Good Luck Ganesha

How often, I wonder, do people return to the same place they have stayed before on their travels, even one they have really enjoyed?  Quite rarely,  I am guessing.  There are so many other wonderful places to visit, and who needs routine and the familiar on holiday.   However  I am sure that the return visit is, like a repeat shop visitor, what all hotel and resort owners aim for.

We have visited the same magical place in Bali three times now.  It is in northern Bali and getting there is an adventure in itself involving a 7 hour flight (which if you are flying Garuda could indeed be taking your life in your own hands - in fact I could do a whole post on Garuda stories I have heard), negotiating customs, confronting the heat and humidity, then a 6 hour drive from the bottom of the island to the top, through chaotic Kuta, dodging motorbikes and Spirit Day processions, across a volcano, through the misty mountain top and vegetable gardens, and down into the rice paddies outside Singaraja.  In our case it also unfortunately has involved numerous toilet and vomit breaks.

Having said that, Puri Ganesha has inspired us in so many ways and also help me to keep dreaming of new ideas for our house.  Thank you Diana...

These stone lights reinforced our love for stone walls, which I wrote about here:

This spice market made me appreciate freshly ground spices and now I always cook this way excepting of course when I just can't be bothered:

And these terraces made me realise the importance of a shady quiet place to read. I am still working on this one. 

Some ideas didn't work out.    We loved this bed so much we bought a queen size bed net to fit on a frame in Ubud and I got our carpenter to rig up a wooden contraption to hang it on.  Well was that a mistake.  You know how DIY can occasionally look embarassingly unfinished and basically, crap?  Well that was what this looked like.  It lasted only a few months over our bed.   (I do have an excuse which was that I had just had a baby and was obviously not thinking straight).   Clearly some holiday experiences are best left on holiday. 

And we still have a few 'still to be fulfilled' ideas.

An outside bathroom, like this one.   In Australia, I think an outside bathroom is quite sensible and practical.  Perhaps not in Melbourne but how wonderful to step out to this each morning....

A wooden door to replace the basic standard gate we have down the side of the house, so that the dark side of the house becomes a transformational adventure, rather than a dark spider dodge:

And,  perhaps not for our current house, a deep stone paved pool, which looks somewhat like it has been carved from rock:

Or this one from the Uma Ubud:

And finally, somewhere, somehow, by hook or by crook, I will one day have a pink painted outdoor wall, like this:

(Photos: 1, 4, 5, 8 and 10 Puri Ganesha, others by Jane)

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