Wholesale Visiting the Unfinished Village - Ancient Wisdom

Greetings from Ubud, Bali

Yes, I'm back.. and if you read last week's news, that was a big surprise. I was also telling you about my strange and redirected flight with Korean Airways, if you missed it you can catch up here.

I can hardly believe I have been here one whole week.. lots of things have been happening. Lot's of things have been getting sorted. We are thinking positively everyday.

Today is one of those magic number days.. 11-11-22 like 11+11=22 some mystics believe that numbers carry meanings.. 22 is associated with ancient wisdom.. so it's double ancient wisdom day. It is a day for letting go of the old and moving forward with the new. It's remembrance day also in the UK.

Today Ringo, our main man in Indonesia, took delivery of a new car. A good day to start new.

Here's Ringo with his new car. The old car he had for 15 years, and cared for it and kept it in top condition.. so this is a big step forward.

In fact, Ringo has been driving me around Bali for more than 10 of those years in this car. Speaking of special anniversaries - AW is 27 years old on Wednesday.. We'll update you with something special then.

This evening Ringo tells me he will have a special ceremony - a holy man will come to make a blessing for the car.

Next week we'll take it on a road trip to the far north of the island.. we have a special mission.

Today we went in Ringo's new car to the "Unfinished Village" - it's away up the mountain, in the middle of nowhere. We had a supplier there a few years ago supplying us with big candle sticks, but the guy stopped making them so we haven't been for a long time. Last time I was here I saw some nice wooden carved vases and bowls. We couldn't get a price that would seem reasonable by the time it was in Europe, now we found the same kind of thing in lots of showrooms.. it's become a buzzing trend in Ubud, and the price has dropped by half. So this morning just as we had finished one supplier visit we spotted this large truck being unloaded with just this type of wooden vase.

Ringo jumped out of the car and asked the driver where he had come from.. He said the "Unfinished Village" - that's not it's actual name it's our nick-name. Because in that village they just make rough unfinished pieces usually out of albasia wood. It's a village of workshops, and piled up in each place is a stack of what they specialise in there. One guy just makes elephants and another Greenman carvings.. and yes we found the place pumping out these wooden vases.. Traders and artisans come to the village and fill up their cars picking and mixixing from the village workshops, they will finish the items in their own style.

Ringo's idea is we buy unfinished in bulk to get a good price and employ our own finishing artisans to ensure good quality..

Whilst we were there a tropical storm came out of nowhere. A few dig drops then a huge downpour and the road turned into a raging torrent of a river.. with Ringo's new car getting a good swishing..

It was too loud to even talk with the rain banging on the tin roof of the workshop.. We decided to come back later.. because there are actually quite a few interesting things in the "Unfinished Village"

Here the G20 is about to start and 17 of the world's leaders will attend. Mr Putin has naturally bottled out, much to the annoyance of his host but there will be some of the world's biggest egos in just one the corner of the island, a place called Nusa Dua. We found out today that there is an expo showcasing the artisans and materials of Indonesia that the delegates can visit if they want. We are trying to get access.. one of Bondan's friends is on the organization committee.

As luck would have it a container with new products from Indonesia just landed.. see below.

News next week.

Hope you have an amazing weekend..

David