Monkey Business
Fri Nov 12 2021 23:43:00 GMT+0800 (Malaysia Time)
Greetings from Ubud, Bali
I hope you are doing well and trade is good as we head to Christmas.
There has been some much delayed stock finally arriving in our warehouse., Stock from India, China and Morocco has all recently arrived. Check out the details below.
Meanwhile this week we shipped two containers from our warehouse in Bali now on the way to the UK. Including new stock recently ordered, which must be the fastest turnaround ever in Bali. although when they will arrive in Blighty is anyone's guess.
It was just the 11th of the 11th and this means different things in different places. 11's day or singles day in China is a kind of valentines day for people with erm no valentine. It's also metamorphosed into the equivalent of Black Friday and the best day to go shopping.
In the UK, Commonwealth countries and parts of Europe it's Remembrance day. Here in Bali it's falling on the day after Galungan there (Christmas Day). So in theory I had a two days holiday..
Even here it's making the news. The monkey business that UK politicians are getting up to. Everyone is asking me what I think of Boris and crew. I can't help thinking that when our leaders are dodgy, it gives a degree of license to the type of person who is prone to be dodgy to act more so. So a kind of rot sinks in. It's almost embarrassing to be British. We do a lot of business on trust, and being British is a brand that people trust. A good advantage over some other nationalities. But that is being eroded.
Last week I was telling you about Week 3 in Bali and almost getting washed away.. if you missed it you can catch up here.
Well now it's week 4, and I'm happy to report things are progressing quickly. We have formally taken on Bondan - and he joins the team as an assistant to Ringo.
I took Bondan and his wife Debbie out for a meal to celebrate.. They were recently married so getting a proper job is jolly useful at this time.
Bondan is a super bright talented guy and I feel sure he will be a big help to Ringo and an asset to AW.
He has already got to grips with redesigning packaging, and had meetings with the box company. And lot's more besides.
Bali is full of these Penjars - they help the spirits come to earth.. even our warehouse has one.
On Wednesday it was the first Galungan day in Bali, it will last 10 days. They did tell me I needed to get up at 4am if I wanted to see some ceremonies in the streets..And of course I overslept and missed all that.
At 8am - I thought let's go for a walk through the streets of Ubud.. things must still be happening. I got that wrong.. it was a ghost town, nobody nowhere, nothing open, nothing happening. So I just carried on walking.. There are two main streets in Ubud that both drop down off the through road by the Palace and Market. One is called Jalan Monkey Forest, and the other Jalan Hanoman. Jalan means "Street" and also "to walk" in Indonesian.. Both loop round and end up at the legendary Monkey forest park area. You will know that Hanuman is the Hindu Monkey god.. so both streets are very monkey themed. I decided to jalan-jalan (walk) down Hanoman and back up Monkey Forest.
Half way down Hanoman the only person I met was this guy..
Just then I became aware of a frantic comotion, some guy tumbled out an avenue with a gun, some other folks waving long bamboo sticks about and up above a swarm of monkeys big and little all moving the same way.. bouncing off roofs, running along telephone cables some along the ground. What's going on? It was like a monkey invasion.
The guy with the gun said to me, Don't worry I'm not killing them, it's blanks, I just want to scare them away because they cause lots of damage when they are like this.
Later I learned that there are about 350 monkeys living in the forest and they are usually well fed by the tourists that buy bananas and fruits to give them. Since the park has been closed for about 20 months, they haven't been fed so well.
They certainly did look a lot skinnier than I remember.. and that day taking advantage of the lack of traffic and people they had gone on a daring raid en-mass uptown to feast on the fresh offerings.
Here is the little video I shot at the moment..
After I walked all the way down to the Monkey Forest main entrance.. normally swarming with monkeys. This morning not one to be seen.
That area in normal times is abuzz with activity, the gift shops and cafes opposite are alive with customers. Now sadly all closed down, and actually falling down as the jungle and the monkeys do damage. It's very sad.
Monkey Forest entrance.. no monkeys.
So that was my little adventure on my day off. A little sad, but hopefully things will improve. The manager at my hotel told me that funds have been found to properly feed the monkeys, because without them Ubuds main attraction will not recover.
Since then we have been working hard and so many projects are coming together.. It's really exciting, and very rewarding bringing much needed business to both our long term suppliers and quite a few new family businesses.
More updates next week.
Take care, stay safe and remember to be kind to someone today.
David
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