Hello ,

Greetings from Bali

Where today is Indonesia independence day. Since they are very fond of flags here, the whole island, probably all Indonesia is draped in red and white.
Ceremonies and celebrations are the lifeblood of Indonesia, and no more enthusiastically than on the island of Bali.

Last week I was telling you about my own earthquake experience here in Bali, you can read about it here.

So I have been running all over Bali trying to complete on rather too many projects, it is peak holiday time, so the roads are extra busy it can take two hours to move 20 kilometre so the days have been long.
In between deals we have also been trying to renew the lease on our warehouse in the the village of Nyu Kunning (which means Yellow Coconut) close to the legendary Monkey Forrest in Ubud.

It's a little complicated, the warehouse is owned by one guy and the land by another guy. Next year the warehouse owners lease expires - so the property defaults to the land-owner, but there are complications, as he can be due some compensation. You also need agreement from the village elders to be resident, this usually involves paying a little money each month and agreeing to do something to make the village more beautiful. We agreed to paint an arty mural on the front walls, plant a small garden and maintain it and keep the frontage to the road spotlessly clean. All fair dues..

But we have another problem, the landlord has built a coffee shop next door with a balcony that extends into the space we use for loading containers, making it difficult to load them on a flat surface, which is a problem.
We went to see him in his house, where we sat cross-legged on the floor of the thatched roof pergola in his lush garden, discussing how to fix all the problems, and how we might extend the lease. The old guy doesn't speak any English, so Ringo (our agent) did all the talking while I nodded and smiled, all seemed very amicable, a small increase in rent would fix everything, so we smiled and shook hands.

All sorted?, I said to Ringo. Apparently not.. Ringo wasn't convinced that the property builder had given up all his rights, but the landlord claimed to have lost his contact details. We have to speak to him and make sure it's all OK. Ringo remembered the guy was involved with a disabled children's charity, they have offices in Denpasar so we went there to see if we could find him - he was not there but we got his number. It turns out he does have some rights.. so another meeting tomorrow...

This August is also the month of cremations, big ceremonial group cremations, a whole village or town join together to celibate the life of all the people who died in the previous year (a Bali year is 210 days). It seems to involve a lot of dressing up, parading of big black bull statues, lots of offerings and almost a carnival atmosphere with market stalls and street food, and even dancing.

Heavens I love Bali, it's a unique culture and there are no better people to do business with, even when it gets complicated.
In a land where even death is a joy, a lease negotiation is not going to be a problem.
I think :)

Next week, I'm in China.

Take care
David

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