Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Jill and Susan arrived last night around 11. We met them for breakfast and decided we’d like to see a little something of Bali today other than the pool. We arranged for a car to take us on a scenic drive for the day.
Our driver’s name was Noman and the first stop was the Water Temple. The temple (Taman Ayun in Men Gwi) was rectangular in layout and we walked past numerous pagodas of graduating heights, each level of the pagoda with a lovely thatched roof. Surrounding the entire Temple were channels of sacred water.
We noticed that people leave offerings to the spirits everywhere. Offerings are small square palm leaf trays containing sweets, fruit, and incense. We noticed many trees “dressed” in black and white checked fabric – this is done with statues, too, and often the statues are shaded with umbrellas made of the same material. It’s very charming. Noman explained to us that black and white signifies good and evil to the Hindu people of Bali.
We stopped at a roadside stand to sample fruit. My favorite was the yellow, fleshy Jet-fruit and Scott’s was the Mangosteen. Mangosteens are a small round fruit the color of eggplant and are hard outside with a stem. You break the Mangosteen open and inside are sweet, fleshy fruits that resemble a white tangerine. As we drove we saw bananas, papayas and mangoes growing on trees.
It was an overcast day and occasionally we had short heavy rain. Most of the vehicles on the roads are small motorcycles and trucks. Noman said that probably every person in Bali owns a motorcycle. Roads very tight like those in Northern Vietnam; cars pass both ways but the road is really designed for only one car. As we drove, we were amazed by how lush and green the island is. In addition to green, color abounds in flowers such as magenta bougainvillea, white and yellow frangipani, red poinsettias, pink hibiscus.
Balinese women carry just about everything on their heads. It was amazing to see elderly women with ramrod straight backs carrying huge bundles of wood or coconuts or large baskets on their heads. Apparently they begin as young children. This must be the world’s best protection against osteoporosis.
We were lucky to glimpse a celebration going on at a small village temple. Noman said the people celebrate the age of a temple every six months. Men were dressed in bright yellow clothing. When we hopped out of the car to take a photo, we were delighted to hear gamelan music being played inside. We weren’t allowed to step inside, but I took a quick photo of women and children sitting near the temple entrance.
Our next drive was to see some of the rice terraces (in Jatiluwah) that Bali is so known for. Rice is grown practically everywhere, even in small plots in town. At this time of year crops are green and not ready for harvest. The Balinese plant two crops per year (and grow numerous kinds of rice including “sticky” and black rice) and the rice will be ready to harvest in two months. We even saw oxen being used to till the rice fields.
By 4pm, we had been driving all day and decided it was time to check out some of the shops in Seminyak, which is just north of Legian where we are staying. We window shopped a bit and then returned to the hotel exhausted, had drinks and dinner and collapsed into bed.
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