I got to bed around 4.30am. Three hours later I'm up with a bit of a beer haze to meet Mehdi who's going to take me around some of the sites on the island. It is a hectic 12hr day and we cover a couple of hundred Kilometers, covering the northern and eastern portion of Bali. We did not stop between visits to sites. We did stop at a coffee plantation to sample Bali coffee and various others, Ginseng coffee, coco, Ginger tea and lemon grass tea. Each was amazing. The Bali coffee having an almost chocolate like consistency and badly needed by me with a hangover kicking in.
The island is beautiful, a contrast to the glitzy resort at Kuta. Bali is less than half the size of Ireland but it has a population of over 3 and a half million. While Indonesia is an Islamic Republic Bali is predominantly Hindu. The island is dotted with beautiful temples and shrines, some dating back to antiquity. Even in Kuta, once you begin to look between the shops and the bars, you will see many shrines are scattered around town. All are tended three times daily with offerings of drink, food, flowers and incense. Similar offerings are laid on little card trays outside most doorways in an appeal for good fortune from the Gods.
Among the temples we visited were the Elephant cave temple, an old shrine that which fell into ruin. A water temple where Hindu devotees submerged themselves in water in a ritual cleansing of the spirit, The Mother temple complex at Besakih, the most important of the Hindu temples on Bali. People are preparing for an important 10-year festival in the next couple of weeks where Hindus from all over the island will attend in pilgrimage. Various works were being undertaken to ensure the temple is ready for the influx of pilgrims. At Besakih I had to wear a sarong while visiting the complex. The lady who hired one out to me, for a price, managed to find the brightest, pinkest on e available. At least she had a sense of humour. There I was stumbling around awkwardly in the gayest looking sarong she could find. I couldn't walk properly in it either. I kept getting tangled up in it. It was certainly eye-catching judging from the amount of people glanced over and had a wee giggle at me. The kids weren't so diplomatic. They pointed at me and roared in laughter!!
In the evening we visited the the dramatic cliff temple at Ulluwatu on the southern tip of the island and saw a sunset performance Kecak Ramayana and Fire dance. The play, a religious allegory of the struggle between good and evil, took place in a small amphitheatre on a cliff edge facing the setting sun. It was performed in a traditional stylized form of dance with an unforgettable chorus providing the musical backdrop. The actors all had very bright, colourful costumes. It was an amazing performance, unlike anything you'd see at home and with the sunset filling the background, unforgettable.
While the evening performance would be familiar with Hindus generally, we had seen a traditional Barong performance earlier in the morning at Celuk, a town on the far side of Denpasar. This performance, again a Good v Evil play from Hindu traditions, was of a specifically Balinese style. The players were accompanied by traditional Indonesian percussion instruments. While I was a little lost during the morning performance. The fact that I had seen this one meant I was much more clued in for the sunset play which, I think, made the second performance all the more impressive.
By the time I got back to Kuta, in darkness, I was wrecked. I was unsure what to do next, whether to move on towards Java or to hang on using Kuta as a base to see more of Bali. In the meantime I just wanted to sleep.
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