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Published: July 18th 2008
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Pura Satawani
In rented sarong ensembles at Pura Satawani After hitching a dive boat for a three hour voyage (which one of us would describe as "harrowing") across the Bali straits from Lombok we arrived on the Balinese coast. It was immediately obvious that it was nothing like its neighbor to the east. The roads are all paved, tourists are everywhere, and our cab route took us by a Dunkin Donuts (which the other one of us would describe as "tempting").
Culturally speaking, Bali is the polar opposite of Lombok. With only a tiny fraction of its population Muslim, the rest is Hindu, but a particularly Balinese form of Hindu, with principles slightly different from Indian Hinduism. Each town is required to have at least three temples, and the Balinese take their religion extremely seriously. For example, in front of every house, shop, market, temple, and building, ceremonial offerings are laid out for the gods each and every day. The offerings are beautiful, colorful, and often accompanied by incense burning. To appease demons and to prevent them from entering establishments, offerings are also provided to them - these, however, are trash or rotten food, scattered about. Even over just a couple of days, we feel fully immersed and surrounded
Ubud Monkey Forest
We tried not to get closer than this... by an extremely interesting mix of traditions and customs, very foreign from our own.
We arrived in Ubud and settled into our $15/night bungalow before setting off to see the town. It is, by any definition, extremely touristy, and yet unlike any of the ultra-touristy places that we have traveled, we get the sense that many of the things we've witnessed here would be happening whether tourists were her to observe them or not. Yes, there is the constant question of "transport?" "taxi?" everywhere we've walked, but Bali religion and culture seem to go on uninterrupted, no matter the number of Australians, Germans and trickle of Americans who crowd themselves into this little town.
Case in point: there's a glut of cremations this week in Ubud. We arrived in time to see the glowing embers of Tuesday's massive funeral pyre of Ubud's king, and--for some of that royalty to rub off--the families of 80 other recently deceased Ubudians have waited for this week to hold their cremation ceremonies as well. The town is buzzing with cremation-related activities: crowds of people papier-macheing the enormous black bulls which will hold the bodies, weaving baskets, carrying offerings through the streets, and
Lotus Temple
Entrance to the Lotus Temple volunteers handing out brochures to tourists simply to explain what's going on. There seems to be very little grief associated with these rites (and we read somewhere that laughter is supposed to be a crucial part of the whole event), and it seems to be a very healthy attitude towards death, all around.
The rest of the town is full of temples, and while tourists are welcome in many, everyone must follow the traditional dresscode of sash and sarong. T-shirt wearers are also turned away. Just having a few simple rules makes the whole experience much less uncomfortable for everyone.
Our first night here we went to temple for a dance performance, accompanied by the gamelan--a massive band of people hammering on marimba-type instruments in an impossibly fast, heavily syncopated rhythm. It was a sampling of traditional dance forms, ranging from a very elegant ladies' dance to an alarming, and almost Mister Roboto-type warrior dance.
Later, safe in our mosquito netting, we slept very, very, very soundly.
The next morning, we had our breakfast on our own balcony, chatted with our hotel's owner, and set off for a walk through the town to the rice paddies
Ubud Rice Paddy
Rice paddies north of Ubud to the north. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful: people planting rice, kids flying kites.
The afternoon took us to the Monkey Forest, which--as our guidebook promised--was full of photogenic but malevolent macacques. Periodically, the monkeys would lose their temper and attack one another, with no regard to the surrounding tourists. We followed the trail deep into the forest to the Monkey Temple, where a scuffle somewhere above us sent a cascade of monkeys tumbling down a cliff above us. We then visited a nearby Temple of the Dead, said to appease the evil spirits. Here, for the first time rented the requisite clothing from the stand outside, the operator of which kindly helping us to wear them correctly.
That evening, another dance performance: the Kecak and Fire Trance. The Kecak takes the meatier part of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, and sets it to a chorus of 50 men, sitting in a circle around the central action. The music is provided from their own voices, and the chanting is similar in many ways to the gamelan music we witnessed the night before. The dance itself is a complicated Hindu tale of an exiled prince and princess who must deal with a number of enemies and evil spirits, with the help of a monkey army. It was absolutely incredible - although after visiting the Monkey Forest we're not actually sure how effective a monkey army would be. At the end of the performance, in order to rid the dancers of the evil spirits that may have been induced through the portrayal of evil in the dance, a special dancer riding a straw horse falls into a trance by listening to the last song and prances through a bonfire of coconut husks - essentially, it's like walking on coal, except that the dancer does it again and again until all the husks have burned out. Strangely, after the performance, Lindsay felt the need to test out whether the coals were indeed hot with her bare foot - and yes, ladies and gentlemen, they are!
Today, we are taking things a little more leisurely, with a visit to a museum and a few more temples, a trip to the market to buy some souvenirs, and then a massage in the evening. Bali is famous for its massages, and a full hour costs just $10.
Bali is a place we certainly plan to return to, but we are both excited to head off to Malaysia tomorrow.
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BOB
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Monkey!!
MONKIES! BOB LOVES MONKIES!