the joglo

M and I have moved into a two-bed, two-bath classic Balinese-style joglo with a lush tropical garden. Joglos are much different than anything you’d ever see in America, and are very interesting from an architectural standpoint. Designed to be efficient in the tropical climate, its woven bamboo roof is constructed into a point. This allows hot air to rise into the apex away from living areas, where it’s pushed out through the ventilation spaces built between the roof and walls, and through ornamental openings carved into the walls themselves.

That said, it’s certainly hotter than the air-conditioned hotel rooms we came from. Cold showers and tiny clothes with good wicking are the order of the day.

Whereas in most Western architecture, you’re ideally sealed off from the outdoors, here, in the joglo, one lives in the semi-open alongside nature. So far we’ve met the foot-long lizard that hangs out near our ceiling, a big toad from the garden that sometimes sleeps in our walk-in closet, a snail that lived its last moments on the backside of our bathroom door, a variety of insects (although not as many as you’d think) and, apparently, some bats who eat fruit in our upstairs foyer as we sleep. Mosquito coils are burnt around the clock because the barrier between the garden and our house is, basically, non-existent. Living here feels like a glamping 24/7.

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