Sounds of the village

On online advice forums, it is not unusual to see requests from expats seeking ‘quiet’ accommodation. Complaints about noise involve not so much traffic, but the sounds you would expect living in what is still essentially a rural community. Roosters and dogs of course, but even the cheerful frogs get complaints. It’s hard to imagine what these visitors expected, unless their experience has previously been a sanitised resort.

Our current location is not so very different from the nearby guesthouse where we have spent many months over previous years. We are not resort people. But still, how could we not have thought through the implications of having a neighbour who breeds fighting cocks. He has more than 100, he told us yesterday and our first night here was, shall we say, restless. But it only took the one night and now we are as inured to the crowing as we might become used to living near a train line in a city.

In the week we have been here our ears have become attuned to the subtle sounds as well as the more blatant ones. We hear the sepeda motor (motor bikes) whizzing their way to work from about 7, but we also hear the swish of the besom broom as the leaves that have fallen overnight are swept off the paths. The lovely calls of geckos and frogs sing to us at night. Yesterday at about 8am something was happening over a loudspeaker. At first we thought it might be electioneering as the Presidential vote takes place in April, but it was too playful for that. Something in the temple across the rice fields perhaps. Whatever it was sounded like fun.

Earlier in the week we needed to visit a notaris (lawyer) to start the negotiations for our lease. As always in professional offices we were kept waiting. Suddenly an almost-forgotten but unmistakeable sound could be heard from behind a desk. Clackety clickety clack, ting. A typewriter! It brought a smile and vivid memories of typing pools.

We have been so busy that there has been little time to stop and smell the cempaka. That will come.

Image of Balinese fighting cocks courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.