Saturday 10th August 2013 and an important day in the Bali calendar. Today is the Saraswati Festival when the Balinese people bring offerings to the holy books and scrolls in their houses, while students celebrate it at school, usually up to 12 noon. The philosophy of Saraswati day is that the most important aspect of human life is knowledge. As a result of this, all the staff were dressed in traditional attire and it made the morning even more special as at the time we were leaving our first hotel, local people were taking part in a ceremony just outside. Sadly we couldn't join in as we had packed the sarongs in the cases and to even to watch would have been disrespectful. However, the number of Balinese ladies carrying highly ornate fruit baskets on their heads earlier in the morning had not been in vain- the ceremony looked and sounded stunning as we passed in the car. And of course carrying things on their head is a must as the head is the most sacred part of the body.
So then we headed through the local villages towards our first tourist stop!
Today we had a couple of stops planned both water palaces, so not the most varied of choices but both places were relatively close to one another so it made sense time wise to see both in the same day. Here are a few photos of our first stop Taman Ujung.
Here are some of our second stop Tirtagangga.
Although both places were water palaces they each had a different feel about them, Taman Ujung felt like a formal garden, where as Tirtagannga felt more family orientated perhaps this was due to one pool being open for bathing, for an extra fee of course. Tirtagannga had the most enormous koi carp in the pools no doubt helped by all the feeding from the visitors.
For me (Helen) though, the tourist stop was a disappointment compared to the experiences we encountered whilst driving through the many villages with ever changing landscapes behind. A few memorable aspects of the journey made my expectations of Bali all come true. We were unable to photograph them but to give you a flavour:
Families of four travelling on one moped- minus helmets!
Chickens roaming the streets and those that weren't roaming, kept securely under wicker basket domes. It would appear that almost every family keep them.
Women, yes only women, carrying baskets of items on their head at the side of the street- looking glamorous and serene at the same time even in the midday heat.
Roadworks and building work- minus machinery! Yes, poor blokes using an axe, shovel and whatever implement they could find to do the job.
So many young men dressed in traditional, white clothing for today's festival.
Local shops everywhere- all selling pretty much the same things. However can so many people make a living from selling the same items as the lady next door, and the lady next to her, and the lady next to her....I guess passing trade must help. However, I'm sure I saw lots of locally brewed alcohol in pop bottles!! Perhaps one best to be missed!
Children running in bare feet- smiling as they run and looking most content and happy.
The sound of horns- whenever anyone overtakes (and it happens constantly), the horn is blown to warn others.
Rice fields- just as the pictures in the glossy brochures show! Even a farmer wearing a bamboo cone type hat to keep the sun off him added to this stereotypical image.
Religious offerings everywhere you look. This is so important in the Hindu faith and the many, many offerings ranging from the very small to the very grand are simply stunning to see. We were told that it's crucial that the five main components are included- water, fire, leaf, flower and fruit. The offerings are placed at one of three levels- high for the gods, middle level for humans and on the ground for the deceased or evil spirits.
Cats and dogs roaming the streets- clearly not interested in anyone or anything else.
Car parks- you think the roads are dangerous! Yes there are car parking attendants with a whistle but no white lines, spaces or any kind of order as to where people park!
Oh and the real Balinese toilet- not the most pleasant experience for a fussy westerner! However, I wanted to see the real Bali and I guess that's what I saw....oh and used.
For me (Chris) my overriding memories of the journey were the sheer number of bikes everywhere, along the whole route there was at least one bike either in front, alongside or behind and in the village centres sometimes we were completely surrounded. Also the brightly coloured banners outside the temples we passed and all the businesses we passed selling concrete castings so families could construct their own temples.
What else today?
Our excellent guide who explained everything about the Hindu faith, the offerings, his wife, parents, children and even showed us where his in-laws lived! What a lovely man- good for him that he has been married for 10 years and that he couldn't believe it when she said 'yes' and he was 13 years older than her when she was just 20!! It's stories like those that make the real Bali come to life. How awful that I couldn't remember his name and he never forgot ours Mr ChristoPP- her Parker!! Lovely.
It was a good two hour drive to our next hotel the Damai. Leaving Tirtagangga we passed many rice terraces, we asked if we could stop in a convenient place to take a photo, but I think he misheard and went for inconvenient as we stopped on a blind bend where as you can imagine we incurred a few beeped horns. However the views made it worthwhile.
The Damai is up in the hills overlooking the resort of Lovina. As we turned in the street up to the Damai from the main road we were met by a group of 12 scooters all trying to get pole position at the lights and we got such stares from them because our driver wanted to get past on our side of the road and someone had to give ground. As we climbed up the hill we came across a group of marching school children apparently practising for Independence Day next week.
We eventually got to the Damai and our welcome drink was so divine it was a Damai take on a mojito, a mojitee made with tea, mint, lime and spices I am sure several more of these will be consumed over the next few days. We took a golf buggy to get to our room and both wondered how we'd ever find our way back to the restaurant later. As we got into our studio and looked around especially at the pool and view we were pleased with our choice.
We spent a couple of hours by and in our pool before getting ready for dinner.
It was unusual to have an outside shower and again brought back memories of our honeymoon in Hua Hin.
The Damai is renowned for its restaurant so we were looking forward to eating in it. We went for the set Balinese menu which included snail sate with a spicy broth with a giant croûton followed by a prawn curry, and finished with fried bananas and ice cream. The prawn curry wasn't just prawn curry it was a stack of breaded prawns, a salsa wrapped in a ribbon of courgette, a spicy sweet potato purée and some rice. My words can't do it justice as it was gorgeous and beautifully presented a modern interpretation of Balinese food. We managed to find our way back to the room via the organic food gardens and the bridge of romance back up the hill to get some sleep before a lazy day tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment