Round Bali Excursion: Village Life, Dolphins, Sunrise Mountain Hike

On Friday, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a toothfiling/wedding upacara (ceremony) with my host mom, so I woke up early, ate, changed into traditional clothing, and caught a bemo to a nearby town. It was amazing to see everything behind the scenes (the groom getting ready, preparing for offerings, etc). I made friends with the groom's sister, who currently lives in Ireland, so I got to witness a lot that I otherwise wouldn't have. I absolutely loved it! I saw many blessings, rituals, and got to eat very tasty food. There were over 100 people, all in pakain adat (traditional clothing), so I definitely met a lot of people. The rest of the students had left around 9 a.m. to go to a lecture on organic farming, but I'd arranged a different ride a few hours later. Unfortunately, the tooth filing ritural did not occur by the time I needed to leave, but I was still extremely thankful and excited that I got to see what I did! I arrived in Munduk Pakel, the small village of my Academic Director and went for a walk in the beautiful rice fields for about an hour while I waited for the rest of the students. Once they, along with nine Balinese students, got to Ary's compound, we drew names for our host families, and I lived with Ibu Puspa, a dancer, her husband, and two daughters (Kadek, 8 and Putu, 15). After getting settled, we had dinner and spent the rest of the evening in the rice field catching fireflies and getting to know one another.

Early Saturday morning, we found out that one of the students, Eartha, had to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night because of really intense stomach pain and fever from an infection and dehydration (over a week later, she is still sick, but doing much better). Needless to say, Ary wasn't with us, but her mother and Pak Yudi took us on a hike in the "garden" a.k.a jungle next to the rice field, to pick roots, plants, ferns, and fruit to cook with and make traditional medicine. Walking through the muddy jungle was definitely amazing! Later, we went back to cook sambal using the ingredients we'd found and to make a medicine paste used for feet after being in the rice field. We also saw babi guling (suckling pig) being prepared for us for dinner. Afterwards, we went to bathe in the river (yes naked, but the boys and girls were separate). It was so refreshing! We then came back for Bahasa Indonesian and were paired up with Balinese students, so we could create interview questions to conduct later on. I interviewed two men and one woman about Nyentana, which is when a man marries into a female's compound (which incidentally disrupts the patrilineal kinship which is very strong in certain parts of Bali, but is accepted in the Tabanan region where Munduk Pakel is). Later, we played volleyball, cards, and made tipot (small woven baskets that I filled 1/3 of the way with rice) with my Ibu. After dinner, we played gamelan music and had a blast doing so, but I can't say I was very good at it!

Sunday morning, I woke up and conducted my first interview. I had 19 questions, and it only lasted six minutes! Needless to say, it can be difficult to interview with language barriers, because I couldn't understand everything that he said, thus couldn't create new follow up questions on the spot. It was raining in the morning, but we walked in the rice field to see the sunrise anyway...didn't work. After breakfast, I hung out with the Balinese students and later went to my compound to cook a ton of cakes called Matahari, which is basically fried sweet dough in the shape of a sun. In the late afternoon, I conducted another interview, this time wiht a Balinese student, Mirah, which was extremely beneficial. It lasted for over an hour, and I was also able to get a woman's perspective on the topic. I quickly ran home to eat and change before going to the Bale Banjar (building in the village used for meetings, gamelan, etc.) for the joged bumbung performance, otherwise known as the flirtation dance. We all dressed in pakain adat to attend and before going to the building, we watched some of the villagers gamble to lantern light. All fo the people in the village came to watch, while the gamelan music plays, the tradtional dancer does a solo performance, then, one by one she pulls people onstage. Yes, we became the entertainment, because quite frankly, we couldn't dance! It was an absolute blast, but following the performance, I found out my uncle in my new family's compoutn passed away. When I went to go visit my family and get my things to move to a new comound, I saw all of the preparations for the body, which is laid in a bed in the building in the center of the compound, in this case, for three days before burial. Once the family saves up enough money, a cremation ceremony will occur for my uncle. In addition to being laid the bed, a great deal of offerings were prepared prior to the burial, and there were countless visitors. The Balinese definitely grieve differently than Westerners. Everyone was trying their best to smile and joke, rather than cry...it was very interesting. After a walk in the rice field, I called it a day.

We all got up early on Monday morning to hike out to a tucked away rice field to do some work. All of the students borrowed hoes from our families and went out to a section of the paddy that needed tilling. Before rice is planted, somone tills, in this case by hand, before the seedlings are placed. Needless to say, it was pretyt tough work, but we definitely made it a ton of fun, especially in the end, when we had tackle relay races in the field, which is knee deep in mud. By the end, I was so covered in mud, the only thing you could see were my eyes and teeth...the Balinese students called me catwoman. After all the excitement, we cut open coconuts to drink the milk and eat the meat. Yum! We didn't even bother taking off our clothes for the first ten minutes of bathing in the river, because we were all SO muddy. But after an hour of getting clean and soaking up the sun, we went back to eat lunch and work on the coconut bowls we were making using hand tools and coconut oil. Later on, I takled with Pak Tom about my ISP, played cards, ate dinner, and then went with Stephanie to my family's compound to help make offerings. It was a riot! All fo the naneks (grandmothers) loved us! We were supposed to see a wayang kulit (shadow puppet theater) performance at 8 p.m., but Bali time set in, and it didn't start until 10:00, which was pretty late for us. The show was really funny, but the language is in old Javanese, high and low Balinese, and some Indonesian, so needless to say, we didn't understand most of it. Luckily, the Balinese students could explain a little bit to us. To paint a picture, a large see through tarp was stretched across an old warung in Ary's compound, and behind it sat the dalang (puppet master who has different voices/sounds for all the puppet animals and people) and four other men playing gamelan. It was great, but at midnight, before the show was over, Bethany and I got our rain jackets and sarongs to go sleep in the rice field. The moon was full and the stars were bright, and we were fortunate to see the silhouttes of all the nearby mountains. It was gorgeous, but it got a little chilly and uncomfortable. Around 4 a.m., we went back because Bethany was getting bit by too many ants, and people were going to be going to the rice fields soon. I only slept until six and got up to see the sunrise and walk in the rice fields, gorgeous!

After coming back from the sunrise and eating breakfast from Ibu Wawan, I bathed, and Stephanie and I went back to my first family's compound to help make tipot. After filling a couple hundred, which would later be boiled, used in an offering, and eaten, we went to go pack up our things. Before we left, we got two plastic bags full of mini bananas (pisang kecil) from the old nanek that lives in the Puspa compound; it was adorable. After a walk to see the desa pura (temple) and the river, we ate lunch, said our goodbyes to the Balinese students and our families, and left for the couple hour drive to Lovina, which is in north Bali. Man, tell em about culture shock! We went from traditional village to a tourist area full of Western restaraunts and bars, but there were only a few tourists, because of the economy and the off season. We checked into our hotel with a shower and pool (weird) and had dinner at an Italian restaraunt. Later, we listened to live music at a nearby bar and eventually headed to the beach to watch the waves.

After a nice sized breakfast of coffee, toast, and fruit, we headed to a nearby university to meet with about a dozen students studying English to have an interfaith discussion. It was incredibly interesting! We talked about religious tolerance, elections and the importance of voting, homosexuality, and many other things. THe Singaraja area has more religious diversity than anywhere in Bali. In addition, to the predominately Hindu, there is Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, and Islam. There are some Jewish people as well, but Judaism is not a recognized religion in Indonesia, so on their ID cards, most Jews state that they are Muslim. There is a synagogue somewhere in the Buleling region, but I don't know if we will be able to see it. One the topic of ID cards, everyone must state what religion they are, regardless. In fact, if someone is atheist, they still should claimg something, because in the recent past, it was dangerous because you would be considered a part of the Communist Party. The students were very accepting of GLBT, and although same sex marriage is not legal in Indonesia, people can go to Holland or elsewhere, get married, and come back and will be recognized byt he government. What's incredibly interesting is the fact that the Tabanan area is very open to Nyentana, but they are against same sex marriages, yet in the Buleling region, everyone is very open to religion and GLBT, but Nyentana is illegal, so should the family not have a son, they must adopt, or when they die, their property is given to the government. In about three weeks, I am going to conduct an Independent Study Project about Nyentana and patriarchal lineage. I am really intersted in the regional differences on the opinion of this topic, so to conduct the project, I will create a few question survey using a Leikerts scale (1,2,3,4,5) about Nyentana and will walk from North Bali, where it is illegal, to South Bali, where it is accepted, surveying people in villages along the way to create a regional opinion chart about Nyentana. In addition, I will conduct several more lengthy, qualitative interviews. I am going to be walking with one other student, Lindsey, for about three weeks before spending the last week writing about my findings. I'm really excited! I digress...Later we had unch at a restaraunt overlooking the sea and went to a Buddhist monument atop a mountain. We ended the day witha trip to the Lovina hot springs. After dunner at a really tasty vegetarian place and a dip in the pool, I headed to bed.

Thursday morning, we got up and visited a Taoist temple to learn about the practice from the priest there, who said that we all had very positive auras. He gave us all his contact information, books on Taoism, and wanted to take a picture before we left. Afterwards, we went to two beautiful Chinese temples that were still decorated for the Chinese New Year, which happened in February. At the first temple, there were a ton of old turtles that were symbolic of longevity and long life. They were really cool! Later, we went to Sangsit, which is a village inhabited by the Boogey group of people, who are renowned as fisherman, and even pirates! They are Muslim, but their mosque was in theh process of being renovated, so we couldn't see it. While there, we listened to traditional music and danced with the little, adorable kids, who were so excited to see us. I went to the beach for sunset and then had a few reminiscing drinks with the girls (Midori for Turner's wedding, Mai Tai for dad and Vegas, Whiskey sour for Eric, and tequila for Javen and my roommates). It was really fun!

Friday, we got up at 5:30 a.m. to go see the dolphins off the north coast. We separated into three different boats, and left a little before the sunrise, and it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We drove out about 10-15 minutes and saw a group of 20 boats waiting to see the dolphins. It was comical to watch, because when a group of dolphins would surface, all of the boats would drive over to see them. All in all, we saw what seemed like hudnreds of dolphins, watched the sunrise, and had breakfast (kopi, pisang goreng, and Milo (cocoa puff cereal) on the ocean. Aside from the fact that it seems unethical and a bit cruel to chase dolphins like that, it was a good morning. After a quick lay out by the pool and breakfast, we left at 9:30 a.m. to go meet with the Balinese students and head to Git-Git waterfall, which was huge! It was absolutely gigantic and was tucked away in the jungle that we hiked to. Later, we found a spot to go cliff jumping downstream and had a BLAST and a half. Later, we drove to Bedugul, which is a city in the mountains. We could actually feel it getting cooler. We saw a very pretty temple next to a lake and after a buffet Indonesian lunch, we went to a market to buy strawberries, yum! We then went back to Lovina and bought two pirated movies (Gran Torino and Madagascar 2) to watch in the hotel restaraunt.

Saturday we went to a Bali Aga village, which is different than the rest of Bali in that it doesn't have a caste system, don't prepare as many offerings, or have cremation ceremonies. The temple we went to was on top of a mountain and was gorgeous. The buildings had thatch, moss covered roofs instead of stone like we see in the rest of Bali. In addition, there were tons of statues and other carvings that date back to the 900s that we were able to view. Later we had lunch overlooking Mount Batur and Batur lake. Following that, we found a hotel near the base of the mountain and went to a hot springs next to the lake.

Sunday morning we got up at 3:45 a.m. to climb Mt. Batur for the sunrise. It was a tough climb, but definitely worth it! It took us a little over two hours to hike up, and at the top, we cooked our breakfast (eggs, bananas, and bread) using steam from the volcano. It was a bit chilly on the peak, but it felt so good after a sweaty climb! We got back to the hotel around 10 a.m., ate some more since we were all starving, and went back to Bedulu.

This week we will be celebrating Galungan with our families, which is a holiday for ancestors. We will go to a nearby temple on Wednesday to celebrate. Next Thursday is Nyepi, which is a day of silence. I will write more about those as they happen. I apologize for the length of this post, but we've definitely done a lot since I last wrote!

Sumpai Jumpa,

Kristal

Yes, I was Attacked by Monkeys

Saturday morning a group of us left Sanur and chartered a transport to Padang Padang, which has a great white sand beach on the coast. When we got there, it was high tide, so the beach was small and there were a lot of people, so we decided to hike around a bit. We stopped at a cliff overlooking the beach and put our bags down for a moment to enjoy the view, when suddenly someone yelled "No!" I looked over to see a monkey hovering over the Dunkin Donuts our Academic Director bought us and a bag of mine that had four bottles of perfume in it that I'd bought as gifts in Sanur. Needless to say, the monkey picked up my bag and threw it over the cliff before I could snatch it away. It got caught in a tree, and I could see him playing with the perfume bottles, but there was no way we were able to get it back. A few minutes later, he and a few of his friends came after me, because I was carrying the donuts, so I dropped the box and ran while they climbed up a nearby tree with the snack. It was hilarious, but I left empty handed..no donuts, no perfume. :) Because the beach was crowded, we started walking to a town 10 km away but soon hitchhiked with a guy in the back of his old pickup truck. Uluwatu has an amazing temple on the cliff, but we decided to find a place to stay to put our bags down before we explored it. After walking forever, we found a place and went to check out the nearby beach. We climbed down a cliff to find a little surfing village with a pile of warungs (food stalls) and a path down the rockface. Because it was low tide, there were all kind of caves and we were able to watch the sunset from a pretty white sand beach that is normally underwater. Later we hung out with some friends that we met and even went to an Aussie's birthday party! It was fun. The next morning we watched the surfers (who are absolutely crazy, because the waves are HUGE!) and headed home early, because my friend Erica had a bad fever and migraine. Once there, we worked on homework and spent time with our families.

Monday was spent having class, listening to speakers, finishing my second batik piece (which I just found out a couple from Japan wants to buy!) and preparing for the midterm on Wednesday. On Tuesday, we had Bahasa Indonesia, then I went home to change into traditional clothing to attend a wedding proposal with my family. In Bali, the entire family of the bridegroom goes to the house of the bride to symbolically and literally take her from her family and bring her to her future husband's. It was really interesting! There were about 100 people, all dressed in traditional clothing, and me, the only one who spoke English. It was a great cultural experience. On Wednesday, we took the exam, which went well, and headed into Ubud. I meant to work on a paper due Friday, but instead went to a pool that my friend's parents are staying at. It was nice to relax. Today we had Bahasa Indonesia, lunch, I worked on my Archaeological paper (I'm writing on Goa Gaja, a nearby "Elephant Cave" and the influence of the Javanese and Buddhism that are present there. I'm also making a new claim that the entrance to the cave is actually a figure of the goddess Durga, which is symbolic of the Queen Bajfdjska(long name) from Java who married Prince Udayana of Bali shortly before the building of Goa Gaja. As legend has it, the Queen only married the prince if he would take her as his only wife (polygamy is common among kings, even today). But, he went against her wishes and took on a new wife. She was so furious that she started practicing black magic and was transformed into a witch, Ragma, which incidentally Durga has been represented as in the past. We were really only supposed to write about the site and conduct an interview to back up our secondary source, but I was just too interested when I started making the connections. There are more, but I will spare you lol. It is my friend's birthday tonight, so we are taking her out to dinner.

Tomorrow I am attending a toothfiling ceremony with my family, a wedding, and am then heading out to my Academic Director's village called Munduk Pakel with nine students from Bali. There, we will work in the rice field, practice gamelan music, learn a flirtation dance called Joged Bumbung, will conduct interviews in preparation for our ISP, and will live with host families. From there, we will travel around Bali for another six days, so I will have much to tell in my next entry! Hope all is well!