to the importance of only two children to a family to control the birth explosion.

Indonesia is the biggest Islamic nation in the world, with Muslims forming about 90% of the population. Bali, however, is almost entirely Hindu and everywhere there are Buddhists and Christians. But, strangely enough, there is no official state religion – freedom of thought being guaranteed by the Constitution.

With more than 17,000 islands, nearly 60 percent of forested land and a significant portion of mountainous and volcanic land, Indonesia is endowed with endless wonders in one unforgettable destination. 

Time-lapsing Cuca

As I mentioned before, we have decided to make a documentary to capture the process of creating Cuca. Today we spent the morning deciding the location and procedure to make a time-lapse video of the entire construction. 

Time-lapse is a photography technique whereby a camera takes a sequence of photos with an interval of time between each image. The interval can be anything from less than a second to a day or more. When the images are played back the interval of time is speeded up creating a shorter time. Here you will see a beautiful example of this type of video about my hometown, Salamanca:

There are quite a few factors to take into consideration when planning for this type of video: the length of the project, the speed of each step of the construction, the capacity of the memory card, the battery-life, the height of the building, frames necessary for the whole video, etc. Raymond, our photographer, is assisting us in this project and with him and his team we analyzed the drawings and layout of the restaurant and decided the exact place where we will fix the GoPro camera. We will soon install the pole to house the camera and start the shooting!

It "wood" matter

After countless visits to our favorite wood shop in Bali selecting furniture for our new home, we have come to establish a lovely relationship with the family who runs it.

A beautiful rocking chair this shop made for us

We absolutely love their end-product so we made up our mind and today we took a step further… We had a long and intense meeting where we revealed to them our ideas for Cuca’s chairs and tables. They always show a deep knowledge of both the properties of the wood and the functionality of the furniture and on top of it during our meeting today they seemed infected with our enthusiasm so we feel in the right hands sharing our ideas. Now it all depends on their quotation but hopefully we just sowed a seed for the growth of Cuca. Will keep you updated!

The whole family participating in the meeting

Factory at the back of their shop

Sanur Village Festival 2012

Sanur is a stretch of beach in southeast Bali, about 30 minutes drive from the airport, which has grown into a little town in its own right. It contains quite number of hotels and resorts and it is the type of place where hip Europeans who have outgrown the party scene go to recharge. 

View Larger Map 

It is also one of the most popular beaches among the Balinese and home to the annual Sanur Village Festival. This year’s event kicked off yesterday and we were there to check out the food bazaar as well as to support The Gangsa, an exclusive villa resort part of Kayumanis family.

Ibu Agustini, the GM of The Gangsa 

The evening was clearly a success and apart from trying the tasty pork ribs by The Gangsa, we found out about a local company which produces great liqueurs. This was quite a finding as “local” is one of Cuca’s mottos. 

If you are in Bali, we recommend you to drop by Sanur, the festival lasts until Sunday!

Great evening atmosphere

Green? Orange? Blue? Yellow?

These days we are going through a crucial point in our adventure… We are now designing Cuca logo and it is being so intense that all I see is colors when I close my eyes… Our graphic designer is great and we are progressing quite a lot but after seeing dozens of options and getting closer to our preferred ones, it gets more and more difficult. Kevin likes this, I would rather have that… The designer always seems to agree with Kevin so we take breaks to fight. Every now and then we get to conclusions and move forward. There are so many decisions to be made: the font, the size, the logotype, the sub-identities, the colors, the spacing… All under the pressure to know that once concluded, there is no way back. Aaaarrrggghhh!!!

I will keep you informed and you will be the first to see our final design. Promised!

Please don't!

To save your time and mistakes when you come to try Cuca, I compile a list of what you should not do here in Bali:

• Don’t give or receive anything with your left hand (it is considered unclean).
• Don’t point with your fingers or feet (you better start practicing pointing with your thumb, it will take you time to get used to it, I haven’t managed to do it yet…).
• Don’t stand with your hands on your hips or crossing your arms over your chest (or people will believe you are angry at them).
• Don’t dare to touch anyone’s head!  It is considered the seat of the soul and sacred.
• Don’t walk with your shoes on when entering a home.
• Don’t visit a temple when menstruating or having open cuts and wounds.
• Don’t honk when being stuck behind a procession.
• Don’t take it personal when being asked about your age and marital status by the cashier in the supermarket. And I am afraid you should not take it as a pick up attempt, Balinese love small talk (“obrol” in Indonesian).
• And finally, don’t ever get angry in Bali… you would be wasting your time and probably getting nowhere.

Well, now you are a step closer to be ready to visit us!

Heavenly Babi Guling...

As days pass by we are getting to try different Balinese dishes. So far there is a stand out winner, one of the most popular delicacies in the island. The succulent Babi Guling is a stuffed suckling pig slowly roasted on a spit. “Guiling” means “to turn” and such the cooking methods involves a constant turning of the pig. A well-made babi guling requires a lot of skill and patience as the heat should be concentrated on the head and tail and not in the middle so as not to crack the skin of the stomach.

There is much controversy on who serves the best babi guling in Bali but for us it is difficult to believe that it can get any better than in Bapak Dobiel. This is undoubtedly a favourite among the locals (our friend Nyoman strongly recommended it to us) and it is still Pak Dobiel himself who cooks and serves the meal. The pigs are roasted early every morning on the back of the dining-room. 

  

As in most warungs (local restaurants), the dish is served as a bed of rice topped with different parts of the pig adding an array of exciting textures (crispy skin, slow roasted lean meat, cartilage, fried liver, cracklings, etc. ) and with some of the spiced veggies used to stuff the pig. 

One of the highlights of this dish is the soup... a broth made from the roasted flavorful bones left over from cleaning the pork meat. I have never tried anything so rich and tasty...

I am getting dizzy just from writing this post... I need to go... Guess where? J

Bahasa Indonesia

This is the official language in Indonesia, derived from Malay but with Javanese and Dutch influences. Although I had heard English was widely spoken in Bali, we have encountered many, many people we cannot communicate with, specially outside the tourist industry. They speak either Balinese (supposedly a language quite difficult to learn) or Bahasa as they come from other parts in Indonesia. I am ashamed to admit that after living for 9 years in Malaysia, I never put too much effort to learn Malay. I took a few courses but everyone spoke to me in English and furthermore I never consciously planned to stay in Malaysia for that long (let alone to move to Indonesia!) so my Malay is pretty basic. 

This time I am determined to not repeat the same mistake and I am everyday putting a bit of time to learn Bahasa. Being quite obsessed with linguistics, I find extremely interesting the logic behind this language… These are some examples that amuse me:

• Apa kabar? 

It is used as “How are you?” but literally means something like “What are the news?” The answer is "Kabar Baik", literally “The news are good”. It makes me smile every time I here it...

• Plurales

Guess how is the plural make? Overwhelming logic…

Anak = child Anak anak = children
Buku = book Buku buku = books

• Tenses

The Indonesian tenses make anyone learning a language like Spanish depressed… Look at their simplicity…

       PRESENT:
             Saya makan ayam (= I eat chicken)

       PRESENT PERFECT: with sudah
             Saya sudah makan ayam (= I ate or have eaten chicken)

I absolutely love the use of this “sudah”… They apply it whenever they find that something must undoubtedly  happen. For example, every day I get a “Sudah kawin?” = "Are you married yet?" Or a “Sudah punya anak?” = "Do you have children yet?" . The answers consider satisfactory are amazing: you either answer “Sudah” ("Already) or “belum” ("Not yet…").

      FUTURE TENSE: with akan
            Saya akan makan ayam (= I will eat chicken)

      PRESENT CONTINUOUS: with sedang
            Saya sedang makan ayam (= I am eating chicken)

      PAST TENSE: with kemarin
            Saya makan ayam kemarin (= I ate chicken yesterday)

Verbs do not have conjugations (persons), tenses, modes... and they are still effective!

I will tell you more about Bahasa in posts to come!