Homestay in Keliki, Bali

It's hard to have authentic experiences when you're an outsider. In an effort to get beyond the tourist trappings, our next accommodations was a home stay in a traditional Balinese house compound.

Our host was one of a few brothers living with their families in a multigenerational compound. To enter, we walked through their gate house adorned with . At the center was a temple for ancestor worship; to enter we needed traditional Balinese clothing which was offered to us, but we didn't take them up on that. Each family had a few separate small buildings or bales for cooking, sleeping and now, offering guest houses.

Our accommodations were very simple, and that was a strong adjustment for us, having just arrived to Southeast Asia with jetlag and feeling overheated. It also felt like there wasn't enough space for the boys to play. The hosts' kids played in the road (watch out for scooters!) and surrounding natural spaces. Our family both squabbled and enjoyed ourselves.

The town of Keliki is somewhat-rural, located just north of Ubud. Keliki specializes in detailed paintings of romanticized rural life, made with Chinese ink on paper. We didn't end up taking any classes with our hosts, but they arranged for us to learn batik, which was delightful.

We visited a waterfall and got drenched in monsoon rain - this is supposed to be fun, right? We also took a rafting trip down a gorgeous river valley, which was joyful but also silly as the guide basically took the approach of bumper boats, rather than paddling to avoid the rocks.

It was a quick week in Bali, with lots of appreciation for the island's aesthetics. And, we left with the feeling that if we ever returned, we would spend time far from the southern, more populated areas.Baca selengkapnya