I'm going to backtrack here and mention an interesting place we stopped along the way here from Tulamben. It was a 'bat temple' called Goa Lawajh which was set off the main road and backed by miles of jungle. We hired a guide to show us around the temple levels. Unlike some public temples, we were allowed into most of the space here.
In the courtyard we found a huge Er tree (a type of Banyan) draped in symbolic cloths. This tree is sacred in the village. We often see the big Banyan (strangler fig) trees dotted around villages and also draped in yellow or black-and-white chequered cloths. These trees are revered here as holy or sacred entities.
But the real spectacle here is the presence of thousands of fruit bats inside main temple. The temple itself is aligned along cave structures set into the mountain side. At the entrance to the caves, Hindus come to place offerings and say prayers.
Our boys found many chickens running around the temple grounds and picked up a large chick to cuddle. (Slightly different to the types of chicks Justin would like to cuddle!). There aren't many roosters running about, but we see these inside wicker baskets all along the roadways, waiting to be used in the infamous local cock fights (I won't get into those as they make me sad and squeamish at the same time!!)
We also stopped at a restaurant that had an mazing view over rice fields. An interesting 'extra' was a bat that hangs out at the front entrance. It looks like the bat could fly off anywhere he'd like ... but stays on a single branch most of the time. It is fed like a pet and I guess that's the appeal to staying put. Anyway, we thought he was incredibly cute and were feeding him triangles of watermelon which he grabbed with his little claws and munched greedily.
In the courtyard we found a huge Er tree (a type of Banyan) draped in symbolic cloths. This tree is sacred in the village. We often see the big Banyan (strangler fig) trees dotted around villages and also draped in yellow or black-and-white chequered cloths. These trees are revered here as holy or sacred entities.
But the real spectacle here is the presence of thousands of fruit bats inside main temple. The temple itself is aligned along cave structures set into the mountain side. At the entrance to the caves, Hindus come to place offerings and say prayers.
We also stopped at a restaurant that had an mazing view over rice fields. An interesting 'extra' was a bat that hangs out at the front entrance. It looks like the bat could fly off anywhere he'd like ... but stays on a single branch most of the time. It is fed like a pet and I guess that's the appeal to staying put. Anyway, we thought he was incredibly cute and were feeding him triangles of watermelon which he grabbed with his little claws and munched greedily.
Also, I forgot to mention that at Besekih temple we had met an artist named Neuman from whom we purchased 4 beautiful paintings of Hindu dancers. He arranged to deliver these to us the following morning at our hotel in Ubud. Neuman arrived as promised and we sat around discussing the artist communities here in Ubud. Neuman lived in one of these villages as a young arts apprentice. This is a common route for becoming an artist - to live in a compound or village of artists. He offered to take us around to visit his old village where he still visits to see family and friends.
We all went on an impromptu trip with Neuman to the village. There we met Made Ocen who was hard at work on a painting he had been drawing for 5 months so far. The work is incredibly intricate and involves sketching out a large scene, every inch filled with fine detail. The initial penciled sketch is shaded and then goes through a process of being traced over by a sharpened piece of bamboo dipped in a mixture of volcanic ash and black ink. Then the painting is slowly and delicately colored in until the final result is achieved.
The artists' compound is filled with buildings of beautiful stone and brick work with ornately carved wooden doors. Each artist works from one of these little houses that are mainly porch with a small room big enough for a matress to rest on. In the compound is a temple - I'm not sure if this would be considered a family or a professional temple. The temple is used for ceremonies such as for cremations.
Ocen worked with Andy and Ben to show them how to draw in his style by having them trace with the volcanic ash ink over his lightly penciled dragons. They loved this and I think would have easily spent many days with him if allowed. Ben saved his image of a dragon that has his name and Ocen's both signed at the bottom of their collaboration.
Back in Ubud centre, Justin and I went for a small walk through the Monkey Forest at the centre of the village. These monkeys are like the ones at Sangeh - they are very used to people, but not too aggressive. They do come up and try to steal any food you might be carrying - and you can buy a bunch of small bananas at the gates for a few cents. I was so scared of the bigger and very confident macaques that I admit I literally flung bananas near them so they wouldn't jump on me to get them ... but I don't think they hurt people to get them actually!!
We decided to go on a cycling tour of the area north of Ubud and went with a company called Bali Eco Cycling Tours. They took us and a few other people high up in the mountains overlooking Lake Batur and Mt Batur. We started with a good Balinese buffet breakfast with pancakes and black rice pudding in a restaurant that overlooked the lake. The owner of the restaurant is a local who filled us in on the history of the towns and people around Lake Batur.
Our second stop on the cycle tour was at an organic coffee plantation. This was not your usual coffee processing place, the specialty here is Luwak kopi (Balinese for coffee) which is made by roasting coffee beans selected from the feces of luwak animals. The idea is that the animals choose to eat only the highest quality beans and their digestive process takes the acidity out of the beans while leaving the bean whole at the end. Hmmm, interesting concept..
We all had a chance to sample 7 or 8 different types of teas and coffees -while the kids were given a hot cocoa. Some of us sampled the famous luwak coffee - which is supposed to now be the single most expensive food product in the world by weight. Justin and I had to have a sip of course. I have to say that it wasn't my cup of tea, erm, coffee. But it wasn't bad. Just a little strong and, despite the claims, acidic.
We continued our cycle tour with the main event, a downhill cycle through villages and rice paddies all the way down the mountain side. A lady named Helena and her two kids from Adelaide, Oz, joined us on the cycing tour and the kids enjoyed meeting each other. There was an 11 year old girl named Andi , so we had 'boy Andy' and 'girl Andi' for the day. Her brother Louis is 12 and they are both quite tall. We had lots of fun getting to know them and their mum Helena during the cycle.
It was such a beautiful experience to cycle through tranquil villages with locals waving 'halo' to us as we passed. They are so warm and friendly here. The amount and quality of temples in each walled home area and village never ceased to amaze me. Folks here obviously spend a lot of time and money keeping worship areas well-maintained and to-date. The rice paddies that edge the village spaces are equally beautiful with their neat green terraces and thatched roof resting huts and small temples with daily offerings.
Finally we ended up back at the Ubud Monkey Forest, just a couple of blocks from our hotel. We took all 5 kids through to feed bananas to the macaques. One jumped on Louis' backpack, searching for goodies. Others ran straight for a stack of potatoes placed out regularly by the forest staff for the monkeys.
We all enjoyed just hanging out around our hotel. It was such a comfortable place for all of us with ample space, terrific beds and decent wifi access. Best of all were the rice paddies spread through the middle of the complex. Sri Bungalows sits in a prime location on Monkey Forest Road and provides everything that a family of 5 could want.
Nearing the end of our stay in Bali, the whole family signed up for Balinese cooking lessons through Bumi Bali restaurant. All 3 boys got into the swing of things as we walked off to the marketplace (which opens at 4 AM and was winding down as we arrived around 9:30-10 AM). Ketut, our teaching chef, walked us through various different stalls of spices, vegetables and accompaniments, describing each important ingredient very carefully and waiting for questions.
After the market, we went through the creation of several recipes, stopping to taste each as it was finished. We were traversing a recipe book that was created for this class and included a nice bit about history of these spices and recipes as well. Andy and Ben took several turns going up with Ketut to help stir, blend or mash different steps.
As we were finishing the class, Sam returned from a trip to the loo informing me that they did massages there for 8 or 9 dollars and could he have one please? We laughed, but were wondering what kind of divas we were creating? He got his way and we all snuck by to see him lying down in the tranquil spa room with a leg up in the air being massaged. Oh, how will they ever get used to home again?!
Finally, it was time for us to leave Bali. We were all sad to leave. We already are discussing our return to Bali for a summertime, to coincide with the migration of the huge Mola Mola fish, whale sharks and other large sea life that migrate through from June-July up through November.
Here's the link to Bali photos - full unadulterated set without sorting yet!
No comments:
Post a Comment