Bali

I have been humming the tune to South Pacific for the last two weeks and here we are in Bali.  We are staying at the marina, but before we got to the marina we saw a fellow in the air on a yellow raft, it was about ten feet long and he was twenty feet in the air holding on to two handles, being pulled by a motor boat,  not sure what was holding his feet, he went by so fast and we were moving along as well, I turned to get my camera and he was back in the water, the new parasailing.  We will be here for about a week; we have to renew our visas, and what better place than Bali.

We have been reading up on Bali and realize it is no longer the sleepy island with a few resorts, terraced rice fields, and sandy beaches.  The small towns are now large congested towns that offer all that third world towns have to offer, much to the chagrin of the Bali people, they liked their strong spiritual roots within their island and were concerned the invasion of tourists and what it would do to their way of life.

We planned a tour to Ubud with three other boats, Mr. John, John & Paula, Sara 2, John & Chris, Dalwhinnie, Franz & Lucia,   Our first stop was the Barong & Kris Dance.  The play represents the eternal struggle between the good spirits and the evil ones.  There are Five Acts. 

The Tiger

The introduction we see the tiger (looks like the shaggy dog with a mask) and his friend the monkey, there are two people doing this and the mouth clicks and clacks and the feet move as well as the body.  He really is very impressive and friendly looking and makes you laugh you just like him...which is good as he is the good spirit.  Three men making palm wine arrive and talk and yell and then they all leave, one of the men was supposed to have lost his nose but I didn’t see that.

First Act

Two dancers appear, representing the servants of the Rangda (Evil Monster)

The dancers are tightly wrapped in beautiful silk sarongs; they move their arms, hands and heads and bend their bodies, using them to tell a story as well.

Second Act The servants come, and one changes into a witch, and enters both servants to make them angry.  They pace and fight for about five minutes.

The Witch

Third Act

A woman and her son come into the picture, she has promised the Rangda to sacrifice her son, a witch enters her and she is taken into the forest and tied to a tree.  I am now just winging it with the photos.

Fourth Act

Unknown by Rangda, God appears and gives the woman’s son Sadewa immortality, Sadewa kills the Rangda. The Rangda goes to heaven.

Fifth Act

One of the servants of Rangda, Kalika comes before Sadewa and asks to redeem herself; he refuses and changes her into a boar.  She is defeated as a boar, a bird and finally Rangda, Sadewa meditates and changes himself to a Barong, the followers of the Barong help him fight the evil spirit, but at the end it is a stalemate.

The killing of the boar.

I forgot to mention they do have a great sense of humour and this part got lots of laughs.  They lopped off his willy and left to fight other enemies.

The boar can be defeated, Kalika then changes herself into a bird and she is defeated again and finally she changes herself into Rangda and the warriors help Barong kill the Rangda, the Rangda is too powerful and once again it is a stalemate.

The Bird

The warriors are trying to help kill Rangda.

Barong appears and helps to fight the Rangda.

The End