I've just come back from the Ubud Writers' Festival. It's been running for some years now and, although I've been to Bali a lot of times and lived in Ubud for a couple of years, it was my first time at the Festival.
For me it wasn't cheap. Apart from the fare and accommodation, as an outsider I had to pay the top price for the Festival. I also joined as a Festival friend, thinking it would be worth it.....not sure why but I know now I'd never do that again. It gave me first pick at some of the special events but a lot of them were still selling tickets on the day so clearly that wasn't necessary. We were also invited to meet Janet de Neefe and her husband at a morning tea at their home. This meant missing some interesting sessions of the Festival but I figured it would be worth it. I was curious to see their home and looked forward to meeting them.
After walking to the Honeymoon Guesthouse we were directed to the room above the restaurant, a space I'd been to several times and clearly not their home. We were given a cup of tea and a piece of cake by the staff and then somebody came in and said Janet was in the shower but would be here soon.
We stared at our empty cups, waiting. Janet finally appeared (no sign of the husband) and sat down at a table with a couple of people she knew and chatted to them. The rest of us shuffled our feet for a while and then, realising that was as good as it was going to get, hurried off to try to salvage the rest of the morning.
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