The flight was longer than expected from Brisbane to Bali, 6.5 hours. It took about an hour and to get through customs and security, it was really tight in Bali from dog sniffers to xray machines and about 3 checkpoints. Sila from Sila Tours met us after we came out of customs and took us to Ubud, about 60 mins away from the airport. I wasn’t sure what to expect but once you got out of Denpasar it was so rural and very narrow roads and tons of people on scooters. It was colorful with displays of carvings, paintings, nearly everywhere you looked. We checked into our hotel, right by some rice fields and loved our room overlooking the jungle below and across from us. For dinner we ate at the hotel and I ordered the Indonesian meal with several courses with traditional Balinese food. It was all beautifully prepared but honestly one of my favorite things was the coconut spinach pureed soup- so good. After dinner we were so wiped out we fell right asleep.
2/5/15
First thing this morning we were picked up and taken to see a Balinese dance performance which is well known throughout Bali. The performance included dancing, music and large puppets and masks representing good and evil. The show had colorful costumes and makeup and an elaborate tiger puppet character that danced around on stage. The music was also entertaining to see men dressed with their traditional men's dress and head wrap dawning musical hammers and playing what looked like a xylophone. It was such an entertaining performance, Sam and I both enjoyed it.
Following the show we started making our way to the Holy Spring Water Temple. We stopped at a home of a family that for a small fee allows visitors to walk through. More often than not 4 generations live together and they each have their own family temple and then a village temple. They say this is the land of 1000 temples. That is way understated, there have to be a 100,000 temples in Bali. Everywhere you look there is a temple and the Hindu temples are so beautiful and their grey decorative designs are so beautifully accented by the piles of delicate flower offerings that are everywhere you look. Offerings most often include flower, water and incense. Outside the city most of these rural homes have electricity but not always running water. This home did have running water but they were still cooking over fires, bedrooms and most rooms on stilts sitting above the ground, maybe that is because they have so much rain. They have two seasons, dry and wet.
Our next stop was at a wood carving shop where they had men out carving a variety of pieces with several small chisels and a wooden hammer. I don't know how they do it, how they see a piece of wood and are able to turn it into an elaborate carving of a goddess with long narrow fingers and a decorative headdress. Couldn't do it, wouldn't even know where to start! We enjoyed looking at the carvings and talking to one of the craftsman that has been doing this work for 55 years and who was working alongside his son who he has trained.
At the Holy Spring Water Temple we were asked to wear a wrap, everyone had one on, regardless of the length of the skirt or shorts. We then went to the purifying pool that all that want to enter and worship in temple must wash here first. We were excited to be able to do this, not to mention on a hot day it was great to be able to cool off in these incredibly clear and refreshing pools. Thankfully I had thrown in our swimsuits so we put the wrap on over our suits and after providing floral offerings and some money onto an altar of sorts on the side of the pool we proceeded to let the water from each spout pour over our heads from left to right, only missing the second to last spout which is designated for those that have lost loved ones and they are to fill a container with that water there. We enjoyed the whole process with a few Balinese women that were infant of us that had brought heaps of offerings that they laid before each spout before they washed. We then proceeded to the next pool and this time went right to left we were told. Again it was a lovely and refreshing experience. We dressed and then made our way into the Temple and were able to see the ladies we had washed with move into the part of the temple where they made more offerings and worshiped to the god of the Holy Spring Water. We were able to come in and see the temple rooms which are essentially covered outdoor platforms that are used during large biannually temple ceremonies. We were able to see the pool that was being filled with the fresh spring water and see it bubbling out of the earth filling the pool and then pouring into the purifying pools and then goes to water the rice fields around the area. Puffs of grey bubbled out under water where the spring was breaking through the earth into the pool. Not often do we get to see a fresh water spring, and it was very beautiful and I can see how many would feel this place sacred.
We made our way from there to the volcano. Sadly on the mountain top that looks over to the volcano was fogged in and it was slightly raining. It did not clear but we could see at moments the faint outline of the massive volcano which had erupted as recently as 1960. We enjoyed lunch on the balcony and cooler mountain temperatures and the lush hillsides below.
Our last stop for the day was at the rice terraces. I don't believe I have ever seen rice terraces and the sheer engineering of them is quite a wonder. I have seen the stepped hillsides of Peru and how they can grow their crops and tend their herds way up mountainsides but these aren't steps, they are terraces. They are wide and often deep and able to hold pools of water in which they can plant their rice all year long. They harvest two crops of rice a year generally. The process I wasn't totally aware of either, how they flood a step and as it fills with water the water softens the earth and then they rake it essentially getting it nice and even, after having cleared it of it's last crop, and then they plant it. After a few weeks the rice sprouts into what looks like grass which is a few inches high and then they transplant it by hand to other terraces where they can more evenly space the rice which will allow it to have more room to grow and produce apparently a better crop. After around 3 months once it has sprouted and essentially looks like sprouted wheat they cut it and thrash it and release the seeds that are encrusted in a shell. They collect these seeds, dry them for a few days and then take to the mill to husk the shells off the seeds revealing the white rice. Rice is life here and eaten three meals a day.
The terraces were beautiful and fun to explore on the little pathways that divide them. We could go almost any direction and there were more pools and terraces. People were working different parts of the process. One elderly man was what looked like raking or combing the terrace and getting the mud nice and even with an even layer of water over it preparing it for planting. Other ladies farther off where clearing fields and some of the terraces were fluorescent green and ready for these fresh shoots to be transplanted. Respect for the beauty and the great effort behind this beauty and work.
After making it back to the hotel we enjoyed the pool at our room. Our room looks over a narrow valley to a jungle wall. All of a sudden I spotted a monkey fall from one tree down to the bushes below. Then a few minutes later I saw a man climbing up what looked like a 60 foot coconut tree. He just had his legs slightly bent and his arms around the tree and just went right up it. A few minutes later I see coconuts falling from the tree at minute intervals. The coconuts are falling into the lush brush below and likely down the mountain a bit, since it is a steep bank hillside these palms are sitting on. It was like a show going on and I brought out my binoculars and watched for a while and then someone was below in the lower brush collecting the coconuts and then tossing them up to a woman on the hillside. Some palm frawns were also cut and collected- maybe to be used for matts or something else. The folks collecting the coconuts and branches waved to us, we waved back.
For dinner we went down the road to a neighboring hotel, the only other place close to us without having to drive more and we were tired and just wanted an easy meal before bed. The neighboring hotel was literally situated in rice paddies and huts were built around the rice terraces. It was a great concept to be staying right in the fields but also enjoying the luxuries of a nice hotel.
Passed out a paragraph into the blog but enjoyed a nice rest. Friday we are river rafting and ATVing. I needed the rest! The adventure continues :)
Following the show we started making our way to the Holy Spring Water Temple. We stopped at a home of a family that for a small fee allows visitors to walk through. More often than not 4 generations live together and they each have their own family temple and then a village temple. They say this is the land of 1000 temples. That is way understated, there have to be a 100,000 temples in Bali. Everywhere you look there is a temple and the Hindu temples are so beautiful and their grey decorative designs are so beautifully accented by the piles of delicate flower offerings that are everywhere you look. Offerings most often include flower, water and incense. Outside the city most of these rural homes have electricity but not always running water. This home did have running water but they were still cooking over fires, bedrooms and most rooms on stilts sitting above the ground, maybe that is because they have so much rain. They have two seasons, dry and wet.
Our next stop was at a wood carving shop where they had men out carving a variety of pieces with several small chisels and a wooden hammer. I don't know how they do it, how they see a piece of wood and are able to turn it into an elaborate carving of a goddess with long narrow fingers and a decorative headdress. Couldn't do it, wouldn't even know where to start! We enjoyed looking at the carvings and talking to one of the craftsman that has been doing this work for 55 years and who was working alongside his son who he has trained.
At the Holy Spring Water Temple we were asked to wear a wrap, everyone had one on, regardless of the length of the skirt or shorts. We then went to the purifying pool that all that want to enter and worship in temple must wash here first. We were excited to be able to do this, not to mention on a hot day it was great to be able to cool off in these incredibly clear and refreshing pools. Thankfully I had thrown in our swimsuits so we put the wrap on over our suits and after providing floral offerings and some money onto an altar of sorts on the side of the pool we proceeded to let the water from each spout pour over our heads from left to right, only missing the second to last spout which is designated for those that have lost loved ones and they are to fill a container with that water there. We enjoyed the whole process with a few Balinese women that were infant of us that had brought heaps of offerings that they laid before each spout before they washed. We then proceeded to the next pool and this time went right to left we were told. Again it was a lovely and refreshing experience. We dressed and then made our way into the Temple and were able to see the ladies we had washed with move into the part of the temple where they made more offerings and worshiped to the god of the Holy Spring Water. We were able to come in and see the temple rooms which are essentially covered outdoor platforms that are used during large biannually temple ceremonies. We were able to see the pool that was being filled with the fresh spring water and see it bubbling out of the earth filling the pool and then pouring into the purifying pools and then goes to water the rice fields around the area. Puffs of grey bubbled out under water where the spring was breaking through the earth into the pool. Not often do we get to see a fresh water spring, and it was very beautiful and I can see how many would feel this place sacred.
We made our way from there to the volcano. Sadly on the mountain top that looks over to the volcano was fogged in and it was slightly raining. It did not clear but we could see at moments the faint outline of the massive volcano which had erupted as recently as 1960. We enjoyed lunch on the balcony and cooler mountain temperatures and the lush hillsides below.
Our last stop for the day was at the rice terraces. I don't believe I have ever seen rice terraces and the sheer engineering of them is quite a wonder. I have seen the stepped hillsides of Peru and how they can grow their crops and tend their herds way up mountainsides but these aren't steps, they are terraces. They are wide and often deep and able to hold pools of water in which they can plant their rice all year long. They harvest two crops of rice a year generally. The process I wasn't totally aware of either, how they flood a step and as it fills with water the water softens the earth and then they rake it essentially getting it nice and even, after having cleared it of it's last crop, and then they plant it. After a few weeks the rice sprouts into what looks like grass which is a few inches high and then they transplant it by hand to other terraces where they can more evenly space the rice which will allow it to have more room to grow and produce apparently a better crop. After around 3 months once it has sprouted and essentially looks like sprouted wheat they cut it and thrash it and release the seeds that are encrusted in a shell. They collect these seeds, dry them for a few days and then take to the mill to husk the shells off the seeds revealing the white rice. Rice is life here and eaten three meals a day.
The terraces were beautiful and fun to explore on the little pathways that divide them. We could go almost any direction and there were more pools and terraces. People were working different parts of the process. One elderly man was what looked like raking or combing the terrace and getting the mud nice and even with an even layer of water over it preparing it for planting. Other ladies farther off where clearing fields and some of the terraces were fluorescent green and ready for these fresh shoots to be transplanted. Respect for the beauty and the great effort behind this beauty and work.
After making it back to the hotel we enjoyed the pool at our room. Our room looks over a narrow valley to a jungle wall. All of a sudden I spotted a monkey fall from one tree down to the bushes below. Then a few minutes later I saw a man climbing up what looked like a 60 foot coconut tree. He just had his legs slightly bent and his arms around the tree and just went right up it. A few minutes later I see coconuts falling from the tree at minute intervals. The coconuts are falling into the lush brush below and likely down the mountain a bit, since it is a steep bank hillside these palms are sitting on. It was like a show going on and I brought out my binoculars and watched for a while and then someone was below in the lower brush collecting the coconuts and then tossing them up to a woman on the hillside. Some palm frawns were also cut and collected- maybe to be used for matts or something else. The folks collecting the coconuts and branches waved to us, we waved back.
For dinner we went down the road to a neighboring hotel, the only other place close to us without having to drive more and we were tired and just wanted an easy meal before bed. The neighboring hotel was literally situated in rice paddies and huts were built around the rice terraces. It was a great concept to be staying right in the fields but also enjoying the luxuries of a nice hotel.
Passed out a paragraph into the blog but enjoyed a nice rest. Friday we are river rafting and ATVing. I needed the rest! The adventure continues :)
Entrance to the family home
Traditional offerings as you enter the waters before purifying
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