It smee again! Perhaps because of my more limited vocabulary I've never won a trip to Bali but I've visited it many times. It was during one of those visits when in 2006 I discovered a charming little hillside hotel in the north of Bali called Banjar Hills Retreat.
I spent several weeks over several years in this small piece of paradise, being often the only guest in this tiny four-bungalow retreat because for most pleasure-seeking tourists it was too quiet and too far out of the way. To me it was the perfect spot: absolute peace and quiet in which I could read my books all day and float in the swimming pool all night.
Reading FALSE ECONOMY by Alan Beattie
My first swim at Banjar Hills Retreat
Then, sometime in mid-2014, a middle-aged couple from Germany discovered it, too, and, not having the money to buy it outright, leased it with an option to buy. They had every intention to live there for ever but, as usual, reality intervened and less than two years later, in early 2016, they abandoned their tropical island dream and returned to Germany. I wrote about them under the heading "Der Traum ist aus!".
As they wrote (in German), "Am Ende ist halt nichts für ewig, so auch nicht Bali. Doch nichts wird mir das nehmen können, was wir hier gelebt und erfahren haben .... ausser vielleicht irgendwann die Demenz (lol). Und ich bin dankbar dafür ... Danke Bali !!" ["In the end nothing is for ever, not even Bali, but no-one can take away from us this unique experience ... except perhaps, at some time in the future, the onset of dementia (lol) ... and we're grateful for that ... Thank you, Bali!"]
In my mind I still walk through the village of Tegehe - click here - and sit down for a potong rambut at the local barber or hand out lollies to the local children, but my travelling days are over even if a radio station in Cork offered me the prize of a trip to Bali but thanks for the memories.
P.S. My last visit to Banjar Hills Retreat was in 2011 when we took Padma's parents there for a relaxing ten-day holiday - click here.
