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.