Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Christmas kitchen in Villa Cengkeh

Since we sold SV Villa G earlier this year we have been busy with new projects.  We have renovated the two villas adjacent to Villa Cengkeh as well as a small apartment house on the beach in Lovina.  They are available for rent via our friend Roland's agency, Palm Living in Lovina Bali.

Have a look: Spice House Inn, Villa Jintan (caraway) and Villa Panili (Vanilla)

Galungan - Balinese Holiday November 2017

Decorating the Temple at Villa Cengkeh

New Penjor for Villa Cengkeh

The solar powered pump is working in the new well!!!

Checkout the final update on the water well drama.  Click Here to see the team and details.

Preparations for Hari Raya Galungan

The fifth of April is Balinese holiday of Galungan.  Galungan occurs every 7 months and is the most important of Balinese Holidays.

The male staff at Villa Cengkeh have been busy preparing the decorations.

One of the Penjors for the gate and temple area

Villa Jintan (L) and Villa Cengkeh (R)

Excitement in Langkawi: Fun at Night

We sailed from Phuket to Langkawi and berthed Villa G in the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina.  The marina has been extensively upgraded and is quite nice and a super place to stay.  Previously we have only berthed in Langkawi's Telaga Harbour, but when I heard how nice the RLYC is, we decided to give it a try.

A major benefit of the RLYC is that it is in Langkawi's main city,  Kuah, and near many things including a nice urban park, shopping, restaurants and transportation.  There is a swimming pool on site and they arrange overnight laundry at a reasonable price.

On 22 March the annual procession of boats in honor of the Sultan's birthday was held.  It was a colorful site and pretty exciting by Langkawi's standards.

By the way, the steaks at Jake's Steak House within the Yacht Club's new Fisherman's Wharf complex has some excellent Australian cuts for a reasonable price.  Charlies at the RLYC still has good value and the new hotel complex with about 45 new rooms is a great addition.  We can also recommend Sugar Daddy's Ice Cream store in the facility.

I would also like to mention that the berths at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club are in good condition, the staff is very helpful and there is diesel available on the dock.  This is going to be Villa G's new home.

Great visit from Kim, Wes and Maddie Hodges

Our first American visitors arrived this week.  Kim Hodges and I worked together at Biovista Ventures (now Hatteras Venture Partners) in Durham, NC.  Kim's daughter Maddie teaches English as a second Language in Iskan, South Korea.  Son Wesley is in marketing in NC and decided to meet up with them in Bali.  It was great to see them and know that they were doing so well.  Great to get all the North Carolina gossip.  Very little discussion of American politics!

Group photo at Villa Cengkeh

Susan and Kim

Butterfly on Ixora (West Indian Jasmine)

Kim and Wesley

A Rainy Season Break

We were in Thailand on SV Villa G all of January and half of February.  From what I have heard, that was a very good plan.  There were lots of rain in Bali with landslides and gray rainy days.  Since the pool at Villa Cengkeh is solar dependent, the circulator was not working a whole lot; thus, the chlorine generator did not get to do it's job.  Hence the pool was growing algae when we got home.  In general the solar powered pool pump does an excellent job.

Other than the pool drama, everything else was fine.  The garden staff has been very busy keeping up with prolific plant life.  The garden looks very good for being less than a year old.  It is amazing what fertilizer and good rains can do for a tropical garden.

For the past two weeks there has been a lot of daytime sun and cool nights.  The pool looks fine after some help from modern chemistry.  We are beginning to water the garden by hand again, but hope there is yet rain to come.

Villa Cengkeh garden

Villa Cengkeh upper garden