Going back to Ubud

To know that I am going back is exciting but tempered with the knowledge of relentless change. Of course, you can say.

But in my case I have to intervene in the unstoppable river and try to steer it in a new direction.

For the last 15 years (out of 25 or so spent in and out of Bali) I have been a papermaker. Our paper business was set up in Ubud, soon moved to Lodtunduh a few km south of Ubud and rapidly outgrew that village and moved back to Andong, a km or so out of Ubud on the road north of Peliatan.

So much has happened over that time. We became a business of hundreds of people and we streamlined again to about 70 and lots of outworkers making products in their homes with our materials.

But Bali producers stuggle in the face of Chinese competition now. Not so noticeable in the high end products like silver but with a simple peasant commodity like handmade paper, it is not so easy.

Now I have to imagine and project a new direction for us. I feel daunted and inadequate for the task. But in the face of such feelings before I have always ploughed on, making mistakes certainly but inexorably moving on. I must do so again.