Day 17 - A planned start, The Melasti Ceremony Procession& the rain!

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I am quite happy with myself this morning! I slept really well last night, and woke up at about 9am, not my own accord though; I set my alarm! I think that I probably would have naturally slept on! It’s crazy how much I am sleeping whilst I’ve been in Seminyak! But to honest…. It is a total beach, shopping, eating and drinking tourist resort, so I’ve realised, that’s ok, I’m not missing out on anything!

I had a good look on the internet for things to see here, but they just don’t appeal to me. A lot of the stuff is up in Ubud, where I’ve just for from. There are the coffee and rice tours, not for me, ATV hire, surfing, cooking etc. Many of the tours on offer involve long drives, which I’m not up for either! If I was interested, many of the tours need 24 hours notice, so I have considered my options. It’ll be a walk to a beach day!

I made it to breakfast today. The room is a really nice set up. There is a dedicated area to most cultures. I did consider an omelette for a change, then dropped down to the easy favourite, scrambled eggs with toast. The eggs were as you would expect, but not as nice as those umami eggs yesterday. The toast was better though, I cut the bread to my preferred thickness of bread , and toasted it myself. I love burnt toast, no one would ever give me toast the way that I like it; most people would be insulted to be given it that way… ha ha, so I could do it that way by choice! I finished up with a couple of mini croissants, and a coffee. I took my coffee out of the eating area over to the quiet outside area, away from the kids and noise! That allows me a bit of quiet time after breakfast to enjoy the coffee, and write my blog!

My peace was soon broken by rattles, drums and bells! I looked over the balcony, which is quite a distance from the street that runs in front of the hotel. I can see a God like effigy being carried in a parade of sorts, passing by. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s a festival of some sort? I did catch a photo of the passing crowd, but maybe it’s too far away! Ahh… one of the girls told me it’s a religious ceremony. It’s the ceremonial cleansing for the 3 main Hindu Gods: Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu

I finished my coffee to go to watch the parade. Little did I know how huge this was going to be! I decided to be spontaneous, and follow the parade. I was going to go to the beach today, so here goes!

Wow… it’s now 12:20. I did follow the parade all the way through the streets to the beach. I’ve never seen such a huge congregation of people all devoted to one cause in the same place, at the same time…. Maybe on the TV at a big football game! But what’s more, there are many, many more on route!!

The beach was so busy, and hot. I walked back along the bamboo bridge, off the beach to a makeshift food and drinks market. These stalls aren’t normally filling this square. They are temporarily here for the ceremony.

I bought more Pocari sweat, as I am currently showering in my own sweat! I took shelter in one of the many food and drink stalls. I chatted with the girl who was serving there. She kindly gave me a stool in her stall! I stayed there for about half an hour. Between her broken English, and my sign language, she gave me all the information about this yearly 3 day ceremony. She explained that the people walked with their processing from all the surrounding villages to attend the ceremony to offer cleansing to their Gods.

Melasti Ceremony Procession
It is the biggest Bali Purification Rituals involving the most Balinese Hindu people to carry all the God symbol to the sea as well as other holy water resources. Furthermore, all of the Balinese people wear the Balinese costume with white color dominant. The Balinese traditional instrument (Gamelan) is sound during the parade procession with some of priest lead among the people. After arriving at the beach, all god symbols are purified based on local rituals process. afterward, it carried back to the temple and keep it sacred. Each of Balinese Hindu people will go to the temple for worshiping to get the prosperity and peaceful for the entire world.

After a long cooling off period, I set off back to the hotel. I’ve definitely had enough beach, and heat, for one day! To complete the walk back to the hotel, I was like a salmon swimming upstream to spawn. It was impossible! They are still coming by the hundreds!

It was such a hard walk! 2 more bottle of Pocari sweat later, I made it. I went straight to the lower ground pool. I was straight in it! even my head went under. That’s big for me, I never get my hair wet!… ha ha ….and relax! For now, it’s all about the shade!

I stayed in the shade, popping in and out of the pool until about 2pm. I’m wet from the pool, but still sweating. I feel that I am in line for internal heat combustion at this rate! Ha ha. I decided to go back to my room, just to cool my body back down, get a shower, and start again!

At 3ish, I came up to the roof top infinity pool, the sun has lowered, and thankfully, there is a warm breeze. It’s much more comfortable. I can hear the parade, it’s still ongoing. I had a quick nosey from the rooftop; some of the ceremonial parade people and their carts are leaving. I guess some of them have long walks back to their villages! They are definitely walking in the opposite direction now.

The rains came down at about 4pm, so I went back to my room. I decided to make use of the wet part of the day to shampoo and set my hair ready for my move on tomorrow. It’s a good use of my time. It’s a time consuming job to do, but I only have to do it about every 10 days. My hair lasts longer between washes at home, but not in this heat! I’ve got a hairdryer in the room, so that will quicken the job. I usually let it dry naturally! Here goes, for the Queen Mother lookalike job!

I’ve completed my hair. Now going out to find out what, and where I’ll eat tonight! It’s always a surprise! The rain is still ongoing, but I managed to move between the showers! Due to the rain, I purposely didn’t go far!

Tonight, I’ve opted for an Indian meal at a place called NOAA. I’m having vegetable biryanis with smokey dal makhni, (spicy black kidney beans and lentils) and a garlic naan.

Well, that was another good evening meal that I didn’t expect. I know it was a spicy dish. The flavour didn’t let me know, as I don’t fully taste stuff, but bloody hell, my lips are tingling! Ha ha

It is really pouring hard now, so I’ve decided to stay here a while longer, so I’m going to have a nice cup of black Earl Grey tea! The lightening has now started, and there goes the thunder, cracking and crashing straight after. The lightening. The whole of the sky is so lit up, then really black; I think it’s going to here for a while! Good job I’ve got my handbag pack-a-mac. I think I’m going to need it!

I’m sat here with my cuppa, watching the poor lad going round and round sweeping the rain back outside, whilst the buckets are filling quicker than he can get back round! Bless him, he’s really trying!

The roads are flooded, and as the cars are passing it’s like a tsunami flushing over! Luckily I’m inside, behind the bifold doors! I haven’t seen rain like this since I was last in India, but I guess I’m not that far away, and it is that time of year, so no surprises really! I guess I’ve just been lucky so far!

The rain seemed to slow down… a bit! So I took my chances getting back to the hotel whilst I felt I could! The pac-a-mac was a huge disappointment, but it helped, a bit! I got my last cappuccino of the evening up on the roof terrace restaurant. As it is still throwing it down, I didn’t want to chance stopping anywhere else! So that beats not having one!

All of the streets are empty, as is the restaurant. I think everyone is maybe getting room service tonight. I’m not surprised by that, but did expect that the young ones would still be out in it, or maybe their night just hasn’t started yet!

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