Vespas in Ubud

Sat. Tony Marita and I went to Ubud, mostly to see the Vespa scooter festival taking place in the center of town at the soccer field. Tony and Marita also had to take care of some business with their properties there. They have developed 2 housing communities with 9 and 12 houses in them. They each own one in each of the communities, and have sold all the others, but have to deal with managing the community aspects. We stayed overnight in one. They border on the local rice fields so have a large view, but are tucked into a forest. There is a central swimming pool and parking area, and very small paths to access the homes. I didn’t take photos of it but it can be seen on their website Bali T House.
The Vespa scooter festival was totally amazing. It was the 14 annual one, but the first time that it was in Bali, It usually takes place in Java. Thousands of Vespas from all over Indonesia came. There were three distinct types: the classic Vespas that were stock or restored to mint condition, the totally crazy “Mad Max” style ones that were stretched, chopped and decorated with animal horns, machine parts and anything else and often had side cars. Some were even lived in as you’ll see. And then there were the slick chopper types, that there were only a few of. I was most interested in the “Mad Max”, style so that is what I took the most photos of. Their owners were typically dreadlocked and into Reggae music.










There was a large stage set up for bands to play and they had a wide variety, from Reggae to traditional Indonesian to Javanese Pop. The event was hosted in Ubud, Bali, because the chief of police and Mayor are fans of the Vespas and the chief of police even got on stage and sang a song with one of the Javanese pop stars!

We arrived at sunset and it continued the next day as well. I walked around Ubud a little and ran into someone I had met at Bloo Lagoon at Nicholas’s birthday named David. He’s been coming here since the 60’s and living in Ubud since ’89. He is convinced Ubud is the cultural capitol of the world, and there are quite a wide variety of very interesting people who live or come there. He’s quite an interesting character himself, and it was cool to run into him on a side street, with his adopted Balinese dog.

Two days to go till our big grand opening party on Jan 1st, which I’ve been busy helping get ready for. Hope everyone reading this has a Happy New Year! My next post will be next year after the big event.

Thurs. Dec. 25th

Even though its Xmas, and we had a big Xmas dinner for everyone at Bloo Lagoon, that I oversaw the cooking of 2 turkeys and the stuffing, I didn't take any photos and am not really interested in saying anything more about it other than it went well and I'm full.
What I do want to do is post a few more photos of the construction of the restaurant and spa building. The middle floor has had its curved beams installed so you can see its level. Its actually a split level, and there will be a spiraling ramp that connects all the floors in the central circular opening. This is the building that I will be helping to design the interior elements of. The spa will be on the lower ground level, the entrance and lobby on the middle split level and restaurant and kitchen on th upper level. There will be a tension tent roof shaped like a trumpet flower that covers it and goes down the center of the ramp opening.

Tues Dec. 23rd

Tues. Dec.23

There was a small library in my villa (look next to my head in the photo) that included the book “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m halfway through it and find it both relevant and irrelevant to my situation. It’s the personal journey of the author overcoming a divorce and depression to travel for a year. Four months each in Italy to learn the language and indulge in eating, India to stay at her undisclosed Guru’s ashram (that I’m easily able to figure out is Siddha, the same as my good friend Dian’s, where I’ve had darshan as well, at the ashram in the catskills), and Bali. I’m really glad it was here, as it seems a quite appropriate book to read.

Tony, Marita, Deb and I have been meeting on planning the big grand opening party on Jan. 1st. I am trying my best to be helpful with it and will take on as much responsibility as I can to help prepare for it, manage the sound systems for the entertainment and any other logistical issues. Sat. I went with Tony and Marita to Denpasar to shop for the event and do some personal shopping. We went to a store called Makro that is the equivalent of a Sam’s Club or Costco. That was pretty crazy. Then we stopped quickly at this ultra modern supermarket and mall called Carefour. It was a gigantic new building with parking lot and had several levels of small mall stores and fast food (both asian and KFC, A&W) and the whole top floor was like a fancy Super Walmart. It was filled with lots of westerners shopping. We then went to a party of some of their friends in a nearby area called Semenyak, just passed the similar area called Kuta. These are suburbs of Denpasar along the beach that attract the most tourism and are filled with shops, restaurants and bars. The streets are super narrow and confusing. We finally arrive at the party after sunset at this super modern minimal designed house that we have to walk cross the edge of a rice paddy to get to. Its owned by a couple from California that designed and built it after the house they originally got wouldn’t allow them to have their dog. The crowd was almost exclusively white and older than even me. The owner David was a furniture designer for TV shows and movies. Although the house was incredibly well designed and built, I really didn’t care for it, as it was ostentatious.

Sun. night we had a presentation and birthday celebration of one of the Villa owners here, Nicholas Guppy, who turned 83. I set up the sound and video projections for the presentation. He was an explorer in his youth of North Amazon rainforest and had a slide show of his photos from that time, as well as a variety of actual artifacts. He has written 2 books on it as well, and a friend of his did a short reading. There was a really nice gathering of all the people staying here. It stared to rain in the middle of it, so we were forced to relocate from the upper outdoor deck to the lower lobby area.

Settling in at Bloo Lagoon

Bali Tues Dec 16th 2008

In my Villa

Tony & Bob

View to the right outside my Villa

View to the left outside my Villa

View of bay from my Villa

The cicadas are incessant, droning loudly in the background from sunrise to sunset, as is the cement mixer, starting right before 8 am as my alarm clock and running nonstop till quitting time (besides the midday lunch break). It is hot and slightly humid both day and night. I’m one villa away from the construction site, overlooking the deepest harbor in Bali in the small untouristy town of Padangbai, where ferries sail to Lombok.

Tony & Marita

Bloo Lagoon is the eco resort project of my architect friend of 22 years, Tony Gwilliam and his partner Marita. It was started 2 years ago and is nearly complete. Tony has invited me to stay here 2 months to help with designing the interiors of the restaurant and spa that are under construction.

3 views of the Restaurant & Spa under construction

Bloo Lagoon consists of 25 individual Villas that are for sale to private owners, but rented out as a resort to vacationers when not in use by the owners. The entire complex sits on top of a hill at the end of the Padangbai beach and overlooks the Blue Lagoon that is located past a rocky point that separates it from the beach, hence its name.

There is a reception lobby area and office, central swimming pool with food and beverage service by it called a “warang” and a performance amphitheater overlooking the bay, as well.



Nearly all the villas are complete, the last few in various stages of construction. It is an incredible project, with a very refined, yet simple sense of design throughout. There is going to be a grand opening celebration on Jan.1st, which I’m assisting with as well. Another friend of Tony’s from California, Deb, has been hired to oversee this event and is staying here three months.

I’m so grateful to have been invited and able to come here to help with this. I consider Tony one of the greatest mentor’s of my life. We met when I was looking into attending SCIARC (Southern California Institute of Architecture) in 1986 for a master’s degree in their future studies program, a unique architectural program that emphasized visionary and high tech concepts. I was greatly inspired by Buckminster Fuller, and upon visiting the school, I was told that Tony was one of the professors that I should meet. Tony had studied and worked with Buckminster Fuller and at the time was implementing designs based on his work. Tony lived in the small town of Ojai, about 75 miles from the school in Santa Monica, up in the mountains behind Ventura Beach. Upon visiting him there, he advised that I not bother wasting my time and money in pursuit of a degree, but to rather follow my heart and do want I truly wished. Although, to this day, I tease him about him being responsible for me never becoming an architect or receiving a higher degree, I’m truly grateful for his advice and his introduction to the town of Ojai, especially the Ojai Foundation, where I soon spent a month living as work exchange student. Through that I spent a week in Joshua Tree with Terence McKenna and 40 other people doing a workshop, as well as a weekend workshop at the Foundation with Robert Anton Wilson. These are 2 of the most eloquent and important researchers of the fringes of consciousness exploration who have had great influence on my life. But enough about all that way back then.

Tony & Bob

Also visiting from Ojai, California is both Tony and my friend Bob Goddard. He has a community called the Full Circle Farm that I stay at when visiting Ojai, and I ‘m really glad that I got to see him here, as he leaves in a few days.
Besides assisting on the Bloo Lagoon project, I will focus on my own work of interactive “Portal” installations that I’ve been creating the last 5 years for Burning Man and installing in a variety of other venues. I have implemented the “Portal Collective” to collaborate with other like-minded individuals to realize this. While here I plan to develop a new project for next year’s Burning Man as well as an overall vision and business plan for all the Portal projects in general.

Wed. Dec 17

Bloo Lagoon is very different than Bali in general. I haven’t fully immersed myself in that yet, just a few glimpses when driving to Ubud and to the town around the bay last night. There were temple ceremonies and processions both times that take over the streets and the people dress up for them. It is very pervasive. The streets are narrow, even the highways, and they are filled with motorbikes, sometimes with an entire family of 4 on them. They are constantly weaving in and out of the traffic of trucks and cars. Even the day I arrived around midnight and it was raining, the road out of Denpasar was like that!.
I went snorkeling in the bay, just down the cliff from where my villa is, but had to get there by a boat that the Bloo Lagoon has, from the Padangbai beach . The fish, and especially the coral, are all unbelievably colorful. I went with Ana Marie, a blond Finnish artist that knows Tony from some of his earlier Bali projects that has been here for 4 weeks and is leaving today. She has lived, studied and worked all over the world. She is making a painting while here for Tony & Marita.


This is my sixth day here and I finally feel like I’m settling in. I bought a notebook and sketchbook to get to work on the restaurant and spa design project. I already helped get a fountain and the electric cart repaired.
Life here at Bloo Lagoon is pretty quite, besides the incessant cicadas and cement mixer! There seem to be more staff than people staying here, although more guests and home owners are arriving daily, while some leave. There was a very interesting family here when I arrived that will be returning. Nick has an Apothecary in England, his Dutch wife Sophia is a dancer that has studied with Gabrielle Roth, their 8 year old daughter Katya is an acrobat that will be performing for the grand opening celebration, and they have a younger son Louis. Nick lent me a DVD by 1 Giant Leap called “What About Me” that I’ve been watching in parts and find extremely inspiring. I highly recommend it. It includes Eckhart Tolle among other great spiritual teachers, speaking over music that has been filmed being performed all over the world. Its really hard to describe but is a must see. I’m grateful he lent it to me.

The construction continues 7 days a week