Sailing around the World
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Thu 9 Sep 2010 00:08
WEDNESDAY 8th
SEPTEMBER 2010
06.00hrs All 3 of us hopped out of the
scratchers, had a clean up, read the emails and did the blog.
The weather was dull and overcast, but that did not
matter too much, we were off on a tour this morning at 08.30hrs
which was organised by W. ARC
This was going to be a long day, with lots of stops
etc.
Firstly, The place was beautifull once we got out
of town,, beautifull landscapes and mountains in between all the housing,, Now
the housing here
is interesting,Families tend to live in the "
extended Family " situation, ie the grand parents, the parents , the
children, all uncles and their wifes
live in a sort of Family enclosure, each family
with their own little house. including all their shrines to the gods, ( 90%
of people here are Hindu ) and live happily with
their neighbours, the christians and Muslims....
We set off at the designated time and stopped at
the following places :-
*Celuk, this was a gold and silver workshop, and
their goods were supberbly crafted. and by our standards, great value. The
sailing
ships, the horse drawn carriges, the globes, the
jewelry , all so delicately worked..... awsome stuff
* Mas, This was another workshop, but
this time all the goods were made of timber, Again, it was great to see
the craftsmen working
the timber, most of it being hardwood. They made
everything from Chairs to Elephants , tables to crocadiles, birds of prey
etc etc.
A collectors paradise.
* Dedaulu , this had lots of artwork , again
beautifully done.
*Kintamani, This was the first of 2
Temples, and was only discovered around the 1930's Its main feature, apart
from all the stone carvings on the cliff faces, was the " Elephant Cave " which
had many, many chambers carved out inside.
The amount of devotion to their gods is impressive.
Every day they make simple fruit and veg offerings,
and then every so often , they have big ceremonies, and these include. Cock
fighting,
gambling, playing games of all sorts, praying and
lots more,,
The Elephant seems to play a big part in their
lives, They see him as a protector of their property, and their
families,
so there are Elephants everywhere.
* Seribatu
*Kintanani,, This area had a hill
top restaurant , which looked out over the Valcano,( last erupted not so long
ago. ) and also looked across at
the Islands biggest lake. We were lucky , the
weather was goog, so no clouds blocking the view.
It was noticably cooler up, which was a
delight.
Lunch was a Buffet, and we all stuffed our faces
with far too much food,, We were like the fat bunch leaving the restaurent,
having
paid the modest $ 7.oo a head .. the food was
excellent, and so was the value.
* Tampak Siring, This was another Temple, and
way better than the first one,, The workmanship and tatched
roofs on the shrines was
magnificant.
and thats along with all the guilding,, and bright
colours.................. Real
oriental and a great sight to behold..
They also had lots of birds, cocks, and animals
scattered around the place in stone cages, along with a dozen ponds
crammed with gold fish.
Here , they also had area's for washing the clothes
and taking a skinny dip. if required..
A real live working shrine... It was just
great,, We were impressed all Day..
* Paddi Fields, Again here we saw how
creative these people were in carving Paddi Fields out of the valley's, just
beautifull scenery for us..
* UBAD, this was a modern oriental looking
town with lots of wonderfull restaurants on offer.
We sort of ran out of time, and really did not get
to see the Monkey Village, all for another day....
We returned to the marina at 19.30hrs and
wrote out some of the cards we had collected on the way.
Neil went off with the younger set, namely
Sean, Sofie, Oisin, The Bubbily Bev, and Mo. They were going to hit the
town.
21.30 Our new guests arrived,,
Thats Terry O'Sullivan and Niall Vaughan from
Cork. Terry is our daughter Sarah's father in law, and great gas on a
boat.
Of course we had to have a few night caps before
hitting the scratchers.
A good day for all. and its great that our new
guests have arrived safe and sound.
Thats all for now,
Signed : - Stephen
Hyde ( Skipper )
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