Westerners go to places like Amed, on the far East Coast of Bali, and feel like they’ve landed in heaven. Peaceful, tropical landscape, village lifestyle, snorkeling and diving, AND cute little boutique hotels, where you can get your latte, steak dinner and martini.
One must wonder what the locals think about all that, and even more, how do their lives work out. Back in 2005 when Ika was pregant, we went out to Amed and met a waitress, Iluh, who worked at Komang John’s, the resttaurant at Blue Moon Villas in Selang. Later on we saw Iluh walking home, so gave her a ride, and she invited us in. Having recently given birth, she was forced to go back to work, since her husband (a young guy, who didn’t seem he had the energy to get it up for anything) was out of work. On this latest trip, we learned Iluh was now working on a cruise ship overseas, the young husband doing some driving work for villas. Kind of sad, that Iluh is overseas, and her young kid is only around 2. “Iluh want the money,” said one of the staff, “to save for the future.” “Send the lazy husband.” I said.
Iluh was replaced by a chirpy young lady named Komang, who came over to view the photos I took. Komang is from the same small village as Iluh, and seemed sharp witted. She told me she has trained as a Balinese dancer sinc childhood and had danced in all the major hotels (relatively speaking of course), in the Amed area. For people out here, these villas and restaurants must be like steping onto a space ship. In the village of Seraya, in East Bali, we stopped to let the kids go to the toilet. The small local shop where we bought a few drinks from, was also the home to a local family. They allowed us to walk through and use their toilet, which was housed in a little concrete cubical. I’ve used many of these before, but it always hits home, the level some people live at. This toilet was a small squat type, totally dirty, as was the whole room, complete with a cup containing tooth brushes and other washing gear. Nice people, but the hygiene level was non existent. In Amed, you have that, side by side with a luxury villa, quite weird.
Komang speaks good English and has enough going for her, that marrying a local corn farmer, or fisherman, doesn’t have to be her only alternative. Tourism and all it brings, offers the ‘bright sparks’ a way out of the kampung.
