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Published: November 22nd 2005
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Bali- Mountain Top
Our guide praying on top of the mountain. PNG News - Three Countries December 20, 2004 Summer Solstice
I want to reassure you all I am fine and wish you a fine summer/winter solstice and a happy 2005. I am at no risk. A month in Brisbane allowed me some perspective into the tight hot world of my Madang existence. On arrival back, brother Andrew told me the news- brother Hugo, the Swiss religious farmer come DWU driver, killed a local who was passed out on a one-way bridge near the RD Tuna plant. This is just about the worst thing that could happen to this gentle, conscientious driver. This fellow takes his time, he is willing to spend weeks burning stumps of dead trees just to clear the grounds. The silver lining in this dark cloud is that the university has stepped up its security a notch, as payback for the victims is expected.
Still not trusting security and the Christmas rainy season that seems to have Papua New Guineans acting more aggressive, I am taking a plane to Vanimo tomorrow and then crossing the border to Jayapura, Irian Jaya. (sometimes called West Papua). Ultimately I hope to catch a cheap Indonesian domestic flight
to Bali. There I will breath another sigh of relief at the same time I expect to be entertained by the full moon dance in Ubud and a yoga retreat in northern Bali.
Brisbane and Stradbroke Island were not without their charms. Superficially thriving in a 'no worries' environment these people give no indication that they know they are involved in a war. Instead of my PNG house arrest, I had the freedom to walk whenever and wherever.
I am reminded of a sentence I read recently,
"Our lives are necessarily wasted & there is only ethics in deciding just how to do that."
Muecke, Stephen 2004 Ancient and Modern Time, Culture and Indigenous Philosophy, Sydney, U. of NSW Press
I'll leave you with that sentence. Next PNG News in 2005.
Bali New Year January 2, 2005
Some places are able to recast us in their own image and Bali's feminine influence is to open and calm. The cost of a home stay room in Ubud is about CAN $4 per day and this extends the invitation to experience as much as you can. Exploration such as hiking Gungung (Mountain) Batur at dawn investigating its vast crater rim and solidified lava flows, photographing volcano cones and warming up in the smoking volcano
air. This includes a 2 am pick up to travel to the central mountains and an extraordinary banana chocolate pancake breakfast (colonialization and cultural and tourist destruction have at least two flavours to them). By 11 am I was back in bed dreaming of the grey faced monkey family.
As a single woman I have the freedom (instead of love) to do almost anything within this textured incense-burning environment. Bali is like a tourist ghost town, with all the possibilities and orderly infrastructure and none of the competition with other visitors. The tourist advisories from Australia and UK as well as the exchange rate are hurting this island's economy.
Ever since the Bali bombing two years ago there has been talk about 'ajeg Bali'- which means something like Bali stand tall, firm and proud. The spiritual orientation permeates in continuing celebrations, daily offerings and copious temples. (it is disconcerting to see the original sign that Hitler used as swastikas on temple gateways). The mayor of Denpasar thought that a sense of ‘ajeg Bali’ was needed to recover - returning to earlier times, before Bali was modern, he instituted a praying contest for young people.
Art is out of
control here. The Balinese attentions to aesthetic details and spiritual offerings have merged in products to sell to tourists. The surplus of paintings exceeds the current population including the Japanese visitors. And textiles including batiks fill the remaining colour space. You can hear legions of wood carvers hammer as you bicycle through the villages and there are the products of the silversmiths and stone carvers. With such a rich diet it is no wonder the Balinese resort to a different plane with offerings to the gods, dressing their statues in black and white checked cloth to hold the demons away.
Walking amidst the art, music and food is a challenge after my limited stimuli in PNG. I must watch my step as the sidewalks dip and dive and jump and have gapping holes exposing a sophisticated network of water flowing beneath the ground. Any direction I explore results in stepped rice fields with workers travelling on motorbikes.
I concluded 2004 in Ubud and travel to Seririt tomorrow to greet 2005. In 2004 - I did not always follow the plot, rather it unfolded. There was little celebration New Year's Eve in Ubud- the earthquake/ tsunami in Acheh and the
economy contributed to a wary beginning. I completed 56 of the 107 sun salutations as a new year's day greeting. Oh well next year will be better.
I'll be back in PNG in mid January.
Bali/PNG News January 14, 2005
I wasn’t going to write anymore of nurturing Bali, however these are quaking times and it might lend you a handhold in the way it helped me out. I spent the best day ever. It was day three of a yoga retreat in northern Bali. In perfect temperature, it is situated in the hills, looking over the Bali Sea and over to the town of Seririt and the mountains. The resort/spa is dedicated to pleasing the five senses. It serves a dozen people however I am the only guest. It is spiritual deluxe- the water overflowing the sides in the swimming pool in order to mimic the surrounding rice fields.
Day three started with piped in music awakening me for my 6 am sunrise and salutations. Breakfast (the food is four stars- attempting to encourage me into a Buddha form), was followed by my yoga teacher Iyan taking me on his motorcycle
to the local holy hot springs “Air Panas”. The 38 degree sulphur water heals, especially when it hits you from 10 meters above. We walked through the jungle to the only Buddhist temple in Bali and meditated.
Following lunch was a three-hour Ayurveda massage- litres of hot oil dripped on my chakras (read body parts) manipulating, massaging and restoring my body to harmony. This was completed with a wash with flowers. I felt the goddess. Sliding back to my room, oil dripping, I prepared for another yoga session followed by another three course candlelit meal under the stars. Like a moth flying to the light, I am seriously attracted to this hedonism- the pain of the poses, the pleasure of relaxing, and the ultimate result of the strengthening of my body.
Day four, after early morning yoga I attended a cremation ceremony.
I walked with the procession to the beach to throw ashes in the ocean and then to the temple to bury the remains. The community was celebratory and welcoming. The worship with water, rice, flower, incense, a chicken pecking each persons head, and the duck eating rice out of each person’s hands.
If you
want to know more about this luxury package - just go to the website www.zenbali.com- that’s how I found out about it.
Before moving on to a small weaving village in the mountains, I spent an hour picking grapes with some women. The laughter of the women grape pickers was so extraordinary when one of them wanted my sandals I gave them to her.
After Sidemon the small weaving town, I arrived at my final destination Sandur a beach place near the airport before leaving the island to Jayapura, then the border, then Vanimo and then another plane to Madang.
Now I am back to PNG. ..back to the slow sluggish expensive PNG…but also back to diving. Almost the complete antithesis of Bali…I do like my extremes.
Things are what they are here.
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