Beautiful Ubud [6]

"Are ready for our next plan, Little Boss?" Nico asked Dave as he turned off his car engine.

"A hundred percent ready! Let's go there in hurry!" Dave replied and opened the car door. Dave was wearing his favorite famous brand black glasses.

Dave slowly climbed the staircase and opened the gate of the traditional Balinese house. In either side of the gate, there were the guard statues wearing a black and white striped cloth armed with a mace in their right hand. The sound of Balinese gamelan was faintly heard melodiously, accompanying the dance of a group of little girls of six to ten years, which smoothly and gracefully danced Balinese dance in the vast front yard of the house.

Nico walked after him and was amazed by the sight he saw. The little girls seemed to be enjoying the dance, and as if they were obsessed with the dance and reverberating gamelan.

Dave opened his sunglasses and approached a girl sitting on the edge watching the little girls dancing.

"Excuse me, Madam... I am Dave and this is my friend, Nico. We by chance passed this village to visit and enjoy the natural scenery. But on the way, the car we rented got carburetor leak and run out of water." Dave greeted the girl politely and tried to convey his intentions well.

He also pretended to wipe the sweat on his forehead and wiped his throat like a thirsty person.

"If it is possible, we would like to ask for water for our car so we can continue our trip. And if you don't mind, we also need some water to relieve our thirst."

"Oh, it's okay. I am Ayu. Unfortunately, I'm not the resident of this house, I live next door. Though, I don't think the owner of this house has any objections to help you. One sec, I'll call on the owner."

Then, Ayu rushed inside to call on the owner of the house.

It didn't take a long time. Ayu and a beautiful girl, the owner of the house, came out and brought Dave and Nico two glasses of fresh yellow iced syrup on the tray.

The beautiful girl was stunned in disbelief.

"Dave ...? Nico ...? What are you doing here?" Asked Annisa who couldn't believe in what she saw.

"Nisa ...? Why are you here?" Dave asked.

"This is my house, Dave. I told you yesterday that this weekend I accompanied Mama at my house in Ubud."

"Oh, so this is your house, Nisa. It is beautiful and cool. You're lucky to have a house far from urban, away from the hustle and bustle of the city streets." Dave said trying to change the subject.

"What are the kids dancing, Nisa?" Dave asked further.

"It's called Panyembrama Dance, Dave. Once upon a time, it used to be performed in Hinduism ceremonies in the shrine as a complementary dance of libation. But nowadays, it is usually performed in front of public." Annisa smiled broadly and looked excited as she explained.

"The Panyembrama Dance means a welcome, where it is summed up in dance moves portraying the hospitality and respect for those who watch it. Flakes of flowers sown in front of the guests become a sign of welcome expression."

"Wow ...! What a beautiful dance, Nisa!" Dave was amazed to hear Annisa's explanation of the origin of the dance.

"Ayu is my neighbor, she is a dance teacher who sincerely and kindly spends her time twice a week to teach traditional Balinese dance to the children in our village." Annisa introduced Ayu to Dave and Nico.

Ayu smiled and then continued Annisa's words, "it used to be Nisa that taught dance to children here. But since Annisa is busy with her work, then I replace Nisa teaching dance here."

Ayu added, "We have a basic principle that every Balinese child should learn to dance traditional Balinese dance from childhood, so we can preserve our beloved Bali culture." Ayu smiled proudly.

Dave glanced at Annisa whose eyes sparkling at the moment of paying attention to Ayu's explanation. It was one more reasons that made Dave admired to Annisa, a girl who was not only beautiful on the outside, but also had an interesting personality, with a strong determination to preserve her home culture.

"Hmm, Nisa, Excuse me. I need to fill the water in the carburetor first. So that the we can drive it to back home." Nico interrupted their conversation.

Nico gave Dave a look. Only both of them knew what that meant.

Ayu also asked for permission to continue teaching the children to dance. Suddenly, it was a quiet moment. Only Dave and Annisa were left there.

Annisa tried to break the silence. "Umm Dave, you said you want to see the rural atmosphere in Bali. I know the place I think you'll love to be there. To me, the view is pretty beautiful."

"I do ... What if we go there now?" Dave begged.

"I think I still have much time before Nico finishes repairing that troubled rental car."

"What a beautiful view here." Dave praised in truly admiration.

Dave and Annisa walked side by side on the footpath, on either side of them there was a rice field in which the turning yellow grins and bowing, soon to be harvested.

"Be careful, Dave. The footpath is slippery. Don't let you slip down." Annisa reminded.

They reached at a shack made of wood and brownish yellow shingles roofed, located in the middle of still green rice field, unlike the rice fields they passed earlier.

There was a farmer plowing the fields with his buffalo quite far ahead.

"Mr. Made! May I sit on the shack for a while?" Annisa shouted to the farmer.

The farmer Annisa called on turned his head from a distance, and then smiled at Annisa. "Of course. Enjoy it!"

They both sat on the shack enjoying the scenery around accompanied by the cool breeze. Suddenly, Dave's eyes caught something interesting.

"Nisa ... The rice fields are patterned in levels, for what purpose?" Dave asked curiously.

"Oh, that is terracing pattern, Dave. Balinese people call it Subak. We use terracing pattern in the rice fields to regulate the irrigation. It is one of Balinese pride masterpieces." Annisa explained.

Dave nodded at Annisa's explanation. He then satisfied his eyes by looking around the corner as far as his eyes could see. From a distance, the hills and the scenery of the mountains extended to the natural beauty Dave was enjoying.

Annisa sneaked a glance at Dave's face. His expression showed unending admiration.

Urban people be like. Annisa thought while sucking her smile.

Unexpectedly, Dave turned to her and caught her staring at him. The atmosphere became clumsy instantly.

"Uhm Dave ... I think we need to get back to my house now. It's already late afternoon. Besides, Nico must be waiting for us at home." Annisa tried to distract Dave while hiding her embarrassment.

Dave smiled. Quietly his heart was pounding with joy at knowing that Annisa had been staring at him in secret and he could see the Annisa's face blushed for being caught up.

They went back to Annisa's house before the dusk came.

From a distance, two unknown men followed Annisa and Dave since they left the house this afternoon. They wore black clothes and were very careful about their existence there.

"In the meantime, we can only watch them. There's not much we can do right now." The taller and a crew cut man said.

"Yes, it's true. This area is the girl's domain. It is very risky for us to run the plan the boss asked us to do here. We'd better report to the boss now for further clues." Responded the bald and slightly shorter man.

The two mysterious men went away from Dave and Annisa, walked in opposite directions to the foot of the hill.

Once they get in the courtyard of the house, Annisa and Dave found Nico and Annisa's mother were having conversation.

"Well, here is a couple I had been waiting for have just arrived." Nico teased his best friend while grinning.

"Oh, this is a man called Dave." Annisa's mother said pleasantly.

"Yes, I am Dave, Madam." Dave introduced himself and stretched out his hand.

Annisa's mother welcomed Dave's hand. "Don't call me Madam. Just call me Mom. Mrs. Sukma. I am a villager. It is not worthy of being called Madam." Annisa's mother requested Dave with a smile.

"Okay, Mom." Dave corrected.

"If it is possible, I and Nico would like go home, Mrs. Sukma. It is getting dark. I'm afraid I'll get lost at night. Understandably, both of us have not been so familiar with the streets around Ubud Gianyar."

"Hmm, Dave ... For that ..." Nico interrupted Dave's conversation and glanced at Mrs. Sukma.

"It looks like we have to stay here tonight and we can just continue our trip tomorrow morning because our car tires were leaked on spike during the trip here." Nico told Dave with a troubled heart.

"What? Why could it happen?" Dave asked uneasily and looked at Nico and Mrs. Sukma alternately.

"Never mind, it's okay. You can take care of your flat tire tomorrow morning. Tonight, you may stay here. Fortunately, we have an empty bedroom in the front verandah, which function is to receive guests who need to spend the night if necessary." Mrs. Sukma offered a solution to Dave and Nico.

"Let's have dinner first before you take a rest tonight. I'm sure you are hungry after a day of walking around this village."

"Come on, Nisa. We should prepare dinner for our guests." Asked Mrs. Sukma to her daughter.

"Okay, Mom..." Annisa walked after her mother into the house to prepare dinner for her guests.

Dave closed the guest bedroom door in pendopo.

"What's going on, Nico? Why does it swerve from our plan A?" Dave whispered and was half-mad at Nico.

"I don't know what happened, Dave. When I got back to the car and I was about to fill the water in the leaky carburetor, I realized that the car got flat tire because of spike." Nico defensively whispered as well.

"But the tire had not leaked yet, had it? Why was it suddenly leaked on the spike?" Dave still grumbled in disbelief at what had happened.

"I told you, Dave. I don't know!" Denied Nico at half-shouting.

"Okay, I'm sorry, Nico. I think we should take a rest right now. We have to get up early to change the leaked tire." Dave finally relented.

The birds sang happily accompanying Dave and Nico who since in the early morning tried to fix a rental car with a leaky carburetor. As well as change the right rear tire that leaked on spike. The morning air was still cool, the sun just rose slightly behind the clouds, and the sky was white like cotton.

However, the sweat poured down from Dave and Nico's body. They wiped their forehead occasionally avoiding more sweat droplets. Unrealizing, there are two pairs of eyes watching their movements from behind the trees across the street.

Once they finished repairing the car, they went back to Annisa's house. There, they were greeted with a pretty tasty and delightful breakfast.

At the dining table, a large plate of hot yellow rice had been prepared, followed by other dishes containing side dishes. There were some menus prepared namely a brownish-yellow fried chicken whetting appetite, a neatly cut egg omelets with fragrant smell, as well as potato cakes lined neatly and looked tender and tasty. Not to mention, the bright red sauce and crunchy crackers were also available to increase the breakfast enjoyment in the morning.

"Let's have breakfast while they are warm! You know what, Annisa cooked all of them..." Asked Mrs. Sukma to Dave and Nico to start enjoying the food served.

Annisa was blushed at what her mother just said. She lowered her head while chewing the food.

Every now and then, Dave sneaked a glance at Annisa, enjoyed the sight of her red cheeks blushing, as well as admired at her cooking skill of her idol beautiful girl. One more admiration Dave had towards Annisa.

Having breakfast, Dave and Nico asked for permission to Mrs. Sukma and Annisa, because they had to immediately return to Denpasar.