Our plans for our little resort were kind of developed on the fly. The original plan was to build a home for Carmen and I to use as a retirement retreat and to rent out when we were not using it.  Our manager and all around renaissance man, Wayan thought that perhaps a small resort might be in order.  It was not hard to convince Carmen that that was a good idea. I am the worrier and was concerned about how long this would take and how much money it would cost.  But in the end I just let things happen and have become as excited about the project as Wayan and Carmen.

I think that before I start to talk about the actual construction, I should tell you a bit about Wayan Sutama.  We met Wayan when we were on our honeymoon in Bali.  He was managing the villa where we stayed and after spending ten days with him we were very impressed.  He was an amazing host and took us all over the place.  He was the one that told us about the land and that it was for sale. We were somewhat hesitant at first since we were about to undertake a huge project with someone we had known for only ten days. As it turns out, our sense that Wayan was an honest, very bright, and talented man has proven to be true. He has solely planned, designed, hired workers, supervised them, ordered materials, and worked with the neighboring village and government officials.  He works very long days and is very invested in the project.  His building skills are amazing and the construction of  the resort is such that buildings and other infrastructure will last a very long time.

He is also a very spiritual man,  which meant that the first order of business was to take care of the old temples with respect and to build a new Hindu temple. When he said that he was going to build a new temple first, we imagined that they would be similar to the old ones on the property.  Well, we were wrong. Several months later a beautiful building had been built that is not just a temple, but has office and storage space.  See the above photo.  I must end this post now but next post will back up a bit and talk about how trucks carrying materials were going to get up to the top of our mountain when a road did not exist all  the way to the top.  Until next time.

The photos show the land as Carmen first saw it.  It’s only inhabitants were a few Bali cows which belonged to the land owner.  The brick structures you see are old temples that inhabitants of the neighboring village had placed there many  years before. It did not appear that they were used anymore.  As you will see in pictures that will be put up,  the views from all sides of the land are stunning. One side allows a spectacular view of the ocean below.  The  other three sides are views of heavily forested hill  sides.

After much deliberation, we decided to purchase the piece of land, and our plans to build a retirement home gradually evolved into plans to make a small resort.  We hope to be welcoming guests in a little over a year from now.  Enjoy the first set of photos. There are  many more to come.

I believe I will spend the rest of the afternoon seeing  if  I can figure out how to make this blog site look much more attractive. I just know there will be at least one call to tech support. 🙂  Until later…

Here I am making my first ever blog post. I never really thought I would be doing this but…my wife has been encouraging me to start a blog which documents the construction of our small Balinese resort.  Many people have subsequently been encouraging me to do so since Carmen (my wife) has been telling everyone that I am going to do it.  So I decided that yesterday was thee day.  After an entire afternoon of trying to get this set up and three calls to tech support, I believe I am on the road to figuring this all out.  I extend grateful thanks to the three tech support guys who so patiently and not at all condescendingly helped me get this thing going.

Carmen got the idea to do this after many positive reactions to the photo books that I have made with all  the photos that our construction manager has sent us.  The art of constructing without any heavy machinery is really quite fascinating. It is amazing what can be built with small hand tools, a wheel barrow and a small portable cement mixer.  I will be posting many photos along the way (assuming I can figure out how to do it). If readers have any construction stories and pictures to share, I invite you to do so.

Our resort will be small and is located on the top of a small mountain in Northern Bali near the small seaside town of Lovina and close to the larger city of Singaraja.  It is about a three and a half hour drive from Denpasar which for those of you who are not familiar with the island, is the main city and where the international airport is.  The area around Denpasar was the first to be developed for tourists and is a bustling, crazy city filled with scantily dressed, tan and or sunburned tourists from all over the world.

I was fortunate to visit Bali for the  first time in 1974.  Then it was truly an idyllic island paradise with a few small little hotels of three or four rooms; no electricity and only communal running water.  The beach, now called Kuta, was incredible and still is except for the thousands of tourists.  But  Bali has adapted well to the foreign invasion and they are wonderful hosts.

For those of you who prefer a more quiet and relaxed atmosphere, our little Ibu Tranquility Resort will be  just the place for you. I hope you enjoy the journey I am about to take you on.   I will now attempt to see if I can figure out how to  put some photos on here for your viewing pleasure.