Uyah Amed

One the places we went in Bali last month, was Pantai Amed. This is located on the north-east shore of Bali.
The sand is volcanic black & the land view is the majestic mount Agung & its two sisters mountain.
It is much much quieter than Ubud or Kuta. Yet, there were many cottages & simple hotels all along the shore. Most of those who gather here are those looking for serenity or, like us, seek for the beauty of under-water. We stayed in the first hotel along the shore, called Uyah Amed. Uyah, in balinese, means salt.
The location had a great view of the triplet mountains of Mount Agung & its 2 smaller sisters. However, what was more interesting & eye-opening to me was the life of the traditional salt farmers all around the beach. I had awaken at 5.45am to hunt for the sunrise, and took a stroll along the beach... what was different of this place compared to any other balinese beaches (or any other in Indonesia) I've stepped on, was these salt farmers walking up and down the slopy shore, scooping fresh water with tin fan-shaped buckets from the sea, carrying them over on their shoulders for about 50m up to the land & before throwing them on the soil-bed and raking them to sun-dry thru-out the next few days. The bucket loads weight easily at least 50kgs... and I think they did at least 50 trips in & out of the water. . Their foot trail were embedded deep into the rocky black sand. Many of them were women (I know the men are not sleeping.. I saw them the night before, sailing to the sea, to hunt for fish). As you and I know, salt is not expensive, but yet their efforts are so abundant. I will leave the pictures to speak for itself...

Life of Pi

You know it's a good book if u can't stop wanting to read it (I felt it with this one)

I always thought this is a story involving serious philosophy about life, due to the word "Pi" (3.14) in its title.

Actually it's a fantasy robinson-crue kind of story. More like Tom Hanks in "Castaway"

I thought this novel would make a good movie, but I felt it would be almost impossible to find a very good child actor to play the main solitary role. Moreover most of the scene will have to be focused on a small lifeboat with sea backdrop. I'm not sure this would be visually appealing cinematically.

Then i found out Ang Lee has already secured the right to produce this as a movie

Most famous cover of this book is the one on the left below, but the one i bought is as per the right image.

The ending has an interesting twist. It made me felt that a storyteller could tell us many versions of a story, but how would u know which one is the correct one? One also needs to follow his heart to believe what he believes. I guess the ending somehow relates to the beginning which talked about the different faiths men have.

4 new books to my wishlist

One of my top-ranked favourite smells is the fragrance of new paperback fiction books stacked together. The more there are, the stronger the smell lingers in my senses... It just evokes me of imagination, travelling mind, and unfolding stories... Browsing thru racks of them on a recent bookshop visit, these are my most recent book-wishlist:

1. Life on the Refrigerator's Door (Alice Kuipers): quote from amazon.com: "Beautifully told through notes left on their kitchen fridge, this is an intimate portrait of the relationship between a hard-working mother and her teenage daughter."

2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson): A crime-fiction thriller from a Scandinavian writer, first of a trilogy. The writer is deceased, shortly after delivering the 3 manuscripts in 2004.

3. Stern Men (Elizabeth Gilbert): Fell in love with her book "Eat, Love, and Pray". Would love to read this other book of hers, about a woman and 2 lobstermen,

4. The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger): Now being made into a movie, the story reminds me of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" involving a guy with an age-reversal genetics abnormality...

But for now, am happily reading "Life of Pi" --- hard to put it down :) will share more once i finish the book :)

words in the Advent Calendar

Quoted from the sermon today "Some people make a preparation 2 weeks beforehand for a holiday... How about preparation for life after eternity? How much does it take?"