Wipeout 2

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OK, so up to press I had been surfing an awful lot, combined with eating and drinking copious amounts as well and not really getting too much into the whole traveling vibe which is what I was also here to do. This however was put to rights when I started pushing my (very mediocre) surfing ability by taking increasingly bigger waves at increasingly later take-offs, the result... one bruised ego, one battered body, and one snapped board... Oooops, time to move on !
So I’ve had the last 2 weeks traveling around Bali seeing a lot of sights and learning a lot about Balinese culture. The main thing that struck me most was what a cool religion Hinduism is (not being the religious type and am pretty open to learning about all types). As Bali is 95% Hindu there are a huge amount of temples around the island and you don’t have to travel far before running into one kind of a ceremony or another. But what has really impressed me is the fact that they respect all other religions equally as they say all religions are basically good and they actively show this by allocating areas in the outer grounds of their most major temples to other faiths. So I turn up to see one of their famous temples and surrounding it are; a Catholic church, a Mosque, a Christian church, and a Buddhist temple... and everyone gets along just fine – maybe the rest of the world should take note !
As well as the many temples I have also caught a couple of the Balinese dances, they are a sort of story, come dance, come panto, and are very entertaining. The two I have seen are the Kecek, I think part of this is shown in the UK on an advert on TV (I think it is for a credit card) with the guys sat on the floor all chanting together… reminded me of the pontoon stand at GTFC. The other one was the Barong and Rangda which tells of the eternal struggle between good and evil, something which I definitely know about ! This also explains why my current residency is Ubud in central Bali for some chilled medative practice.

Until next time, Have A Great Christmas !

Phil.

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Photos

Fire Dance
The Kecek fire dance, and not an sdvert for mastercard in sight.... chuka, chuka, chuka.

Somethings dont change
If your name isn't on the list for the sacred temple you aint getting in !