Accident waiting to happen

An Accident waiting to Happen and Adieu Bali

I fell into a pattern during the mornings of doing room calls to see if all was well with guests and to see if there was any assistance we could help with during the day such as organising transport to Kuta and Denpasar.

One morning on knocking up the Californians, I was asked into their villa, to see them having a snort of what I thought was cocaine and was asked if I wanted to indulge, though early I  said yes, when i bent down to partake I noticed that the line instead of being crystal white was a brown grey in colour, which i knew to be smack. I had not had smack before, but in that instance decided to try. Immediately on snorting I felt an overwhelming desire to be sick and rushed to the toilet and threw up my guts. After which I then felt a calm of total well being envelope my mind.

That day proved to be a turning point in my stay in Bali, as Terry Stanton and I were not getting along, he was drinking heavily and having difficulties with Anna Marie who was about to give birth any day. They were broke as church mouses, he was at me to give him money which I could not, as earlier it was explained he would get free accommodation and nothing more. He was not doing much, as there was little to do once we got the gardens and rooms fixed up.It was at the stage that i was thinking of moving on, as the resort needed a big injection of funds to make it  a hundred percent habitable and operationally effective for house keeping, food and beverage, marketing, transportation and engineering. 

Terry and I later in the day met at Poppies Restaurant in Kuta and over many drinks,Pernod I think was our poison because it was the cheapest, and sorted out our differences.Early evening we tossed a coin to see who would ride the bike and who would be pillion passenger.Neither wanted to drive the bike as we were both pissed, I lost and had to drive which nearly became tragic, as I lost the bike on a bend in the road and we both came off with Terry piggy backing me as we hit the bitumen, the gravel and then into a stream. All the time with Terry on top thus cushioning his landing off the bike, as I took the brunt of the impact and was knocked senseless to wake up in the water and seeing a warm light that lit up the surrounding bush. In the mid seventies the main Kuta Road had no electric lights along the road and I remember saying "where are we".It was the light of the bike, submerged under water, that lit up the surrounding bush.

Terry managed to pull the bike out of the creek and get  it started, I clung to him and he managed to nurse us and the bike back to the Kayu Aya, where I was taken to my room. I still had a half bottle of Pernod in my back pocket, this I used to dose all my wounds which stretched from my left shoulder, my left arm, leg and foot all were caked in dirt , gravel and blood, as I was only wearing shorts, singlet and thongs. I had some sleeping pills Anya had left with me which I swallowed and knocked myself out for the second time.

I was awoken the following morning by a team of friends to be taken by ambulance to Denpasar Hospital.Here I was laid out on a bed in the Emergency Department and a doctor proceeded to clean my wounds which was an agonising procedure that took an hour, for the doctor to clean all the dried blood, gravel and dirt that was now ingrained into the wounds so as to open them for  sterilisation.I was being held down by a team of friends who came to help and hold me still enabling the doctor to cleanse the wounds. Why he did not knock me out with an anaesthetic beggars belief,I remember Van Weirigen saying "you only have ten minutes to go"and thinking 'why do I do this to myself'.

I was transported back and lay on my bed under a fan, where I stayed for fifteen days. I was very aware how hard it was for Westerners to heal in the tropics, having seen surfers having to leave the Island because of coral wounds to their body from surfing accidents. i knew i was into a long haul programme to mend all the wounds I had inflicted and my salvation was I had a good supply of sleeping pills.  I dosed myself liberally with them to maintain little movement, so the fan could keep my body at a coolish temperature to enable the healing. I made up my mind that as soon as I could peel away the last scab, I was out of Bali.

Remorse, I had experienced in doses during the Grape Escape over drug and to much booze. I hate the feeling, it cuts right into my core and tells me how much I have fucked up and I have that emotion grinding away in my mind and soul relentlessly telling me ' when will you learn - drugs and booze are not for you'. I know myself, that I am at my best when i am living a totally clean exercised regimen and I do, a lot of the time. I get influenced and carried away with the occasion which perpetuates into a binge and bingo - Karma steps in to pull me up, sometimes I doubt my smarts and my rationality.

 I had fifteen days lying in bed under a fan, to feel sorry for myself and to contemplate my fuck ups. During this period, I realised that I could not continue to squander the opportunities that had fallen into my lape. To be thankful for the life I had been given and how fortunate I was to come out of this accident with the wounds that I had and be able to recover in one wholesome body.

Bali & The Kayu Aya

 Anya and I  flew into Bali in the mid seventies and decided to stay at Sanur, and booked into La Taverna which was a beach side resort on the tranquil side of the Island.  La Taverna was managed by a German - Walter Foley who was married to a Balinese Princess, Mahdi Luna, and the both of them ran this magical little hotel of about twenty suites. 

Each suite was decorated in it's own  funky theme and  set in it's own tropical garden,  winding painted concrete paths leading to the restaurant and bar that was all open plan across between Balinese and Italian architecture, high ceilings and the building raised so that their was a total vista that opened to you as you walked into the restaurant, of  their pool, beach, the ocean and sky. As the name indicated the cuisine was Italian and pizzas were the popular dishes on the menu.La Tavern was next door to another small resort called Tandjun Sari equally as offbeat and funky and where the "Stones" stayed when in Bal

Initially we hung around the pool and beach, working on our tans and getting our bearings   familiarising ourselves with a different culture, language, food, and environment.We knew  a  team of Australians already there and became quickly initiated to island life  and Bali time.  I hired a 250cc motor bike which was mandatory for moving around the Island. We rode up to  Ubud in the highlands where we knew an Australian artist Ian Van Weirigen who leased a  spectacular site which looked down over the main gorge that splits the town.He was busy  at the time with a relationship,though brief, with Lauren Hutton the American Model Jimbaran and Ulawatu was another area of Bali I liked, the surf was more robust and the sand was white and the sheer cliffs rising upwards were stunning against the turquoise ocean. Jimbaran was like North Head in Sydney except it was larger and like North Head it was   a "tied island" and had its own Eco system to the rest of the island.

Anya had booked her return ticket only for a nine day stay, so  no sooner was she there then she was gone, it was the end of another relationship for me, it was not for long, we parted more as friends than a couple who had been going together for six months. I think of Anya more that way, as a friend than as an ex lover, we got on well,  but we were were not heartbroken about leaving each other, though when we were together we clicked.


After Anya left Walter Foley the owner of La Taverna asked me if I wanted to do some work in Bali, as I  had mentioned to him I was happy to stay around and do something if  there were any opportunities in the offing,  he knew my back ground in hospitality, bars and restaurants.Explaining, that he knew the head tribes person of Seminyak, a village on the Kuta Beach side of Bali, who he would like to introduce me to. As there was a  beach side resort  called The "Kayu Aya"which was built on their village grounds by an American who had taken on a lease and built some villas and lanais.Unfortunately for him he had been thrown off the Island for not using" Batik Diplomacy" - which meant he did n't play by the Indonesian Generals rules as was expected of him - more of that later!! There may be an opportunity for me to help them somehow reopen the resort for trading.


We drove over to Seminyak and met the village head man, I don't remember his name, or him, suffice to say, he had no money and had no idea what to do, with what had landed on their village lap.On our inspection I was blown away right from the start. 


The approach to the Kayu Aya, was a left turn from the main Kuta Beach Road, towards the ocean, on a rutted track which had been bitumined over, that threaded it's way through  rice paddy fields to the ocean and resort. The resort stretched along the beach for about half a mile, there were eight villas along the beach. Four on either end of the property with the main reception area office and waiting lounge in one spectacular high ceiling building, that led into  another open sided restaurant which overlooked the beach and ocean, set back from the beach about fifty yards was a half Olympic sized swimming pool and at one end a small amphitheatre for entertainment. Behind the  main building and villas spread through the gardens were thirty lanais, which is a room with en suite and balcony and their are four in a cluster.The property was deteriorating and the gardens overgrown a lot of the villas were in a state of disrepair, with bougainvillea out of control, strangling drainage and plumbing and pulling down some of the walls which were constructed from local  coral stone. It reminded me of a scene from a  Graham Green novel on Cuba; - th'Our Man in Havanna' except this was Bali.


The Kayu Aya Hotel was built by Charles Osborne, whom I met in London five months later and who I will give the background story now, as I learnt  about him and the history from him, over the preceeding months ahead.


Charles was an American,who was a fighter pilot during the Korean War and an officer out of   Anapolis- the Naval Officers Academy. He put great stead on his blue blood Virginian ancestory. He was an imposing person, physically six foot five and large in personality drunk or sober. He married  Katinka Frisk who was the cousin of Carl Gustaf the King of Sweden they had two children, boy and girl. Charles owned a French Company that built hospitals to 'turn- key' in under developed countries, mainly Africa for national governments. It was a high powered life and he was away from home constantly. His marriage was fucked and they decided on Bali  for a holiday to try and reignite their marriage.


Which is where he met up with some high Indonesian military generals who in turned introduced him to the opportunity of leasing the land at Seminyak and decided to  build a compound for family, friends and business connections.   One of his  contacts was Herman Schaefer a bigwig at Pepsico, they decide that they should build a boutique resort and he would get Pepsi to fund some of it and use it for their conferences. Which  leads to them to retaining Peter Muller an important Australian Architect, who is residing in Bali at that time. 

Peter Muller who has an organic perception of architecture is provided with 'a dream brief ' resulting in his design and the construction of the 'Kayu Aya'. He responded to the site with an ethos in his architectural rigour that was at that time new to Bali and to be the fore runner for other developments. His interpretation in using sustainable materials and innovative architectural solutions, materials in the construction process was local as were the crafts people who made the  furniture and fabrics and architectural features through the grounds and buildings who interpreted Peter's design process . The form was Balinese and function was Western interpreted to the Balinese culture, such as each entrance to the rooms and villas, all were dog legged, when you entered you turn left then right, this prevented evil spirits entering.

I offered a proposal of bringing the property up to a standard where it could accomadate paying guests, my payment would be free board initially and once funds were being generated a percentage. I housed myself in the Presidential suite and brought on board to help me  another Australian, Terry Stanton who was there with his wife Anna-Marie Winchester an Australian actress. They had arrived from Sulewesi where Anna-Marie who was eight months pregnant had been bitten by a dog In Ujang Pandang and had to stay there for rabies shots for which she was then cleared.Terry had worked for me before at "Fantales" as a carpenter and was extremely creative and capable in leading a team to commence maintenance and repairs through out the resort. 

My Task were numerous, organizing the villagers on cleaning bees; cleaning up the gardens, the swimming pool, beach and making the place respectable for guests.Deciding how many rooms were in a fit state for use for  renting out, as many had not been completed internally. The plumbing did not work in most, there was only a small supply of linen. The refrigeration in the kitchens was so basic that it was hardly worthwhile trying to provide a breakfast menu.  The rooms did not have bar fridges and the Kayu Aya in 1976 was a long way from any shops.

There must have been a lot of thieving of property, as at one stage from reports the 'Kayu Aya' had functioned as a  Resort, to what extent it never became clear, so I banged ahead and posted rates on the notice board at 'Poppies' a garden restaurant in Kuta, where most young travellers hang out. 

Over a couple weeks we gradually started filling up the villas and the Lanais close to the swimming pool.It was a mixed bag of guest that found their way there as in those days it was off the beaten track. There were some Spaniards and Greeks who had stores in Mykonos and came to Bali for crafts to take back and sell, took two villas. several Australian women traveling independently rented the lanai's.A couple of scammer / surfers from Australia and California took a villa for a month which lead to my undoing and leaving Bali.

Fantales opens and then sold

I was now in a relationship with Anya Seleki who was an actress in daytime soap called 96 and we had moved in together into an apartment in Ranelagh in Edgecliff. At the same time I was about to open "Fantales" we had to get the publicity machine rolling as this was a totally different ballgame to the Northside and the "Grape" and to some extent we were in uncharted waters.We had no problems in getting a crowd together for opening night as by now we had good network of customers.

 Entertainment was also another card we intended to play at Fantales as we had a baby grand and stage lounge and one large room with no sight barriers, good acoustics.So as much as good food we intended to provide live entertainment on trading nights. Our resident pianist was Frank Mitchell and our week- end entertainment was the Palm Court Orchestra a foursome from the Sydney Conservatorium and we used Chris Carvin to help with promotions and new entertainment.

We had been open about two weeks and were not breaking any world records with takings when Leo Schofieldand his wife Anne and children popped by for a meal.  Leo was the main food critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and that weekend wrote a stunningly positive, glowing critique, on "Fantales", giving it top marks on food and service and on the strength of that write up, we were packed the following night and trading looked rosy.

The uniqueness size and entertainment factor kicked it along and also, free editorials, all very good and authentic with a lot of theatre. Lindsay Kemp was in town with his Mime Troupe and on two Sunday evenings consecutively he and his troupe of ten paraded a rang of Kabuki traditional antique costumes that Elaine Townsend had bought in Japan on her last trip.The article written by Leslie Walford was equally effective in advertising Fantales to a gay following.

We constructed a twenty meter catwalk that led to the stage and in between courses of exotic Asian and Szechuan dishes, the lights would be lowered and the music cranked up some Oriental, Didgeridoo music and these ten gays would waltz doing there thing. 

Another night we hosted the Tibetan Dance and Ballet Company but. they dad not dance just ate.

I  had got to know a Korean man, through " Fantails" called  Kent King Poo Koo who we had used as our agent when I went on the buying trip to Asia and who also became a regular customer.We were having trouble with finances,  as mentioned only two of us had put up funds of $15,000 each, Sid Preston did not have any funds, which was really our downfall as that additional money would have got us out of the shit, which we now found ourselves in.

We did not have a good handle on the Kitchen, supplies were being bought in Chinatown with invoices in Chinese making it difficult for stock takes and book keeping, our chefs had trouble speaking English they were all mainly Chinese whilst the Asians preferred front of house and the floor. Thinks !!! we had made a rod for our backs, the creative side was working, but the management back of house was not a strong point of mine. I think we may have been feeding a lot of staff as I am sure we were being ripped off.

 It looked like a further injection of capital was needed and I was not forthcoming as my enthusiasm was waning. My creative juices were burnt out and right from the start I had not felt right about the whole venture and had put another three grand into the pot - 'Listen to your inner voices Anthony' - Kent King Koo Poo offered to take it off our hands, but  there was no money in his deal. We  would assign the lease over to his company and he would take over the debts and also the furniture and fittings would become his property. I thought about the offer for a  a few days and  decided to cut my losses and split.

 Anya had been talking of going to New York and I liked London so we decide to go to Bali and say goodbye there, which we did.

Fantales - a new restaurant venture

After depositing thirty thousand dollars in the bank I decided to go up to Byron Bay to lick my wounds and stay with Jo Mathews who  with his brother Robert had adjoining farms up in the hills in Federal behind Byron Bay. Paul Quiney was staying there and I had always harboured an idea of buying an old farm house and doing it up.


 Which nearly happened to be the case, as through  contacts I heard of a couple who had an option on a farm in Possum Creek of 150 acres with an old farm house, they wanted to divide the property in two and buy with another person as tenants in common.This was acceptable to me, as they did not want the farm house section, or the the part of the boundary which was Possum Creek which had a fifteen foot waterfall and water hole and small rainforest.


Any way this was not to be as another friend Sid Preston who had Dionysus Restaurant in Milsons Point and was now out of that and his marriage, asked me to come to Sydney to look at a site in Camperdown to see if I thought it had relevance for a another restaurant.  Which I did and ended up not proceeding with the farm in Byron but becoming involved in another restaurant project.


The site chosen was an old Pizza Parlour on the corner of Parramatta Road and Prymont Bridge Road, Camperdown, it reminded me of a medium size aircraft hangar with parking for about ten cars.The interior already had a bar and kitchen which we gutted and rebuilt and relocated the entrance from Parramatta Road to another from the car park leading into the middle of the restaurant.


To make this restaurant work  and have an impact and to get people from the north and eastern suburbs to the inner west the concept needed to be radical and different to anything in Sydney .
A South East Asian concept  was conceived and I went on a whirlwind  buying trip through Hong Kong, Manila and Bangkok , buying all the furniture,fittings, artefact's, crockery glassware and at the same time checking out restaurants and menus and recipes. I filled up  two containers, as on our estimation the site could seat about 250 people. 


The funds came from me and Sid Preston's brother in law, Sid had no funds, how I got roped into this must have had something to do with  what I was smoking at the time - dumb!! Lesson never go into a business venture unless the partnerships are equal.


 In the mid seventies there were a lot of Vietnamese refugees in Villawood Detention center and Vietnamese cooking was the flavour of the month. So we took ourselves out to Villawood and ended up interviewing most of them and employing several. Others  we employed were Asian students at University of NSW and Sydney University  which was only half a mile away. We outfitted the male floor staff in the traditional Barong Tagalog shirts I had bought in the Phillipines and the women wore their own Asian styles as their were a mix of Vietnamese, Phillipino,Thai,Chinese Malays and Indonesians.When they all came to work and changed into their outfits they looked very exotic and handsome in appearance.


As was the restaurant by the time the internal construction was completed and the interior was decked out. The lights were large glass antique Indian hurricane lamps strung around a high ceiling that I had found in a grungy back alley antique shop in Manilla.The lamps had to be electrified as they were candle powered. The colour scheme was sky blue ceiling and Pink walls, coir matting for floor coverings, beautiful  cane furniture and place settings of traditional blue and white Chinese crockery.The restaurant was set up in two sections, one section was in front of an open sided kitchen. In the centre a raised lounge cum stage was built and a white grand Piano bought and installed surrounded by large comfy cane lounges. The other section was and indoor arbour we built with a landscape mural on the far wall. At the entrance  a Pagoda style porch was designed and built which led to wide brick steps leading down inside to a waiting area, where an enormous rectangular aquarium was installed with tropical fish that died all the time from the smoke in the atmosphere.

The kiitchen was rejigged with woks and steamers and a Menu put together consisting of Asian,Szechuan and Chinese Village style cooking,which had never before done in Sydney. Our First Chef was a Chinese Malay called Hoppy Ho who ripped us off blind as all the bills were written in Chinese as the buying was done in China town and the accounts could not be reconciled as they did not understand what was being bought. Our next chefs were from Schechuan in China and this cooking was new to Sydney. Schechuan was a mountain province in Western China and their cooking was noted for the seven tastes; hot, numb,salty, fragrant,sweet,sour, bitter and proved very popular with the Asian cooking especially Vietnamese.