The Engleson Files

While it is not yet solidified, the Engleson family winter vacation plans have taken a bit of a twist recently where the underdog Sri Lanka is becoming a valid option. The original plan was to go back to Indonesia but the Sri Lanka bug was planted and has not left our thoughts yet. My vote is strongly in favor of going there but (surprise, surprise) Kristin is waffling a little and needs some more convincing. It’s got the beaches, the culture, the Tamil Tigers - I mean, c’mon, it’s got it all! So, let us know what you think - Bali or glorious Sri Lanka

Well, I could go on longer but I think I have taken our journey on long enough. All in all, Indonesia had a very profound effect on the Engleson clan and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. The people are very friendly and the natural beauty of the place is second to none. For me it felt great to be in a place where nature was so lush and vibrant and it just felt great to be outside doing anything. The pace of life was exactly what was needed and I would not hesitate for a second to go back! Not sure if we ever will make it back, but for now my thoughts continue to wander back to Indonesia and our wonderful time spent there!

One great day we had in Ubud was when we drove out to a coffee plantation and then walked through some beautiful rice terraces. One huge highlight for Kristin during the holiday was the coffee that both Lombok and Bali brewed - she could not get enough of it! I still despise the stuff but very much enjoyed watching how it all grows and gets processed. The plantation had a beautiful terrace that overlooked a lush, green valley where we could all sit down and enjoy free samples of the different coffees and cocoa grown there - it was a great!

The rice terraces were a neat experience because we were able to walk all through them and get a feel for how they operate on a daily basis. The job seems extremely laborious with not great payment in return, but it was sure a beautiful place to go and see. Everywhere you looked in Bali you saw beautiful terraced landscapes and is definitely a memory I take back of my time there.

So, soon after we checked into the Ubud Inn I was introduced to Ketut, who I was informed was a very good word carver who would serve my needs perfectly for the project. I showed him the board and loosely described what I wanted on it; the top was fully completed and now I just wanted something done on the sides. Cheerfully, he told me, “no problem,” and that was that - Ketut and I were in business together for the next 5 days. I was in a serious time crunch in Ubud because it was the last part of our journey and the project absolutely needed to get done - but, again, to Ketut that was, “no problem!”

I saw a few wood carvings around our hotel that looked interesting. I showed him these and then just asked him to make it as “Balinese” as he could. Ketut went into great detail about telling me some ancient Hindu stories and how we could put these on to the board, to which I heartily agreed.

One day when I went in for one of my routine check ups and photo-ops, I noticed that one side had the swastika planted right smack-dab in the middle of the board. Now, yes, the swastika is an ancient Hindu symbol which means peace and life, but to most of us Westerners, the Nazi’s have tainted that meaning somewhat. I was a little uncomfortable discussing this point but felt it just had to be addressed it to see if there was some type of compromise we could reach. Ketut understood and we both worked hard at finding a way to make it look less Nazi-like. (The Nazi’s changed the angle of the swastika for their version of it) In the end we found a way, the swastika stayed and I am happy that it did - it is a very important symbol to devout Hindu’s in Bali and, therefore, it belongs on my board. Sure, people may react to it at first back in Canada but it should make for a good conversation opener at best. In the end, Ketut was a hell of a wood carver and I enjoyed working with him greatly.

The following pictures are of the final stages of the congklak board and my next post on the project will be the final product…

So after a long day on the ferry back to Bali we arrived in Ubud at 8:00pm. We did not have a place booked but knew we wanted to spend a few bucks on accommodations for a last few days as a final treat. Tired, we looked at a couple of places (but were not overly thrilled) and then stumbled upon the Ubud Inn and made our decision right away - it was perfect! The room was large (three beds!), very clean, not too expensive and the grounds were absolutely gorgeous; the entire place was a jungle just bursting with color. Even though the Ubud Inn was right off the main drag, the real charm of the place was that once you stepped inside the grounds you lost track of where you were immediately and just got lost in the solitude.

Within minutes of unpacking our bags, I went to front desk and asked where I can find a congklak guy and, par for the course, a half hour later I had one ready to go…

A traditional Lombok house

So after 10 glorious days on Gili Trawangan and 6 days in Lombok the family headed back onto the ferry and back to Bali - this time our destination was Ubud, the epicenter of Balinese culture. The trip was certainly winding down by this time but we did have much more to see and do in Ubud - we’re almost done folks!

So down at the ‘Chillen’ Out Bar’ I met Dean (the man you see in the picture above) and his assistant Alex who both accepted my challenge with the project with great eagerness. They painstakingly shaved the paint off the congklak board by hand and then began to carve in beautiful designs. 90% of the design on all the pieces was done by me, 100% of the skill was provided by the Indonesians. Many times I would just go down to where they worked, hang out with them, talk and new ideas would come up - I absolutely loved it!

For the mallets I had one carved out with geckos on the shaft and the other I had traditional Indonesian masks. I then asked them to whittle down the upper handles and add in any other traditional Lombok designs to give it that extra special touch - Lombok flowers seemed to be these guy’s specialties. For the congklak board, I was always being offered these bone necklaces on the beach with symbols of Lombok, Bali or Trawangan and one day thought that that might look kinda cool on top of the board. So I bought the necklace and asked Dean and Alex to carve in the Lombok symbol and make it the main focal point of the board. After 9 days of shaving, sanding and carving the end result of Dean and Alex’s work was absolutely brilliant and I could not wait to take the pieces back to Bali. By now my mind was in full woodcarving mode and thoughts of what else to do with the pieces consumed many hours of my day…

Instead of glorious sunsets, almost every night around 5 o’clock the skies would turn dark, the clouds quickly rolled in and then rain would absolutely pour down for an hour or so. It was one of my favorite times of the day. I just loved how the colors of blue came to life in so many different contrasts and also loved the feeling of rejuvenation the rain provided after a long, hot day under the sun. Even while it rained, it was still fantastically warm outside and many times Magnus and I would go out and swim in the storm-filled water - it was great!

Some days this was my most difficult decision.

Once Svea was strapped on the bike we snuck out the back way of Coral Beach 1 and rode into town through the hundreds of trails that intertwine Gili Trawangan in order to find our wood guy. These trails are tried and tested by the locals and very rarely did we see other tourists on them; yes, I got lost a few times but I usually had nothing else to do so did not worry about it too much. Svea just loved riding the bike and enjoyed looking at all the cows, goats and lizards that mulled about - and she also loved singing Frosty the Snowman as well! Everyday this was our commute to a beach, or dinner, and what a great way to spend the day; riding these trails was a lot of fun and great way to see how life was lived on Gili Trawangan.

So, hop on and take a ride with Svea and I as we ride in to meet Dean (our new Trawangan wood guy) for a progress report on the projects…

So the congklak board did not get completed on time in Senggigi and a very complex Plan B had to get established since we were to be down on Gili Trawangan: 1. the board had to get finished, 2. Wok and Arpah were going to have to find a way to Bangasal an hour away, take a boat over to Trawangan and deliver the goods to me there. Before we left Senggigi we had no idea where we were staying so everything had to get established after the fact by cell phone. This was a huge leap of faith in the boys since I had paid them already and did not have anything in my hands; but my worries were quickly dashed and the Senggigi boys delivered the goods in fine form!

So, as you can see by the picture above that two other pieces were made as well - croquet mallets. Why? Not too sure what happened but I woke up in a cold sweat one night in Senggigi dreaming about croquet and figured it was divine intervention telling me something; so I had my congklak guy fix me up a couple of mallets as well. The charm and beauty of these mallets (in my opinion) is the wood that it is created from: a Jack Fruit tree. The color you see before is the pure, natural color of the wood and I think it is just gorgeous.

Once the guys arrived on the island and the pieces were unveiled to me I was disappointed on two fronts: 1. my mallets were a little too big (especially in the diameter of the handle - my fault), and 2. the congklak board had been painted over. I asked for both pieces to be stained but they must have mistook that for paint instead; all the natural beauty of the teak wood was lost and it just looked very plain and boring - and this was simply unacceptable. So, the Trawangan phase officially had its duties - somehow get rid of the paint on the congklak board and find a way to fix the size issue of my mallets. So, without hesitation I grabbed Svea, hopped on our bike and headed right down to the “Chillin’ Out Bar” where I just knew I would find someone who would be able to help me…

One of the huge highlights for the family (Svea excluded probably) was the snorkeling on Gili Trawangan. It was a highlight for a couple of reasons: it was Magnus’s first time ever doing it and the area in which we explored was as good as anywhere in the world. The island had many different areas to explore with thousands of different marine life to watch. At the main beach area the drop off was literally 15 feet from shore and was all lined with gorgeous multi-colored coral (my pictures do not even come close to portraying their beauty); the water easily went down 60-100 feet at the drop off. I was not sure how Magnus would take to all of this and thought he might be a little scared of how deep the water was and what lurked down below; but he took to it the very first second he tried! We were all so proud of him. Together, Magnus and I snorkeled everyday for two hours (at least) and became completely addicted - even so much he dragged Kristin out and taught her how to do it as well. On a couple of occasions the family hired a boat and went out to some other key areas - I was so impressed with how our little 5 year old handled himself out in the middle of the big, wavy ocean! Without question our biggest highlight in the water came on three occasions when we got to swim with turtles; I cannot describe what a special feeling it was to watch these gigantic, beautiful creatures swimming about in their habitat and just doing their thing. It was such a fantastic time and it is my hope/dream that Magnus will always remember his first time out snorkeling at Gili Trawangan.

Again, sorry, I only had a film camera underwater and lost a lot of quality in the scanning.

So once we landed on Gili Trawangan we had to go and find a place to stay. High on our priority scale was to find a place that was cheap and right on the beach. So we grabbed a horse cart, packed all our gear inside and gave the man our list of demands. He took us to a couple of places but they were in the main village area and not quite what we wanted, while other places he took us to were a little out of our price range. Slightly despaired, we then went outside of the village center and headed straight out into the Trawangan boondocks. Gradually houses and people became more sparse and we were getting concerned that all of our options had run out. I was tired of sitting in the horse cart and banging my head against the roof so I decided to get out and let Kristin take care of everything. She continued back into the unknown and then came back a half hour later with a big grin on her face - she found it! Way out of the way and quietly nestled at the far eastern corner of the island - map - sits the Coral Beach 1 bungalows, and let me tell you ladies and gentlemen, it was exactly what we wanted! Right on the beach, stunning scenery, completely laid back, cheap, clean, friendly - it had it all. So we booked our room, ran out and rented bikes for the whole family and hunkered down for 10 fantastic nights at the Coral beach 1 resort - if you are ever going to Gili Trawangan give this place a go, you will not be disappointed!

After we had our fill in Senggigi and the family was well rested we then set sail to Gili Trawangan, which is the biggest (and closest island) you see on the picture above - if you scroll to the satellite photo on the previous post you will see the Gili islands on the upper/mid left side. Simply put ladies and gentlemen, Gili Trawangan is a tropical paradise that we were absolutely thrilled to have spent 10 glorious days on. One of the charms of these islands is the fact that there are no vehicles allowed on them and you could only imagine how much of a stress relief that was. The beaches were brilliant, atmosphere was great and everyday was jam packed full of sun, surf, sand and snorkeling - we absolutely loved it!