This is my friend Phillipa from Trinidad and Tobago.
Yum, coconut passion fruit tarts from Bali Buddha!
Phillipa and I took the batik class together. One day I drove her home and convinced her to shoot a video of the drive. It's in the scenic rice paddies north of Ubud. I wasn't yet comfortable driving with a passenger on the busy streets where bikes weave in and out of moving and stopped traffic through tight spaces. It's tricky maneuvering a bike with a passenger when you need to go slow. The drive takes us right past the temple that's having it's 40th year anniversary ceremony. Luckily we were around for the big parade at the end of the week-long festival. Here's some shots of that:
Temple Guardians
Beautiful women in ceremonial dress.
They sure do have style,
they wear cute little bustiers under lace tops.
Add a sarong and sash and you're formal...NICE!
Man, their parades move at a brisk pace.
Men often layer sarongs
These headdresses are made all from leaves and flowers.
This was at the end of the parade, I think some boys are getting tired!
I decided to take a batik class while in Bali, where the batiks are the most prized in the world. It was a super fun 3 day course! Widya is the master batik maker who teaches and runs the class. He has been doing batik for 20 years, and has had this classroom studio running every day for 10 years in his own home. It was so informative and fun! I met some wonderful people there too.
Some pics of the outdoor studio:
My friend Phillipa from Trinidad and Tobago
LOOK IT'S A FAIRY!
But seriously, what the heck is that?
Lunch! Sate Ayam.
The batik process is so involved! I really found a high appreciation for this art form during my stay at the workshop. It can be as simple or complicated as you like. The basic principal of batik involves using wax as a resist, and dying the fabric to create color around where the wax is placed. You can deliver the wax to the fabric by chanting (picture below), brush, or stamp. Batik gets its beauty when you apply wax and dye multiple times to create beautiful layering effects.
Chanting tool.
Made out of copper and bamboo,
this helps deliver the wax in a thin predictable line.
Here's a video I made about the process of creating my batik. Widya helped a lot, especially with the straight lines at the borders and giving chanting demos and dye advise. I was at his studio for 3 days from 10am - 5pm. When I felt brain-dead or got exhausted at a certain points in the piece, he would often pick it up and help me work on it. I highly recommend his course!
During the first dye.
The first dye complete.
After a second chanting and dye.
The dyes are all natural organic, they change in the sun and the fixer!
The Kecak (pronounced Ketjack) is one of the newer Balinese dances, originating in the 1930s. It's also called the Ramayana Monkey Chant. It is a story that depicts a battle from the Ramayana whr th monkey-like Varana helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana and win back his stolen love, Sita. Originally it was done in trance. It is one of the few dances that is accompanied by a chanting chorus of men, rather than the usual gamelan.
Sita being stolen by the evil king after Rama and his brother were tricked to leave her.
Monkey King
The only way to appreciate this is by seeing and hearing it.
The Sanghyang Dedari Dance
(Sang=divine spirit, Dedari=angels, describing the trance)
This dance is essential to maintain religious health and well-being of the community. It drives evil spirits away and stops sickness and death. Two virgins dance this with eyes closed in a trance version of the Legong. At the end of the trance they go to the ground and a pmangku awakes them with holy water.
Small clip of the Dance.
Waking up.
Sanghyang Jaran Dance
(Sang = divine spirit, Jarun = horse)
In this dance, an entranced guy dances like a horse. He dances around the coconut husk bonfire and then smashes through and around the fire. 2 guys kept raking the coconuts back to the center thankfully, as the dancers eyes were closed and he was walking on them and kicking them everywhere! At the end he is woken in the same way.
Let me start by saying, not only is Ina my landlady, but she's a total sweetheart. I met her on my second day in town. She immediately took me under her wing, made me feel so welcome, rented me a scooter for half the cost of the original one I got in town with poncho included, gave me a cell phone to use while here and got me a Bali sim card, and then proceeded to show me around town! Her mantra is: Don't Worry.
Randomly I went over to her place (right next door) one morning to ask a question and she invite me out for a day on the town! First she brought me to her husbands favorite restaurant: Bali Buddha. It's reasonably priced, beautifully indoor/outdoor decorated with red and purple against the natural wood.
Bali Buddha
I ate the BEST food I've had on my journey so far. Can't wait to go back and eat it again!
Crispy Sprouts/nuts, Tempeh and Tofu, Sweet Onions, peanut sauce, red rice, spinach and local greens, and toasted young coconut served on a banana leaf and some other leaf! YUM
Ina showed me where the best supermarket is: Bintang! These are quail eggs.
After we went to the supermarket and brought home all our goodies, Ina wanted to show me her favorite market in Sukawati. So we geared up and took the 45 minute drive on our scooters down to the market. Ina was a great resource to have there! She told me about what prices she can get on items I was interested in, and she showed me how she bargains. Whenever I bargained she gave me space, and I did pretty well for myself! (see earlier post on the art of bargaining)
Ina performing "the Walk-Away", to her success.
A view of the street in front of Sukawati Market. Everywhere in Bali that there is any hint of traffic or parking problems there's usually one or two of these guys lingering around to help direct the flow.
Go Parking Dudes!
After we got home from Sukawati, Ina and I made dinner together. She taught me how to cook Indonesian BBQ fish and chicken wrapped in banana leaves and spices, and I showed her how to make a California-style salad with Feta, avocado, bell peppers, mushrooms, crazins, cucumber, and my special caramelized nuts. She said she's excited to learn things to cook for her husband that aren't spicy!
After dinner Ina wanted to make "cake". So I'm super confused as to why we're boiling potatoes and the batter we're making is super thin and full of eggs and milk and sugar. Sometimes there's a language gap that's hard to bridge, so I just go along. Then we're grating the potato into the batter. In the end we pour it into cupcake tins and steam it in a boiling pot. Add some raisins and presto. Here's the result:
...Cake
Ina's cat, the new Jesse in my life ;)
Thanks Ina, for talking me into your heart and home and giving me one of the best days of my journey. You're beautiful!
Aahhhh, the bargain. Lets say I see a sarong set that I'm interested in. Besides ordering food, this is how almost EVERY purchase you make happens in Bali. If it doesn't happen similarly to this, you're paying too much:
I just entered the booth and the vendor is already talking to me about it, saying: "You try, yes, look."
Me looking at a sarong: What's the price?
Vendor: 300,000 ($34, an outrageous price)
Me: (look subtly disinterested or displeased while looking at item)
Vendor: What price you want?
Me: 70,000 ($8)
Vendor: (looks shocked) Can't do, impossible.
Me: (look like I've lost interest and moving on)
Vendor: 150,000 ($16)... special for you.
(the Balinese and the Thai try to exploit your sense of self-importance, on the idea that "I'm special". In reality, "special for you" usually means "I'm especially ripping you off, sucker")
Me: 80,000 ($9)
Vendor: No!! (like wow you are crazy)
Me: (Start to walk away)
Vendor: (yells after me) You give me 100,000 ($11), lowest price!
Me: (look back seem mildly interested, change my mind, walk away)
Vendor: OK, 85,000, you give me 5 more!
Me: Na, thatt's OK, I think I saw some over there. (start walking)
Vendor : OK 80,000.
And there it is, you've made your bargain. Once both parties agree to a price, the sale is over and you must buy it. So be careful to start low enough to get to an agreement that you are comfortable with.
So, you thought that took a long time to read about?
HA! Try doing it every time you want to buy anything.
Today I decided to keep exploring the town. Here's a huge statue on the intersection right by where I live. Not sure who it is. I was recommended to go on a loop drive that shows off the countryside beautifully. It was true! Endless stretches of tiered rice paddies, palm trees, and of course... chickens. There is hardly a place you can go in Bali without the constant sounds of clucking and rooster screams.
Rice Terraces as far as the eye can see.
Video of the view at a Hotel.
Need to move your bed? Your family of 5? Your 20 foot bamboo pole?
You're whole business worth of Sarongs?
No problem, throw it on the motor-bike.
My favorite fruit from Ecuador, the Chirimolla.
I found it in juice! This resides in my fridge now.
Geckos!!!
The sidewalks here are treacherous. Each panel is removable, with sewer underneath.
They often move and shift under your feet. Sometimes they are broken or gone and you have to walk around them. I sometimes worry that the break might happen under my feet. None have...
More offerings.
These are street decorations to celebrate a temple that is having its 45 year anniversary. People flock to the temple nightly for weeks, make sacrifices, dance, sing, and pray till 6am. On the last day it will end with a procession through town on foot. Those poles are bamboo, decorated with palm and banana fronds woven into intricate shapes and wrapped with cloth. Guess how they got there? Motorbike.
Closeup of the bamboo decoration.
I found a little warung (small outdoor family restaurant)
that sold me sate with greens and coconut rice for 12,000 Rp ($1.30)
The arrangement went like this:
We couldn't communicate so I pointed at what I wanted
and people stared at me while I ate. Ha!
A goat cheese mushroom quesadilla from Clear Cafe.
Unlike in Thailand, when you order foreign dishes at the touristy food places here,
they actually know how to make them.
Outside of Clear Cafe. Indoors is always shoe-less in Bali. The people here are very neat and tidy, whenever you go into a place you will almost always come out to find your shoes organized in a different spot than where you left them. This even happens to me at my house. My neighbors must do it! So I've started putting my shoes where they want them haha!
Beautiful mosaic work can be found all over the stone
walk-ways of family compounds.
This fruit bat has a 3 foot wingspan.
Woah, look at his balls.
Everyday merchandise in Bali:
Shadow Puppets and Penis Bottle Openers.
Sense of Humor... Ya, Your Mom
The Balinese often dress their statues as well.
Men gathering at a temple and working on a project together.
The community does everything together.
Everyone has a role and a place in their community.
Young guys practicing Gamelan.
Walking around town you pass by performances every night.
Spiral Didgeridoo! Circular breathing is hard.
This is not that common here, but I thought it was awesome to see.
