A Garden Paradise

What you get when you hire 45 gardeners

Due to a confluence of several factors: the countdown to our second wedding anniversary; our little hotel going from 1 rented room (out of 6 total rooms) to zero (thank you Covid-19); and being targeted by a deal-of-a-lifetime Instagram ad — we ended up at the Four Seasons Sayan for one night.

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Earlier in the day we met a crew of Balinese “realtors” (the five guys on the left):

They showed us two parcels of land, both with large drop-offs that terminated at a small river:

A third of the land is above this small cliff (closer to the road) and the rest runs down to the river.

The street is actually pleasant enough:

But getting building materials down the cliff, especially heavy loads of concrete, would be challenging, although not impossible. The fact that the location is in a residential area means that getting a building permit should not be problem.

Do you like the idea of living among the locals? Or would you rather be in a tourist area?

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I never thought I’d sleep in a Four Seasons hotel now that I’m retired, as the typical price for one night in a private villa is over 24 million rupiah ($1,677 USD). The good news is that breakfast is included! However… for 3.7 million rupiah the tune is dramatically different ($252 USD) — music to my ears in fact. And all taxes and service charges, as well as breakfast, was included.

The reason for the astounding shift in price is that, like many hotels in Bali, the Four Seasons Sayan was shut down for almost five months. The very first day of re-opening was our wedding anniversary — August 1. And so if we were willing to be guinea pigs then the Four Seasons was willing to offer us rock bottom prices. Deal baby! (The resort has approximately 40 villas and 20 hotel rooms, but only 6 villas were occupied, so social distancing was not a problem.)

I also figured it was good R&D (research and development) for our community / retirement / independent living project. Sometimes an idea or two swiped from the very peak of the hospitality business can serve others further down the ragged economic ladder — like ourselves.

This yoga space was built by Elora Hardy’s Ibuku. Truly elegant.

The resort is spread over 8 hectares (approx 20 acres) and the landscaping is spellbinding. (Without additional investors I may end up buying property 1/50 the size, or smaller.)

I felt the serenity that comes from being surrounded by magnificent, sculptured greenery — cue Monty Don’s Italian Gardens.

Regardless of where I wandered on the property, the integration of the man-made within this tropical setting was a joy to behold.

Perhaps the months of pandemic lock-down and its confining feelings fed the giddiness that began to lift me off my feet.

Early morning sun splashes the forest with seemingly divine light. #nofilter

My wife Shelly and I soaking in the surroundings.

On a more practical note, I appreciated our villa's outdoor living room and want to try to incorporate something like it for our community project:

The space is not especially large: perhaps seven people could gather comfortably post-social distancing. I did a rough calculation and it was about 24 square meters (255 sq ft).

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Each day my conviction grows, that a safe and beautiful and inexpensive community can be built in Bali.

For now I am grateful to have had the chance to step out of my normal life and live a privileged 22 hours in a place as close to a tropical paradise as one can imagine.

Later,

Neill