Wholesale One day in Ubud - Ancient Wisdom - Giftware and Aromatherapy Supplier

Greetings from Ubud,

We are back in buzzing Ubud. Honestly I have never seen the place more busy. More and more young Russian runaways every day.

Last week I was telling you about Flores and the area known as Labuan Bajo. Most people go there to visit Komodo island to see the fabled dragons that live there, but to get there is a day (at least) sailing through the most beautiful sea, past spectacular islands along with a whole flotilla of other boats making roughly the same trip.

On the first of August the local government increased the entry fee from about £10 to £200 person to see the dragons.. to fund conservation they said. As we left for the airport a huge protest was taking place, we almost didn't make it. The protesters clearly think the price hike will destroy the local economy, especially the back-packer end of the scale. But we made it into the airport and back to Bali.. so many problems in the world these days. You can read last week newsletter here.

I was telling you last week about the pearls.. in a small fishing village we had bought a pearl necklace for about £10.. the quality was clearly not amazing but.. real pearls at this price, we had to investigate. Anyway to cut a long story short we spent a day dashing all around Labuan Bajo meeting various old ladies with small pouches of pearls which the poured out onto small towels for our appreciation. Black pearls, pink pearls, grey and pearl coloured pearls.. How much?

These pearls are not farmed, but found by pearl divers in the remote islands. One lady whose husband was a sea captain explained he bought them on his voyages and she traded them.

The farmed pearls come from controlled sources and maybe the village lady was getting rejected from a farm.. we are still investigating.. Anyway in the end Coco bought two pearls from the sea captain's wife which later we will make into earrings.

Back in Ubud catching up with all the suppliers who have samples for us to see, and deals to conclude. Always looking to find the next mega selling product, I keep saying to Ringo and Bondan we need to find the next Molten Glass Bowls, or the next Coconut Lamp..

A typical day in Ubud.. This morning we woke up to find a rather entitled monkey sitting on our balcony helping himself to a snack of my wifes cigarettes.

At 9am meet Ringo and Bondan in a local cafe for extra strong Bali Coffee. One of our oldest suppliers joins us to discuss new projects. One involves this intricately carved mandala design.

After breakfast we go to see Rini, another old supplier to finalise an order. She is so happy, thanking me over and over. She says you have no idea how much help the orders from Ancient Wisdom help her village in remote East Java.

Rini is always happy and hard working, her husband is the arty creative type but Rini is the business lady. She has a small factory making lamp shades in Ubud, and a team of home workers back in Java making every sort of handicraft product. She supplied us with the Rayung Pampus Grass and was keen to find out how well it is selling.

After that we head back towards our warehouse and stop off to see a bamboo furniture guy who is making us some bespoke display stands for a special project. An old lady brings some bamboo poles for stock.

Then back to Ubud to catch up with office work and chat to the guys in UK.

I know we have just had a delivery of an Indonesian container so lots of things are back in stock and some new products are appearing.. Regular readers will recall our road trip in Java a few months back, the container of seagrass products just arrived - shipped directly from - the village to the port, so I believe we have quality products at great prices.

See below..

That's my day.. I hope your day is productive and enjoyable also.

Take care.. more news next week.

David