Green fashion at the Green Village, Bali
Holidays are a time for lazing around, which is the main reason my guy and I chose Ubud as one of our travel destinations last month. However, I shouldn’t have lazed around quite so much because it meant that we missed out on the full tour run by the Green Village. Silly me! I should have booked on a weekday so that we could see the Green School, chocolate factory and bamboo workshop that are all affiliated with the village. As it was, though, we got to visit the village and that turned out to be more than enough excitement for one day. I mean, look at this!
I dressed to honour the location, all in green, and (fairly much as usual) all in DIY or op shops/markets clothes and accessories…
The Green Village is, as the name suggests, an eco-minded collection of people and homes, in this case made entirely of bamboo. While I’ve seen many structures made of bamboo due to its strength, ready availability and practicality, I’ve never seen it looking quite like this!
We were shown around inside about four of the houses, most of which are very open-plan and in fact quite open-air with no windows and only rudimentary doors. The climate is quite agreeable and apparently they don’t have too much of a problem with mosquitoes or birds flying in, so this natural airconditioning works perfectly.
As you can see, just about everything in the houses is made from bamboo, not only the structure itself.
Bamboo is so versatile – this door features vertical cross sections, while the frame is made of pieces that have been curved to create the oval shape.
I think the bamboo is kind of opened out and flattened to create the roof tiles, and of course left as-is to create the main beams in the houses.
Other bamboo structures I’ve seen are quite linear, but the properties we saw are very curved and there really is a sense of open space and flowing lines as well as the straight, soaring lines of the main supports.
There is a sense of fun in the houses too – behind me in this shot is a kind of bird-nesty affair that is actually a home office. Now if I had an office like this right next to the river, as this one is, I wouldn’t mind going to work at all!
If you’re not working, there are lots of spaces to just relax…
… or go swimming!
All the houses are linked by mossy green paths like this one…
Oh, and you don’t have to buy property there to enjoy the Green Village. They have houses that you can rent for a holiday (that just might turn into several months… it would be so hard to leave this!).
If I’d not been so lazy and done a bit more research before our trip, we could have stayed here! Oh well, lesson learnt. And at least maybe you lovely readers will be inspired to visit and maybe even stay there next time you’re in the Ubud area (don’t forget about the chocolate factory too!).
竹と言えば、アジアならほとんどどこでもあるイメージがありますが、バリ島のウーブッドにあるグリーンヴィレージで見た竹はかなり違います！川沿いの森の中にある静かな場所に位置しているヴイレージですが、そこにある家は全部竹で作られていて、ジブリの映画に出てきそうで本当に不思議です。普段入れないヴィレージですが、ツアーなら行けるから予約して行きました。（実は平日なら、同じく竹でできてるチョコレート工場、竹工房、そしてグリーンスクールもツアーで訪問できるけど、完全休みモードになりきった私が予約の連絡したのは金曜日だったため、行ったのは土曜日でヴィレージしか見れませんでした。）家は４件ぐらい案内されましたが、ほとんど全部窓なしなオープンプランという作り方なので外から中へ、また中から外へ、のような優しい空気の流れが感じられてとてもリラックスできるところだと思います。
ある家は人がずっと住んでいるけれど、他の家はレンタル可能です。今度ウーブッドでちょっと違う滞在先をトライしたければ、予約してみたらいかがですか？