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Published: April 6th 2010
Bali Day 4 001
Fossilized woodAs promised, Mr. Oka came to pick me up right after breakfast for my custom-made tour of Western Bali. As we left the hotel, he mumbled something like “I show you something something wood”. Uh? You want to show me a piece of wood? Ummm … okay sure. Had I not already met Mr. Oka, I would have been scared of being kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder but I having already spent a good part of a day with him so I knew that I was in good hands. What he was trying to tell me in his broken English was that he was going to show me his brother-in-law’s workshop where he works with fossilized wood. What a sight to see! Enormous tree trunks and pieces of wood carved and sanded down to make beautiful statues and furniture. My drift wood loon that I sanded and varnished when I was in grade 8 (that my parents still display in their living room I might add) looked quite sad and pathetic beside these amazing carvings.
In having spoken to Mr. Oka a couple of days ago, he had pretty much listed all of the areas that I wanted
Bali Day 4 002
Carvings made from the fossilized wood to see of Western Bali so I pretty much let him lead the way although he did make it clear that “if you see something, you want to take picture … you tell Mr. Oka” Our first stop would be Pura Taman Ayun; a state run temple that was built in 1634. As you approach it, you walk along a path that crosses a moat to then enter a perfectly manicured courtyard with flowers and fountains. You then make your way towards the inner courtyard which is filled with bales and merus (multi-roofed shrines). As with the other temples, you cannot enter the temple area itself (only worshippers) but there is a pathway that runs along the outside of it and allows for visitors to look in. The temple is inhabited by a few cats which only further confirms that my big baby girl Charlotte is one fat cat! The atmosphere of the temple is amplified by the almost deafening sound of crickets. Not that you really need them to tell you that it is hot and humid!
From there, we took a quick drive to the Bali Coffee and Spices Company. I didn’t have the heart to tell
Bali Day 4 004
Cats at the Pura Taman Ayun Mr. Oka that I had gone yesterday during my bicycle tour so I let him show me the coffee plants. He then introduced me to the lady that roasted the coffee. She was 80 years old! We then sat at this long table where they brought out four cups for us to try … coffee, cocoa, ginseng tea and ginger tea. As we are sipping our drinks, Mr. Oka says “coffee make you energy, ginseng make you strong and ginger give you good health!” And of course, there were a couple of possums there … ummmm … producing coffee! So after buying a couple of bags of coffee beans and fully pumped up full of caffeine, we hopped back into the car.
We then wound our way up the mountains and along the way Mr. Oka pretty much answered all of my millions of questions. Because of his broken English, you pretty much get the most pared down simplistic version of the explanation but you can still pretty much get the point. So why are the statues wrapped in black and white checkered cloths Mr. Oka? “Black is evil and white is good” Why do they all have parasols?
Bali Day 4 005
Merus at the Pura Taman Ayun “Like you use umbrella … to protect”. Who is Arjuna (the room at my hotel in Ubud is called that)? “It’s a God … very strong … you be very safe” What is that colorful thing that those four men are holding? “Dead body” Okay … I had read that you could literally just be walking down the street and that you could have a ceremony literally break out in front of you … well there you go! The other one that entertained me had to do with Nyepi which was just celebrated on March 16. The only reason that I know of Nyepi is that it was part of the travel advisories. It is a day of silence where you are not allowed to go outside, use electricity, etc. There are no airplanes that land or leave the island hence the travel advisories! So when I asked Mr. Oka of the reason behind Nyepi he said “so that demons think everybody leave island … not very smart so they leave too”.
We then made a quick stop at a small town so that I could see rice fields and terraces. At one point, the Lonely Planet guide said
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Bali Coffee and Spices Company something to the effect that you would be at a loss for word to describe the colour green. I honestly think that I have seen every possible shade today! Just stunning and truly there are no words.
The next stop would be Pura Ulun Danu Bratan which is a Hindu and Buddhist temple. It is quite high in the mountains where the weather changes quite dramatically and becomes cloudy and misty. From this temple, you can see three volcanoes, Gunung Lesong, Gunung Pohon and Gunung Batukau. This was particularly interesting because you had a couple of structures that resembled temples that I had seen in Ayutthaya or Cambodia and then you also had the multi-roofed merus. The merus were out on Danau (Lake) Bratan. The temple is actually dedicated to the goddess of the sea hence the water surroundings. You could rent paddle boats or canoes if you wanted to see the temples from the water. In the background, you could also hear monks chanting on a loud speaker which reminded me so much of visiting temples in Thailand. The atmosphere was grey and misty which made it really hard to take any good photos.
We left that
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Drying chilies temple and the skies opened up. Mr. Oka assured me that it was only because we were high in the mountains …”right now people at beach … sunny sunny sunny”. This torrential downpour also led to tons of motorbikes being stopped off on the side of the road while the drivers were whipping out their rain gear! They come prepared!
The final stop of the day would be Pura Tanah Lot but first a pit stop. The pit stop was prompted by my question "Mr. Oka ... where do you live and do you have family temple?" Well the reply to that was "I live close to Tanah Lot ... I show you family temple". Really? Yes really ... Mr. Oka took me to meet some of the members of his family as well as visit his family compound. Again the thought of kidnapping briefly crossed my mind but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm a little too old to be sold off anywhere! The family temple usually is reserved only for family members so it truly was a great honour to be let in. In now having been around Bali a few days, I had seen many
of what I thought were family temples so it was great to actually get the explanation of what each of the shrines represented. The first is to house the souls of the people in the family that have passed. They cremate the dead and spread the ashes to sea and their souls return home. It is kind of telling of the importance that they put on body vs. soul seeing that they believe that the demons live in the sea. That's why you will never have a home that faces the ocean ... you have to turn your back to the demons! The next shrine was in honour of the Trinity that is Shiva, Bhrama and Vishnu. The other 8 shrines represented temples on the island of Bali. If you cannot actually go to the temples themselves you can still pray to them at these small shrines. Mr. Oka then took me through the rest of the family compound which has been in his family for hundreds of years.
So then it was onwards to Pura Tanah Lot which is probably the most visited temple in Bali for the all important sunset photo op but for the Balinese people
it is a very important and venerated temple. It is part of the series of the nine sea temples. I tried to see if you could actually see Pura Luhur Ulu Watu from here but could not really make it out. The sea temples are meant to be in sight of one another after all. Just to break the magic, the part of the large rock that the temple sits on is actually artificial. Although pretty much a tourist trap (the hundreds of souvenir stalls confirm that!), it is truly worth seeing. Again the waves of the Indian Ocean against these cliffs and rocks makes this incredible rumbling sound. But I did fall into the tourist trap and decided to have a late lunch/early supper at a warung which overlooks this temple. Pork satay and beer with a view!
By then it was nearly 4 pm and therefore time to go back to the hotel to wrap up the day. The last order of business before I left Legian Beach (which I only found out today I have been pronouncing wrong all this time!) was to get some sunset shots. Thank you cute Australian boy for giving me the
one photo I was very much hoping to get on this trip!! So now it's time to wrap up the day packing my suitcase while sipping a Bintang beer and eating shrimp chips (ironically the same brand that I buy from my Chinese market in Ottawa!). Tomorrow it's onwards to Ubud!
Selamat Jalan and Terima Kasih Mr. Oka ... goodbye and thank you Mr. Oka!!
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