"And the special is chicken satay."

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My apologies for the dreadfully long gap between entries. Apart from the Taiwan earthquake which knocked out communication across Asia, and the constant hourly outings to unknown destinations on frightening roads, its honestly just been too freakin' hot to work on a blog. And to wrap everything up: we're not in Thailand anymore.


Bali, one of over thirteen thousand islands in Indonesia is famous for its scenic beauty, breathtaking culture, and friendly people. The international fame of their culture has brought a heightened sense of identity among the Balinese. They've retained a unique lifestyle guided by their social, religious, and cultural traditions. The tourism it experiences has also resulted in an extraordinary economic growth and improvements in transportation and communication.

Towering volcanos, the majority of them dormant, contain large lakes which provide water for irrigating thousands of terraced ricefields, enabling 3 harvests a year. Rice, to the Balinese, is more than just the staple food; it's an integral part of the culture. The rituals of the cycle of planting, maintaining, irrigating, and harvesting rice enrich the cultural life of Bali beyond a single staple can ever dream of doing. The water level in each section of terrace is perfect; little streams of water effortlessly flow through holes dug into the sides from the highest section up on top of the hill to the very bottom section.

Day One and Two and Three-Lazing around Kuta

Being in Bali is culture shock all over again, in Thailand, I am at least able to speak some of the native tongue and understand reasonable prices for clothing and such, while here everything is ... foreign? Go figure. And being located just below the equator bloody hot doesn't even go far enough. Everything is lush and green. No, I said green. Green. You really have no concept of what that word means until you've been here. It makes me want to scream out "hey?! Ever heard of winter?!"

Sodahead's brother--who has been living here a decade or so--picked us up from the airport and drove us to a hotel just up from the beach of Kuta. Compared to the rest of the Balinese scenery, Kuta doesn't seem to fit the equation, like a talon dropped into a five star meal. It's loud, packed to the brim with motercycles, (which are even harder to avoid due to the miniscule alleys) and packed to the brim with bars and Western food. Sodahead's plan was to rent a jeep almost immediately to get into the countryside, and after seeing the rest of Bali I'm quite glad he did.

Day Four-Gianyar and area

The three of us drove through the town of Gianyar, a place previously home to Bali's oldest kingdoms. Getting there took a few hours because of the many "hand signals" we received when Sodahead became confused about where we were going. A man would offer a second set of conflicting hand gestures insisting, contrary to prior instruction, we were most definitely going in the wrong direction, personally I'm beginning to believe it's a game they play with the stupid tourists.

Gianyar itself produces a colorful woven cloth. The town of Betubulan sells stone carvings and has a daily Barong-Rangda trance dance, jewelry in Celuk, and Batuan produces paintings and masks. Mas, Kemenuh, Tengkulak, and Pujung are woodcarving villages and the tourist resort area is famous for paintings and galleries. If you walk along any of the alleys in Mas you can venture inside the compounds to observe the carvers at work. For roughly four hours we wandered around a town--who's name I don't remember seeing--entering different buildings and observing and taking pictures of workers carving huge pieces of limestone. I was greatly suprised when I realized that children no older than myself were the ones working on the pieces! We also drove into the town of Ubud, a greatly subdued version of Kuta. Packed to the brim with boutiques and traditional everything, though minus the havoc. We "set up camp" here for a week, it was a lot cooler than in the city and there was no end to the number of photo opportunities we experienced.

Day Five-Mount Batur

As the road rises steadily from Bangli or Tampaksiring, nothing in the surrounding lush landscape of bushes and garden plots suggest the presence of a volcano. But over one more small ridge an extravagant view awaits the eyes, encompassing the crater and beyond. From Penelokan, the main road runs right round the rim towards Kintamani. Lake Batur is Bali's largest lake--and the major source of irrigation water for most of South and East Bali--and cribbed with the calderas of an active volcano named Gunung Batur. It's a beautiful sight, although the majority of the volcano is gone due to it's last significant explosion. The last observed "eruption" was in 1994, although it spewed merely smoke and ashes, not lava.

Day Six-Besakih Temple

On this day we traveled to Pura Besakih, widely referred to as the "Mother Temple" of Hinduism in Bali. Pura Besakih, or Besakih Temple in English--situated high on the slopes of Mount Agung-- is the largest of the island's 11,000 temples; its 35 shrines and halls draw devotees from all over Bali in massive numbers each year. It was originally built in the 8th century and has been resconstructed since. In 1963 Mount Agung, the volcano, erupted and destroyed several nearby villages. Besakih went surprisingly untouched. Our guide voiced his opinion on this matter by sheepishly saying, "I think because we have the temple, the gods decide not to harm us."

The drive there made me wonder why I ever feared the roads of Chiang Mai, so it goes without saying that the jeep was admist with squeals of horror and the ever popular "eeeeek." I, as usual, was anchored to the front seat experiencing the head on terror, while Muti cowered in the back gasping loudly whenever she found a reason to. It took roughly four hours to get there, and we spent another hour and a half minimum taking pictures of the famed pura. The walk to initially get to the temple, and also to walk up to the top of it, was physically demanding and upon reaching the highest point my heart was pounding. The view as usual was without-a-doubt worth it so that combined with the overcast weather seemed to take most of the strain out of it.

Like many Balinese temples, Besakih is not a closed building but a mostly open-air affair. It is made up of courtyards with altars and shrines devoted to a number of gods. And those gods have much better things to attend to than just laze around a temple; the Balinese believe that the gods visit a temple on particular dates--and on those dates the Balinese hold festivals to honor the gods. Just like the gods the demons require offerings to appease them. These offerings are often just a banana leaf with a handful of rice or a tiny basket with flowers and you can find them everywhere, not just in temples but also placed on the sidewalk in front of shops After praying "holy rice" is applied to the middle of the forehead and on the temples and "holy water" is applied in droplets onto the head and body to cleanse the person.

The Balinese religion Agama Hindu Dharma, blends animism (belief in demons), Buddhism, and Hinduism. The belief in nature spirits are the basis for including other faiths, but the key is keeping balance in the cosmos and within oneself. The main beliefs are the individual soul, the effects of actions on future rebirths, and eventual release from rebirth and union with the divine. Offerings to the deities, demons, humans, ancestors, and priests are seen as gifts or thanks. Ceremonies can be done almost anytime and anywhere, but auspicious days and temples are best. According to the Balinese calendar there are auspicious days for nearly every activity--planting rice, cutting grass, cutting hair, putting animals in cages, and even when to put a hole in the nose of a cow!

David, our guide for the temple, further explained the Balinese belief of spirtuality "God decides when you are born and when you die, but you choose whether to be good or bad." He illustrated that the Balinese have a dualistic view of the world, where sky and earth, day and night, and gods and demons are opposites, but equally important opposites. The black-and-white checkered cloth that is often used as decoration in temples refers to this. "Black and white symbolize balance." He spoke of how the Balinese do not discriminate against other faiths or the lifestyles of people, "all people have same life, just different situations of life." "People only see the negative in others, for example, put a black circle on a white piece of paper. People will only notice the black not the white, they refuse to acknowledge the good. That is how humans are." He also spoke of his dream to visit other countries but said he knew it was impossible, joking "maybe in next life."

Day Seven-Tanah Lot Temple

We took a rainy drive to the beautiful Tanah Lot temple, a pura on a rocky protrusion that becomes an island during high tide. The name Tanah Lot is probably from " tanah laut " means land in the sea. In fact, the strong sea abrasion has separated the temple area with Bali mainland, so it looks that the temple nests on a small speck of rock building up on the ocean. Despite the fact that strong hit of sea wave but the site is still standing while the whole side have disappeared by the raged waves of hundreds of years. The temple as a whole is dedicated to the god of the sea. Fishermen pray to get fish and prosperity Amazingly, there are no historical records found so far to construct the history of the temple!

Unfortunately we arrived at high tide and were unable to get up close with this incredible piece of architecture. Although, a peculiar sign in the cliffs labeled "Holy Snake" caught my attention. Yet, as I peered inside the cave from which is hung (from a distance) there was no reptile to be found, and I brushed it off as a joke for tourists. But days later we were told by a waiter at a cafe that indeed a snake resides in it, and if you manage to touch it, anything you wish will come true!

Day Eight-Return to Besakih Temple

On an unusually hot and sunny day, Sodahead insisted we go back to the temple saying the pictures he got were "crap" because of the overcast weather. This made the walk a lot more exhausting and I repeatedly stepped on the back of his sandals to illustrate my distress. Once again, it was worth it and we got more beautiful pictures.

So to wrap it up. It's really green. It's really hot. It's really beautiful. And here I am still desperately searching for anything that remotely resembles autumn.

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Photos

Besakih Temple
On the left hand side, the statues are "good" because they are smiling. On the right side the statues are demons because they have wild eyes and pointed teeth. Oddly, the guides took us up this way ...