Bert Vierstra
Yesterday morning I picked up Komang to go for a ride. The usual western "Jam Beton" was rubber after all, I was an hour too late. When I come to a part of Bali which is not visited much or maybe even never by tamu, the attention is always enormous. After almost 6 months I get used to the staring. I have picked enough of both Balinese and Indonesian to make "them" laugh. "Sudah bahasa Indonesia?", they ask. "Sing Bisa" I say with Balinese accent. (Bisuh). They look at me in wonder and then realize the joke, works every time.Who was I at home ? A computer nerd, nobody special, a grey person. Who I am here ? A special person, a tamu who speaks a little of the lingo, has loads of money (not) and is an easy recognizable person. In my village and in Lovina I am greeted about every 500 meters (average). Maybe this is why I came to Bali, for the attention, to be somebody I never could have been at home. B'li Putuh Bert. The guy they know.I like to drive fast. Komang and I should be around 160 kilo together, she is not small too. The tiger and I manage to go up the mountain fast enough to take over the most daring Balinese drivers. Komang is courageous, there is not one "Hati Hati" or "Plan Plan" coming from behind. A little disappointment... We arrive at Munduk and meet her sister, she is a teacher at a small school there. "Sing Bisa". I aquire a baby, and walk around with her for around an hour, I am getting the habit. She pisses over me, maybe because of all the Dutch I spoke to her. Komang brought a VCD with interviews and music of the Indian actors of "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" a popular dance movie from India, this VCD is watched 4 times during our visit. I sleep 2 of them, but I start to like the Indian music. The first time I saw and heard the stuff I thought it was something of the 70's, but it is very very popular. Just a popular as F4 or Meteor Garden, from Taiwan. All the young girls dream about Vic Zhou and friends and know at least 2 chinese phrases. Actually the Indian music is sexy. The man dance with masculine, strong, allmost "mating" movements, the girls look vulnerable, sweet but also strong. They always get each other, I like that.I walk trough a "forest" with Komang and her Munduk family to the shores of Lake Tamblingan. There is a lot of (plastic) sampah (garbage) lying around. I say something about it. It's there because it hasn't rained yet they explain. We are on top of the mountain.... There's is a bit of rain, after hiding we eat bakso.I get home, change clothes and swim to my sampan again, lie down on it and get a little sleepy from the movements of the waves. I want to learn the dancing movements of the Indian Actors. B'li Putuh Bert, the guy that is sexy. When the rains starts I swim back. After my shower I get out of my house and see Nila and Satu giggling and sneaky coming from behind the Bale in front of my house. They are up to something. My sandals are gone. I look around on my barefeet and find one, and somewhere else the other one. The girls are not around and I hide the sandals in my bathroom. I put on my sneakers on go to Lovina to eat. After an hour or so I come back and decide to make a little show. With an annoyed face I ask Nila "Where are my sandals?". She takes me to the place where I earlier found one. Satu joins. I play angry, "Come on where are they ?", they seem a little worried, "Mungkin anjing", maybe a dog, they say, I play even more angry. "We left them here !!" they say, and look afraid of me. With a triumphal smile on my face I say "I already have them, nanananana, already !!!". Oh they say, where ?? I go to my bathroom to take them. Gone again, I hear again two girls giggling. The blessings of an open house. I feel a fool. The rest of the evening whenever one of the girls comes by I hear "nanananana".This morning my neighbour Nila wakes me up with Indian music. It's 7 o'clock.Satu is not her real name, Her real name is Desak Putuh Mulyiani. She is called (and some others too) Satu (1), because she is Putuh, number one. Balinese have some irony too.If you want to listen to the music I hear every day coming from my neighbours look at this site:[url="http://www.shajikmathew.com/hndsong1.html"]http://www.shajikmathew.com/hndsong1.html[/url]You download the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai songs there as mp3's
