Faizah's destiny

A short taxi ride from Ubud town centre is the Ubud Botanical Gardens, which seems to be an attempt to create a horticultural theme park.

It comprises: a bamboo area with about 5 different types of bamboo on display; a meditation garden made up of a little circle with carved wooden chairs for meditation as well as a statue of a buda lying comfortably; a labyrinth, which is a maze of 7-foot hedges in an oval shape; an Islamic garden that has a pattern of tiled pathways around various types of plants; and a rainforest walk, which is truly a rainforest at the moment as the floods have been through and turned it into a real jungle trek, complete with bamboo bridges giving way under your feet (to be fair, it was marked as closed, but we took it anyway).

The gardens are very quiet, but more due to a lack of visitors than the design (we were the only people there), which is not surprising. When you first arrive, you walk through an area with tables filled with sprouted seedlings, pot plants hanging from the latticed walls, making you think that you have walked into your local nursery rather than a tourist attraction. The layout is irregular.Steep steps lead up and down hillsides with little heed to safety, there doesn't seem to be much order within the grounds, the whole place seems to have been built without the requirement of perfection. 


As Wayan (our driver and local guide) and I wandered through with Maddie, we both commented that it was very unkempt - most of the created areas (especially the Islamic garden) were overgrown. I got us the impression that someone had had a lot of great ideas, implemented them and moved onto the next without planning for any ongoing maintenance.

"The people around here are lazy." said Faizah as we sipped some mango juices in the cafe at the end of the walk. "They don't want to work. No one wants to plant trees or do work." Faizah is a middle-aged Javanese woman who designed and created the Botanical Gardens. "I do everything myself" she told us. 

Seven years ago, Faizah and her American husband had come up with the idea and started the botanical gardens. It had grown through her green-thumbed toil and they struggled through just breaking even before tragedy struck in 2008, when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. He went through the rounds of treatments but three months ago the cancer finally claimed him, leaving Faizah a widow with more than US$300,000 of medical debts to pay and no way to earn the money.

Now the gardens are to follow in the footsteps of so many natural attractions surrounding Ubud: by succumbing to development. Chinese and Indonesian investors have offered to pay her medical bills in exchange for the gardens, which Faizah has no choice but to accept. "I looked for other investors, but no-one wanted it." she lamented. Her anger at having to let go of her dream was palpable, but she has a plan. "They build big wooden lodges here - twenty of them. I will design all of the gardens - each will have a vegetable garden and flowers and all sorts" she said triumphantly. In this way, her dream of building beautiful gardens has not died, it has simply taken a different shape.

Faizah's story is typical of what is happening in Ubud. The postcard view of this area is endless fields of rice-paddies beyond the main streets, but now they have new buildings(probably tourist lodges) popping up on them. The developers come to the farmers and offer them a sum for their land that they simply cannot refuse. Harriet tells me that this happens in England when struggling farmers are offered vast amounts for their farms so that a motorway can be built (I am sure that it happens all over the world). It is sad to see, but I think that Faizah's attitude shows someone willing to move with the times and make sure that the beauty survives.

Wayan told me on the ride home that the Balinese are not lazy at all (my experience confirms this), but the reason Faizah couldn't get any workers was because her wages were too low. I reason this is due to the fact that she's not making enough money to pay people a decent amount. I suppose the end of the gardens was inevitable, but the will of Faizah will ensure that her vision is implanted upon whatever takes its place.