2018
Finally catching up with Day 4. Making it to the finishing line at last.
31 October 2018
Yesterday’s day of relaxation and time to write did not quite work out as planned. The visit from Agung, bearing one of her yummy cakes, was spent in two hours of emotional nostalgia, drinking tea on my verandah. So good to see her. She is such a hard worker and is somehow managing to keep two kids at university. Her son is dragging his degree out - five years, now! Her daughter Dayu is in Java studying 1st year Pharmacy! This is a huge achievement for their family.
Then the game of scrabble with Anna on a tiny magnetic travel scrabble board. First time in years I have played “real” scrabble, having been converted long ago to online “Words with Friends” to which I am addicted. But as Anna said, having the human company and conversations as you play is what it is all about, and I certainly enjoyed hers. I showed her the speech bubbles for writing notes to friends which I use all the time on Words, but could not convince her to convert!
Now back to Sunday, the last day of the festival. Early start to make sure we got good seats to hear Yenni Wahid, daughter of the former blind president, Gus Dur, whom you may remember - (I wrote to my sister about this and later found I had called him the “blond president” in a typo! Indonesia is highly unlikely to ever have a blond president!!) You may recall too that whenever you saw Gus Dur on TV his beautiful daughter was with him in her softly-draped, lacy head scarf - the true Indonesian Muslim head cover, not the imported jilbab (hijab). Yenni, a moderate Islamic activist, is now the head of the Wahid Institute that researches Islam. Alas, Yenni was late, having attempted to fly from Surabaya early that morning in time for a 9 am engagement with us. Something was sure to go wrong and it did, with a plane delay. We waited patiently as we had updates on her car trip up to Ubud from the airport. Then the moderator had the genius idea to start the interview over the phone. Amazingly it worked. Yenni’s voice came across loud and clear by holding the mike to a mobile phone! However without her presence it was hard to concentrate. When she finally arrived, mobile phone in hand still answering the previous question, it was like making a celebrity entrance. She is certainly a voice for moderation in the current “foreign” Islamic fervour being stirred up in Indonesia. Admirable woman.
Isla got a pic with her!
Now back to Sunday, the last day of the festival. Early start to make sure we got good seats to hear Yenni Wahid, daughter of the former blind president, Gus Dur, whom you may remember - (I wrote to my sister about this and later found I had called him the “blond president” in a typo! Indonesia is highly unlikely to ever have a blond president!!) You may recall too that whenever you saw Gus Dur on TV his beautiful daughter was with him in her softly-draped, lacy head scarf - the true Indonesian Muslim head cover, not the imported jilbab (hijab). Yenni, a moderate Islamic activist, is now the head of the Wahid Institute that researches Islam. Alas, Yenni was late, having attempted to fly from Surabaya early that morning in time for a 9 am engagement with us. Something was sure to go wrong and it did, with a plane delay. We waited patiently as we had updates on her car trip up to Ubud from the airport. Then the moderator had the genius idea to start the interview over the phone. Amazingly it worked. Yenni’s voice came across loud and clear by holding the mike to a mobile phone! However without her presence it was hard to concentrate. When she finally arrived, mobile phone in hand still answering the previous question, it was like making a celebrity entrance. She is certainly a voice for moderation in the current “foreign” Islamic fervour being stirred up in Indonesia. Admirable woman.
Isla got a pic with her!
Next session was a panel on natural disasters involving a very wise spokesperson from IDEP (the agency founded by Jasmin’s mother, Petra over two decades ago), a government volcanologist. It was he who provided us with the solid news during Mt Agung’s eruption last year. With him was the Indonesian woman journalist who was on the ground in Palu recently reporting for the ABC, and local Rio Helmi whose blog “News from the Volcano” was such a refreshing source of factual reporting from the slopes of Mt Agung where he ventured daily on his motor bike. Many of you will have read it as I put it out there at the time. Jewel Topsfield chaired very effectively. The main outcome of the discussion was that the whole thrust of government policy in a country living right on the “ring of fire” should be preparedness - widespread education on crisis response procedures and evacuation drills, building codes followed, etc., etc., but the government will not put sufficient money into this. The materials have already been written (many of them by Petra, Josh working with her on the graphics, after the tsunami in 2004).
And now for something completely different, the URWF 15th birthday party. Jeffrey came too so I had a welcome lift to town to Casa Luna mid morning - table set for about 40 long-time festival goers who like me had a lot to celebrate in the 15 years of the festival’s life. A formal celebratory nasi tumpeng had been prepared as well as a western-style birthday cake with candles. Janet told anecdotes - some of them delicious behind-the-scenes “scandals” - as she ran through a slide show of great names who had attended. Seeing them all I realised how many famous writers she had successfully lured to tiny Ubud. Vikhram Seth, Alexander McCall-Smith, Amitav Ghosh, Lionel Shriver, Simon Winchester, Richard Flannigan, Tim Flannery, Nick Cave, Sebastian Faulks, Paul Kelly....... the list goes on, hundreds of them and to think I (almost) rubbed shoulders with all of them. (Actually I got to see the gorgeous Sebastian Faulks half naked once - trying on shirts in a shop I was in with Pam, remember? He apologised for appearing this way but we gushingly simpered that we did not mind one bit!) All of Indonesia’s leading writers were listed too.
Splendid Balinese lunch with smoked duck - the best Balinese food I’ve had in Ubud! Served with the yellow nasi from the “sacred mountain”. Birthday cake too. Anyone who wanted to could share a few memories, which I did, of course. Very special to have been part of this celebration. Janet was the first to establish a bakery in Ubud too - Honeymoon Bakery. Added bonus to our trips to Ubud on family holidays long ago. Her cinnamon scrolls are to die for.
A dash back up the hill to hear Michael Vatikiotis interview Marty Natalegawa, (who did his post-grad education at ANU) - the former Foreign Minister under President SBY. Such an erudite man. (Drop dead handsome too!) Indonesia today could do with someone of his brilliant diplomatic skills and ease of communication, to deal with their foreign relations. He has just written a book on ASEAN - a vital association for keeping the peace between the states in this area. He and Michael are old mates and this showed in the relaxed interview. I heard a similarly inspiring interview between him and our former Foreign Minister Bob Carr in Sydney a few years back. And actually got to meet Marty then over drinks beforehand.
Ended the day with part of the general session looking back over the fifteen years with Janet being interviewed (none of the spicy stories we had heard over the lunch earlier) - but I wanted to get back to Puri Saraswati to see Deirdre and Isla off, returning to Jakarta that evening so I could not stay till the end.
So that was the festival! A tremendous feat to have pulled off such a massive event yet again. My congratulations to Janet and her team. Over 3000 in attendance (cf 300 fifteen years ago) and 140 writers. What a privilege to be part of it each year and to observe how it has developed into one of the world’s great literary festivals.
Like the last couple of years, we had a farewell dinner at the tiny rooftop Ruma Roda restaurant with its simple but delicious Balinese buffet - with Jeffrey and Anna and Pam and Roger. None of us is up for the wild musical event that is the festival Closing Party any more! So nice to “wind down” quietly with good friends.
Everyone here is in a state of shock and mourning over the plane crash near Jakarta. Jeffrey and Anna have taken three Lion Air flights in recent weeks to link up with the Ombak Putih trip! Took a while for the news to reach me, being generally cut off from news.
Now in a luxury resort in Sanur as I finish writing the above, but that is a story for another day.
So that was the festival! A tremendous feat to have pulled off such a massive event yet again. My congratulations to Janet and her team. Over 3000 in attendance (cf 300 fifteen years ago) and 140 writers. What a privilege to be part of it each year and to observe how it has developed into one of the world’s great literary festivals.
Like the last couple of years, we had a farewell dinner at the tiny rooftop Ruma Roda restaurant with its simple but delicious Balinese buffet - with Jeffrey and Anna and Pam and Roger. None of us is up for the wild musical event that is the festival Closing Party any more! So nice to “wind down” quietly with good friends.
Everyone here is in a state of shock and mourning over the plane crash near Jakarta. Jeffrey and Anna have taken three Lion Air flights in recent weeks to link up with the Ombak Putih trip! Took a while for the news to reach me, being generally cut off from news.
Now in a luxury resort in Sanur as I finish writing the above, but that is a story for another day.