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.