Day 38 and 39: Bali...

Day 39:Well today was quite busy as Made, my tour guide, came to pick me up at 8:45 and we had a full day planned out. We started the day going to another traditonal Balinese dance called 'Barong'. Barong depicts the 'Mahabharta' (from Hindu mythology). The Barong is a mythical character with a long swayed back and curved tail, represents good. The Barong dance represents the external fight between good and evil. The girls dancing style and outfits
in the show reminded me of the Indian, Thai, and Cambodian dance style and outfits. They were very colorful. We then headed for lunch.

For lunch, I went to a place in Ubud, called 'Bu Oka', which is famous for one of Balinese traditional dish of 'suckling pig'. In the true spirit of the 'suckling pig' , I ate like a pig (I had my first plate and it was so delicious and knew that I would probably never be back, I happily asked for another helping), or rather shall I say I ate the 'pig'. I was relived to know that I hadn't done too much damage on the waistline as my skirt I was wearing still fit after lunch. The dish was delicious, it had different parts of the pig and the Balinese spices in the dish were tastey. I met a local person from Ubud, who told me this was the best place to go for suckling pig. Basically they cook the pig like the Hawaiians. I then headed to do some shopping in the local market in Ubud. Ubud is known for it's wood carving, arts and crafts, and paintings. Then we headed for a view of Mt. Batur, which is an active volcano and biggest lake in Bali. Then we headed to Tanah Lot, which is the temple built on top of a rock. They are suppose to have great sunsets there, unfortunately it was raining so we were not able to see much of a sunset, but it was beautiful. Then we headed for seafood restaurant by the beach.

On the way Made and I were comparing the Indian Hinduism(from what I learned from my parents as I am not a practicing Hindu) and Balinese Hinduism. The similarities to Indian Hinduism that the Balinese Hinduism is that they have a prayer area in their house to pray to the gods, they celebreate Diwali, believe that the cow is sacred, therefore most don't eat beef, they also have a similar Hindu caste system, but they do not have untouchables. The differences are that the Balinese worship the same trinity Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu, but they also have one supreme deity called 'Sanghyang Widi'. They never put their trinity on show (where as the Indians do), they have vacant shrines everywhere. It's interesting these shrines are literally everywhere and they all have an umbrella over the shrines with offerings at the bottom of the shrines and sometimes part of the shrine are wrapped in black and white clothes. They have small offereings that they put in small little baskets that have flower and rice and other small things in their, in public areas, in front of homes, business, etc...to placate bad spirits and pay homage to good ones. I noticed a couple in front of my bungalow....

Day 38:Well today was a much better day then yesteday. I was able to go on a tour of the island today and get out of the area that I was staying in as it was slowly driving me crazy as the 'hawkers' or shall I stay 'stalkers' since they literally follow you around and are very determined to get your business. I am staying in Kuta, which is the beach area and alot of the shops are there.

For breakfast I tried Nasi Goreng, Nasi means 'rice' and the Indonesians and Malayasians both use the the same word. I realized that the languages are very similar as well. Anyways Nasi Goreng, is very popular in Indonesia and it is basically fried rice with prawn crackers on top, it was pretty tastey. I then headed to Ubud with my tour guide Made Pusaka, Ubud is absolutely beautiful. It is luscious and green and different colors of green, light green, med. green, and dark green. Ubud is in the middle of Bali and has small villages surrounded by green rice terraces (basically the rice paddies were planted on the side of the hill, so it looks like terraces). As we were driving I noticed alot of signs that said Made, I turned to Made and told him his name must be popular. He laughed and explained to me that in Bali, there are common names for the first four children. Meaning that the first born has a certain name and then another name to follow it, same as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Made being the 2nd child received the name 'Made' and then his parents gave him the name 'Pusaka'. If the parents have more than four children the naming convention starts over. Then he explained to me that Bali's people are mainly Hindu. They pratice a differnt type of Hinduism, but many of the similiarities are there, the other islands of Indonesia are primarily Muslim. I thought that was interesting as the only people that I have ever known to be Hindu are other 'Indians' or 'Americans' that converted during the hippie era. We then headed to a Balinese Hindu Temple.

We then headed to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. The monkey here are basically wild, so they are everywhere. When I got in I tagged along with a local father and daughter as I wasn't sure what to expect, since the monkeys are wild. Then we headed to a traditonal dance of 'Kecak' dance. Basically the chorus is made of about 100-150 men that chant the word '
kecak' repeatly during the whole show. The show goes into the renactment of the Ramayana (Hindu mythology). The show ends with a fire dance, a man is put into a trance by a holy man and then the man stomps out a big fire with his bear feet. It was pretty amazing. I then tried a
local fruit called 'mangosteen'which is brown/black on the outside about the size of an apple and then you have to cut open the inside to get to the meat of the fruit, which basically look like big white juicy seeds. It was quite tastey!