Around the World - Part 5 - Bali, Indonesia

Bali has an interesting landscape. Underlying everything is green: grass; trees; moss. This green is punctuated with bright, colorful, tropical flowers. Most buildings give the impression of being gray because many are either stone or unplastered concrete blocks; some are a red-orange brick combined with stone. Roofs are red tile; bamboo; palm thatch; sheet iron. Since it rains so much. almost everything has a weathered appearance. Houses are more vertical than horizontal; many are three stories. Some have walls all around the "lot." Various peaked and curved roof lines poke above walls as temples and shrines are everywhere. In some places, blocks of shops, each a garage door wide, line the roadway. Some houses have shops in front and living quarters in back. Entrances to quite a few temples were decorated with fabric, flowers and paper to designate a wedding, a cremation, or a tooth-filing ceremony. These decorations were huge banisters in a scroll shape which provided a welcoming entry; some also had banners and/or pennants. 

The Jimburan Puri Hotel was right on the beach.

 

 We reached Uluwatu Temple and headed for the admission area. We walked a paved pathway along a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. There were lots of ups and downs with steps galore. Our goal was Uluwatu Temple itself perched on the promontory overlooking the sea. Along the way were monkeys which snatch jewelry, hair ornaments and eye glasses. We never saw a theft happen but did see people trying to retrieve eye glasses and saw another monkey holding a pair. Of course, some people feed the monkeys and that encourages their pranks.

 

 We could only make photos of the temple gate over the wall as it is only open for worship.

 Then we went to an amphitheater to watch a Kecak Dance based on the Ramayana. A performer lit a candelabra stand like fixture in the center of the stage area and another gave an introduction. No music is used; only chanting. About 50 men entered chanting "cak-cak-cak..."and formed circles and performed choreographed hand, foot and body movements. As they formed concentric circles around the flickering fixture, a female dancer in typical Hindu costume appeared. A few other dancers joined the performer while the chorus continued its "music."

 

We enjoyed seeing the various rooflines as we rode along; because the top of the head is sacred to Balinese, many buildings have a crown or some other structure on the peak. 

We stopped at "Kartika Chandra Batik Centre" where we saw a demonstration of creating batik designs.

A typical Balinese house which is sort of like porches arranged around a courtyard. This one serves as a storefront for their spice and coffee plantation in the western mountains and we enjoyed seeing examples of plants: arabica coffee; balinese coffee; java coffee; ginger; ginseng; lemongrass; cocoa. Seeing the luwak and learning how luwak coffee is made fascinated. The luwak, an Asian Palm Civit cat, eats the coffee beans for their fleshy pulp and excretes the kernel of the bean which is collected, washed, roasted and ground into coffee. Supposedly, the luwak only selects the best beans and that makes for better coffee.

We drove farther and higher and stopped in Ubud itself at a painting workshop---huge paintings on canvas in all styles.

The Maya Ubud Hotel and Resort is located in the interior of the island. 

A cool breeze blew across the balcony and we sat outside watching a hotel employee climb a three-story-tall-bamboo-ladder to trim a palm tree. Once atop the ladder, he climbed on up into the tree itself to continue the job. Quite entertaining.

Goa Lawah is a Hindu temple built in front of a cave of bats. We had to put on sarongs and sashes to enter the temple itself. A service performed after a cremation was beginning. We went to an area to the side where we could peer into the upper portion of the cave and see some bats; there was also a huge python in a crevasse in the ceiling. The python eats bats when its hungry and never has to leave the cave.

The second stop was at Tenganan Village, famous as an ikat (geringsing) weaving center. Although we had specified this stop, it was a big mistake as this is a tourist trap. Nobody was weaving as all were "resting for a while." The history of the village itself mandates that only members of the founder's family can live inside it; inbreeding is mandatory. Everyone was just idling around waiting to take tourists' money. We found the fighting cocks, which were dyed in colors like pink; yellow; green, interesting

Then we turned up into the mountain and began driving roads which twisted, turned and wound their way up and down the mountains. Some areas could be called switchbacks; others hairpin turns; some could only be classified as U-turns. Every road was paved with asphalt and there were very few potholes. In some places, irrigation canals were under construction along the roadway's edge; they had stone sides, concrete bottoms and a concrete lip and appeared to be about 3 feet deep and 12 to 18 inches wide. The area was lush and green. We saw many rice fields on terraced mountainsides. The day showed rice in all stages of production: plowed muddy field; flooded field; growing plants; ripe grain; harvesting; drying. Each village had at least one temple, but individual houses had at least one shrine situated on the side closest to the volcano. Huge trees, many wrapped in black and white checked fabric, are venerated. Also, many statues of Hindu gods were wrapped in fabric and most had offerings in front of them.

At Panglipuran Village  we used umbrellas and waded water to see a Balinese house and the village temple. All structures were constructed of stone. 

Other than rice farming, the main industry in the area was taking raw lava rock and cutting it into uniform blocks with a hand-held circular saw. Many buildings are constructed of this stone and the "dust" is swept up and used, too. We noticed that all the people were working at some job and nothing seemed to be gender-specific.

At Batubulan Village they performed a Barong and Kris Dance performance. The costumes were beautiful and the story is a Balinese-Hindu one of the battle between good and evil.

We left when it was over at 10:30 and drove to Legong Batik where we saw a lady using an ikat loom to weave fabric; the multi-colored thread for the loom seems to be dyed like Brazilian embroidery thread

Knowing that we prefer to see the countryside, they took us over country roads and through villages as we made our way from place to place. At one place we saw a river channel about 4 or 5 stories deep; women were placing 3 or more pieces of sandstone about 2 feet square and 6 or 8 inches thick atop their heads and walking from the riverbed up to the roadway. 

At one spot, we could see Bali's two major volcanoes, Agung and Batu, and stopped to make photos. They last erupted in 1963 and it was a simultaneous eruption. 

At one rice field, people were winnowing rice; one using a basket and the other simply dropping the grain by hand. We walked down a paved walkway among fields to see the irrigation system at work. Not too far away hundreds of white herons were feasting on some insect or animal in that flooded paddy.

Sukawati  is a village of woodcarvers. We saw the process and learned the different kinds of wood used. We had no idea that yellow hibiscus grew into a tree with wood that had greenish streaks nor had we ever seen a crocodile tree, so called because of its bark

We drove into an area devoted to producing vegetables and fruits. Mandarin Oranges were ripe and filled baskets at the fields' edges. Roadside stalls had pyramids of fruits and vegetables arrayed on counters. Huge poinsettia trees bloomed red in the landscape.

The closer we got to the restaurant for lunch, the more it rained and the foggier it became. When we arrived at Kintamani Restaurant, the fog wrapped the building like a blanket. While we were enjoying our buffet lunch, it began to lift and we enjoyed a panoramic view of mountains, lake and valley. After lunch, we made photos of Mt. Batu, the volcano which was on the opposite side of the restaurant. It, too, had a lake at it's base. An area of black lava, remnant of the 1963 eruption, covered a portion of the base at one side; this serves as a quarry for the lava stone used in construction. On the way back toward Ubud, we stopped and made some more photos of volcanoes, fruit and rice fields.

At Tirta Empul, a holy water temple, a spring bubbles up into a pool with the water channeled into fountains at another pool; bathers use this pool to purify themselves. The temple itself was an interesting one and a service as just beginning. On a hilltop overlooking the temple, sits the home of Sukarno, Indonesia's first president.

After touring in Bali, we flew to the island of Java.