Sunday 19th October  It was absolutely no hardship last Sunday to stay confined overnight to the Marina – we joined up with Glendora, Jupiter and Richard Bolt (BWR) for dinner and with the cooling breeze blowing through the open sided restaurant/bar overlooking the sea we were very content…. before collapsing exhausted into our hot humid bunks……

 

Monday morning we sorted out gas bottles (no worries filling up rusty ones here – Australia refused us) and laundry before investigating diesel, water and Bali excursions.  As soon as our clearances were complete we jumped into a mini bus with our guide Wyan who took us to a fabulous temple on the edge of a cliff, the domain of territorial monkeys, just in time for the sunset and a traditional Balinese Kecak theatre set right on the edge of the cliff.

 

 

 

Clara feeding the monkeys….

 

 

 

 

 

Temple overlooking the sea

 

 

Temple in the sunset (photo Glendora)

 

 

Dizzy heights…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crowd in the distance gathering in the amphitheatre

 

We had such a wonderful evening sitting in the small amphitheatre which had absorbed all the heat of the sun’s rays during the day and was now dispelling it into each of us as we sat squashed together with the pungent smell of clean sweat, incense, kerosene for the fire dancers, frangipani and monkey poo all mingling in the night air….sounds dreadful? Well it was pretty good really and certainly added to the ambiance whilst the actors and dancers played out their roles  

 

There was no orchestra but a choir of 70  Balinese men chanted a ‘trance dance’ or sanghyang in unison ‘tikatakatakatakatakataka’ on and on throughout the whole performance. They only broke off occasionally to ‘sing’ a kind of humming crescendo resembling a Welsh male choir! The story, set in the 1930’s, depicted a wise exiled prince, Ayodya Ranta, his wife Sita and younger brother entering a forest where a demon King lusted after Sita and with the help of his accomplice the Prime Minister,  disguised himself as a deer, set a trap and kidnapped her. Ranta eventually rescued his bride, assisted by a huge army of white monkeys…………

 

The production begins

 

 

Lee and Teri in the crowd

 

 

The ‘white monkey’ leader……

 

 

Exquisite Balinese tattoo on a ‘takatakatakatak’ man

 

 

Things hotted up a bit for the ‘white monkey’ at the end….but he managed to escape with his supernatural powers

 

 

......One lady in the whole auditorium was beckoned to join the ‘stage’ and dance……..it was Teri and she did really well……………

 

The finale of our evening came when we joined hundreds of others on the beach, set with more dinner tables than I have ever seen, right by the crashing surf.  A cacophony of noise: a group of musicians (?) serenaded us with a heart rendering performance of Buffalo Soldier, a band played loudly to a boisterous wedding party just a hundred yards away and another stage performance was in full swing a few yards in the other direction……relaxing? No.  One for the memory bank? Definitely! The food was great and included soup, platters of fresh fish, rice, vegetables, fruit and coffee – the whole afternoon and evening….. coach, guide, driver, temple tour, theatre and dinner came to  just 35 US Dollars per person! Amazing!

 

We were so enamoured with Wyan we booked him for the following day (and in fact many more days) and he took us on an island tour from 8.30 in the morning.  We visited silversmiths, jewellery shops, carving co-operatives, caves, ancient burial sites, waterfalls, temples, villages, the highest volcano, a stunningly beautiful lake, rice fields and terraces………and it just went on and on and on……mile after mile of furniture shops, wood stores, clothes, food, mirrors, garden centres, fruit stalls and just about everything and anything else you could imagine but on a grander scale than most of us have ever experienced.  And so many motor cycles – just hundreds and hundreds, the riders knee to knee, four in a row, ducking and diving between the taxis, colourful ‘bemo’ buses and cars……..

 

 

Offerings for the Gods (photo Glendora)

 

 

Village festivals everywhere in full swing…..

the temples fully decorated (photo Glendora)

 

 

Wood carving

 

 

Beautiful children posing for the camera

 

 

….and dressed for the festivities (Photo Glendora)

 

 

(photo Glendora)

 

 

 

Balinese lady with fruit offerings for the Gods

 

The whole culture (shock) is fascinating, absorbing and definitely one of the most unique since leaving Spain.  Wyan explained to us that there is no such thing as a family name in Bali: every first child is named Wyan, meaning ‘oldest’; every second child is named Made, meaning middle; every third child is Yoman, translated is ‘comfortable’ and every fourth is known as Ketut or ‘tail’ (as in end).  Ni denotes a girl and I a boy; for instance Ni Wyan, or I Wyan.  Families are not expected to have more than four children but if there is a fifth it becomes Ketut 2, a sixth will be Ketut 3 and so on.  This all obviously becomes highly confusing so after their ‘given’ name they get a ‘first name’ of choice which is often changed to a nickname to differentiate one child from all the others!  What a to-do. 

 

Nothing is simple here: Margaret Mead described it as ‘the incredible business’ of Bali.  There are for instance three calendars: the standard Gregorian one which we use, the Sakar lunar calendar and the Pawukon 210 day cycle (30 weeks long x 7 days = 210).  Every week is named and every child knows which week he was born into.  The last week of each sequence is called watugunung and every child born in this week is known to have bad genes; and even though they know it all their lives, as of course does everyone else, and might try to become good people it is unfortunately impossible for them to throw off this handicapped start to their life.

 

Every child is born with six bad behaviours: anger, jealousy, egoism, sarcasm, a propensity to drink too much alcohol and to show off.  At puberty their six upper front teeth are filed evenly and this is symbolic that they have matured out of their bad ways…..come to think of it I can think of a few people who could do with a good filing!

 

We have arrived here just on the full moon and all the villages are in a fever of excitement.  All the statues of Gods are decorated and dressed, fruit and every kind of offering is piled up high, hundreds of bamboo plates of food are being prepared for the festivities and everywhere is a hive of activity.  They say ‘busy people are happy people’ and we have never come across such busy, religious, industrious, poor, happy people.

 

 

…..all dressed up for the full moon….. (photo Glendora)

 

We have, between us, been white water rafting, surfing, dined in the most beautiful restaurants surrounded by lily ponds, statues of Gods, rice paddies and trees, visited caves, remote villages and countless massage parlours, clubbed all night, ridden motor bikes, shopped ‘til we dropped in the local markets and sophisticated malls and Oscar has even found a famous Guru and attended a two day ‘reading’.  This is an island of immense extremes but not in the usual sense of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ – here rich or poor every single person we have encountered was happy and smiling and we felt like they had it all!

 

 

Lunch at the Dirty Duck Restaurant

 

 

Surrounded by rice paddies…….

 

 

…….and lily ponds

 

 

Literally thousands of walled gardens, temples and statues…..

 

 

The Glendora’s in the rapids

 

 

Four meter drops…….

 

 

Worth it just for the scenery alone….

 

 

Oscar climbed up into a waterfall

 

 

Saying goodbye to a wonderful experience……

 

Four days ago we spoke to a carpenter, only half in earnest, about the sorry state of our 26 year old teak decks……missing three quarters of their plugs and most of the rubber between the wooden strips.  When he told us he could effect the entire repair within the four day time frame we had before leaving for Kalimantan (tomorrow) it was hard to believe but five minutes after we had shaken hands on the deal we had 12 able carpenters swarming on the boat, erecting a sunscreen and getting prepared.

 

 

12 men working on the deck…….. 

 

True to their word they completed a fantastic job at lunchtime today!  Incredible!  We leave two hours before high tide tomorrow and set off for an anchorage known to have great snorkelling prior to our four day sail up a jungle river and embark on what is described as a ‘challenging’ trek through the vegetation to see the famed orphan orang-utans.  One toothless old salt sitting at the bar today and obviously one of life’s great cynics, told me he had visited this area three years ago and he warned:  ‘when you cuddle the monkeys they shit on you – once they’ve shit on you – they bite you – it’s instinctive - just like every human being I’ve ever met’……… Forewarned is forearmed!!

 

Today has seen a full twelve hours of exhausting preparations and a thorough clean up in very high temperatures to get ready for our departure….. we are too tired to even cook dinner or visit a restaurant.  Tomorrow we begin our malaria pills (we’ve all had our rabies jabs!) and set off for the anchorage Kangean on the way to Kalimantan and our ‘challenging’ jungle experience already booked!