Bali

I have been ashore in Bali for six days and have had a fabulous time exploring this amazing island. It is quite different from what we saw in the South Pacific, largely because of the Hindu religion and culture. Although most of Indonesia is Muslim, Bali is predominantly Hindu. They have accommodated the Indonesian law that all religions must have only one god by naming one god which happens to have many manifestations (equivalent to the many gods of the Hindu religion practiced elsewhere in the world).

One of the most interesting experiences I’ve had here was attending an anniversary celebration at a temple near Ubud. The celebration actually lasts about 10 days and there is a special ceremony at the temple each evening of the celebration. In order to enter the temple during a ceremony you must wear a sarong with a sash around the waist and a shirt with sleeves (3/4 or full length for women) and men must wear a traditional headdress.

During the prayers and blessings by the priests with holy water, which lasted about 40 minutes, everyone sits cross legged on the ground, shoes off. It started at 1830, just as daylight was fading, all the pavilions were lit and the red, yellow, white and black (all sacred colors) adornments were beautiful. Everyone was wearing their finest sarongs, the men all wore white shirts and white headdresses.

When the formal ceremony and prayers were finished, the male gamelan orchestra took their seats in the music pavilion within the temple while a female gamelan orchestra went to play in another pavilion just outside the temple. Meanwhile, a lot of people carrying offerings of fruit and other foods to be blessed lined up to enter a door into another level of the temple. The orchestra played and women danced traditional Balinese dance in the same space where everyone had just been sitting during the prayers.

Shopping in the markets, riding through the countryside, walking in the Monkey Forest, climbing the many levels of the Mother Temple in Besakih, having massage and foot reflexology, seeing weavers, wood carvers and silversmiths at work, and eating delicious Indonesian food has made Balia a truly unique experience. Right now I am too busy doing all these wonderful things to write any more. It’s after mid-night and I have an early start scheduled for tomorrow.

I will write another update or two after I get home. (I fly out of Bali on December 4^th.) And I hope to figure out how to upload photos to this blog once I am home at my own computer.