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I had an open air massage yesterday by the pool in a Bali bed and was completely pampered by two women for an hour, getting a pedicure, foot rub, massage all the while staring off at the ocean and feeling its balmy breezes. Later Nick picked me up on his motorbike, everyone drives them here. We went to lunch to a local Indonesia buffet style place. We drove past the prison where nine Australians are being held for drug smuggling - heroin. Two will be put to death. They dont' mess around here.
We ran into a road block as there was a ceremony going on for Galungan.
"GALUNGAN" holiday, held throughout Bali, as to celebrate the victory of virtue (DHARMA) upon evil (ADHARMA) when the entire island brightened with festivities while “penjor” the tall-artistically-decorated-bamboo-poles stuck at every house-entrance adorn the along sides of the roads symbolizing prosperity.
The ceremony goes on for about 10 days. I met Nick's lovely wife Eka sp? and beautiful little boy, Jivon. We chatted at his house out on the open veranda. It poured down rain for about a half hour. i love to watch and listen to the rain.
The road to his house is a path that turns into a narrow road with many alleys called gangs, each adorned with small family temples. each day small offerings are brought to the temple in small woven baskets filled with flowers, red, yellow and white, rice, fruit or a candy and incense. They are everywhere and smell very nice. Each street also has a penjor.
On the way home from dinner I ran into the ceremonies going on again at the local temple. Everyone is dressed in white, traditional dress and there are drums and a xylophone of sorts. They belive the dead come back and sometimes they embody the living! They convulse and the crowd moves back and forth with them along with these big masked characters. Kinda like those bad religious channels when people are overcome by the spirit and are healed. this is the real thing though. Quite a treat to see.
Today I came to Kuta and took surf lessons - great fun! I stood up on the 2nd try! My instructor is this cute Bali boy. He asked me to dinner at his house with his family. A real treat to hang with
the locals. The Balinese are very happy and nice people. The touts get a bit old though.
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