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Woke up bright and early this morning but took it fairly easily. Free wifi everywhere which is a bonus, and downloading and backing up photos is always a good idea for me.
Grabbed breakfast and headed off about 9am for what I intended to be a very relaxed day, bit of shopping, chilling and watching the local funeral celebrations for a member of the royal family (more on that shortly). A lot of the shops I think though didn't open until a bit later than I expected, so I window shopped, strolled and took lots of photos of streets.
Huge amount of people (and hawkers) around the palace, selling sarongs and bottles of water. Also visited the market and had a browse, although didn't buy anything. Apparently it is the same market where Eat, Prey, Love was filmed, although I haven't seen the movie so I really can't comment on that!
When I needed a break I found a garden cafe and had this drink which was lemon grass, honey, lime and soda water. Like a cross between a juice and a soft drink but delicious. By about 11am I decided I should find a place to sit
where the procession would go past. Found an area pretty much opposite the market. Proved to be a fairly good location.
The ceremony didn't really start until about midday so I spent a lot of time people watching and taking photos which was awesome. Love the new camera.
So in Bali, when someone dies, they usually bury them for a year or two. Then they dig them/their bones up, and burn them as part of a public cremation. This is because most normal people can't afford a private cremation. It may also have something to do with the four elements, cremation being fire, but I am not certain about that.
The person who was being cremated was Tjokorda Ngurah Wim Sukawati. The ceremony is a traditional Balinese cremation ceremony, or pelebon. However, when a member of the royal family dies, they build this thing which in this case consisted of a 22m high bade (cremation tower), a 5m high lembu selem (bull sarcophagus) and a naga banda (dragon).
It is then carried by 100 men from the Royal Palace to the cemetery, where it is then lit up. The body is placed in the top of
the bade. There was a lot of singing and dancing as part of the parade which was heaps of fun to watch.
Equally as interesting was the fact that they didn't close of the road to those watching, so there were tourists almost putting themselves in the middle of the ceremony to get their perfect photo. Thought that that was somewhat rude personally.
So right when they were apparently about to place the body into the bade, the skies opened and torrential rain started. From where I was sitting/standing I was able to step back a little farther and be mostly sheltered thankfully. That is then pretty much where I stayed for the next hour and a half.
The ceremony continued and they made their way down to the cemetery but I didn't follow . Not sure a whole lot of people did, and I am surprise that they managed to light the thing up too given the rain. Anyway, after about an hour or so, the rain had let up slightly and people were starting to disappear.
I started chatting with an English guy (living in Sydney) and an American girl (but living in London) that were staying at the same guesthouse and who were both travelling solo and the three of us ended up heading out to grab some roast pork for lunch when the rain had let up even more.
Think it ended up being about a 2pm lunch by that time! Afterwards, John said he had hoped to go for a walk through some rice fields and there was this walking tour in Lonely Planet. The walk didn't sound too difficult and so I agreed to go along.
I should start here by pointing out that I was planning on shopping and chilling today, so had dressed accordingly. I was wearing a long dress and thongs (flip flops). Kim was also wearing thongs. Managed to get lost in walking through a couple of the smaller villages.
Asked for directions, including from a couple of definite expats who were more than helpful. Ended up finding the trail and started heading down before working out fairly quickly that the trail was going to be significantly more difficult that we had expected. It was almost straight down fields, which were muddy and slippery.
And then a man came to our rescue and helped us down a portion of the track. And then he said he was a guide and could help us for the rest of it, which we agreed to after a bit of discussion. It was essentially going to be $8 each for what we had already ascertained was going to be difficult on our own. I hindsight, it would have been impossible and we wouldn't have gone much farther had he not come along. The path barely looked like a path.
It was probably then that we realized why a 6km trail would take four hours. The rain earlier in the day made it worse too with all of us nearly stacking it a few times. If one of us had broken something I have no idea how they would get you out!
Despite the hard trek, certainly not something I would have chosen to do had I known when we left the restaurant, it was so worthwhile. Views were amazing of the river and the fields and the little local villages and houses. And the guide was really good too and very chatty.
So a couple of hours later, having worked up a good sweat and with darkness approaching, we got to a main road. It was then that I decided I had had enough and didn't want to traipse through the last hour of rice fields in near darkness.
So I jumped into a 'taxi' which dropped me at the hotel back in Ubud. Thankfully too as not only did it get dark quickly but it started raining again top! Best shower ever. Had to also wash the dress I had been wearing since the bottom of it (and me) was filthy.
Had about an hour of chill time (my two tour companions didn't seem to be around) before I wandered off to meet John and Kim for dinner. We headed to the Dirty Duck restaurant which is renowned for its crispy duck.
Lovely restaurant at night but I would imagine it would be even nicer during the day time. We had an elevated table up the back an again got to sit on cushions cross legged on the ground. I had duck spring rolls for a starter as a compromise which was really tasty. And then had crispy chicken for dinner which was also lovely. And Bintang to wash it down.
After we finished dinner (about 10:30pm at this stage) we wandered up past Monkey Forest Sanctuary to an upstairs bar called Napi Orti, described by Lonely Planet as 'get boozy under the hazy glaze of Jim Morrison and Bob Marley' and 'your best bet for a late night drink' where we had a couple of beers. Place was really funky, small, quite busy, real mix of people of all ages and nationalities, although did seem heavy on the expat/tourist side.
Initially we found a table in front of the live band which was noisy but the people on the dance floor were super entertaining. Included a drunk guy, who I think was Aussie, who was too hot to keep his shirt on, but needed a beanie. Anyway an area became free up the back so we had a drink at a low table sitting on cushions on the floor, joined by two other anther drunk German guys that Kim had rounded up at her guesthouse too.
Then it was a stroll home on some very dark roads and (for me anyway) off to bed!
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