Chapter 39 Indonesian Stories(38)

"What's your favorite animal, sir?" John asked.Adam replied, "Pelican." "What's a pelican?" the little boy asked, and Yudhi cut in, "Dude, don't you know what a pelican is? Dude, you should go home and ask your dad. Pelicans are cool, okay." guy." Then little John, who is sort of American, turns around and speaks Bahasa Indonesia to little Tutti (and maybe asks her what a pelican is), while Tutti is sitting on Felipe's lap reading my birthday card; The Parisian retired gentleman who came to his elder sister for kidney treatment spoke beautiful French.Meanwhile, the older sister turned on the radio, Kenny Rogers was singing "Cowards in the Country," and three Japanese girls walked into the store casually to see if they could get a medical massage.When I greeted the Japanese girl for her birthday cake, two orphans—the oldest and the youngest—adorned my hair with big sequined barrettes they had saved up to buy me as presents.The eldest sister’s nephews and nieces—temple dancers, rice farmers’ sons—sat quietly, staring hesitantly at the floor, all dressed in gold, like little gods;With my traditional Balinese attire hugging me tightly, I figured this must be the weirdest -- and possibly the happiest -- birthday party I've ever had.

But my sister still has to buy a house, and I'm starting to worry that won't happen.I don't know why it didn't happen, but it had to happen.Felipe and I have now intervened.We got a real estate agent to show us around properties, but the oldest sister didn't like it.I keep telling her, "Sister, you have to buy it. I'm leaving in September. Before I leave, my friends must know that their money really bought you a home. And you must before the storefront is repossessed." , has a shelter." "Buying land in Bali is not easy," she kept telling me. "It's not like going into a bar and buying a beer. It can take a long time."

"We haven't had a long time, Miss." She just shrugged, and I was reminded again of the Balinese idea of ​​"elastic time," the idea that time is relative and elastic. "Four weeks" does not necessarily mean the same to my eldest sister as it does to me.A day is not necessarily composed of twenty-four hours for the elder sister; sometimes it is longer, sometimes shorter, depending on the mood and emotional characteristics of the day.Like my pharmacist and his mysterious age, sometimes counting days, sometimes weighing days. At the same time, I finally fully understood that buying real estate in Bali is quite expensive.Since everything is cheap here, you would think that the land price is also low, but this is a wrong assumption.Buying land in Bali—especially in the town of Ubud—can be almost as expensive as buying land in Westchester County, in Tokyo, or on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.This is completely illogical, because once you own a piece of land, you cannot get your money back in any way that conventional logic would conceivable.You might pay around 25,000 yuan for an "aro" ("aro" is a measure of land roughly "a little bigger than a RV parking space"), and then you There is no reason to build a small shop there and sell a batik gauze dragon skirt to a tourist every day for a lifetime. The profit is less than 70 cents each time.

But the love of the Balinese for their land goes far beyond what economic logic can comprehend.Since land ownership is traditionally the only legitimate property recognized by the Balinese, just as the Maasai value cattle or my five-year-old niece values ​​lip gloss: that is to say, there is never too much of anything. , must never let go, everything is rightfully yours. Furthermore - as I discovered after delving into the intricacies of Indonesian real estate during August - it's nearly impossible to figure out when exactly the land is for sale.Balinese people selling land usually don't like people knowing they have land for sale.You think it's good to make this announcement, but the Balinese don't.If a Balinese farmer wants to sell his land, it means he needs cash urgently, which is a shameful thing.And if the neighbors and family find out you sold the land, they'll think you're rich and everyone will want to ask you to borrow money.So land is sold only by... word of mouth.These land deals are conducted in secret.

Overseas people here heard that I wanted to buy land for my eldest sister, and began to gather around me to warn me, sharing their own unpleasant experiences.They warned me that you can never really know what's going on with real estate here.The land you are buying may not be owned by the seller.The person who showed you the land might not even be the landlord, but the landlord's disgruntled nephew, out to get revenge on his uncle over some old family dispute.Don't expect your property boundaries to be crystal clear.The land you bought for your dream home might later be declared "too close to the temple" to get a building permit (in a tiny country with an estimated 20,000 temples, finding one that isn't too close Temple land is not easy).