A day Trip in Bali

March 11th

What an action packed day today! My driver, Fidel picked me up super early and proceeded to tell me about what the day will look like.

First stop--Barong Dance. The play represents an eternal fight between good and evil spirits. Barong (a mythological animal) represents a good spirit and Rangda (mythological monster) represents and evil one. The dance was beautiful, but it wasn't simply Balinese dancing, it was a story with various creatures acting, and live music.

Next, Batik: a place where I got to see the process by which local women make sarongs. I was in awe of the amount of work it takes to make 1 sarong, and the tedious process. To think.. all that work ends up in a small market place where us westerners bargain and can buy it for a few dollars.

Celuk was the next town that I stopped in where there were dozens and dozens of these gold/silver stores. Massive stores filled with jewelery... I kept asking Fidel, "how in the world do these stores survive, with such high competition, and sometimes low tourism?"

Ubud Market was bigger than I expected it to be, and I was actually a little afraid that I'd get lost because all the booths start to look the same after a while. I put my bartering skills to good use, even though I didn't really want to buy anything, as I don't have room for it. One of the lady's wanted 250,000 rupiahs for a sarong, and I ended up getting her down to 40,000 and I think if I really wanted it, she would have come down even more.

After the market, Fidel drove me to The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, where I went camera crazy taking pics of these cute little monkeys and the sanctuary that they live in. Amazing.

Kintamani was the next stop, and on the way there I was able to see rice fields for the first time. In Kintamani, I had a buffet lunch overlooking the famous volcano. Once I sat down on the terrace, I thought it was just too beautiful of a spot to not share it with someone, so I ran back outside to get Fidel--I would have treated him to lunch--but he had already left. Having lunch/dinner at a nice place was another great fear of mine, and today I overcame that!

Fidel wanted to ensure that I had a memorable day so we then drove about 2 hours to Tampaksiring Temple, where I had to wear a sarong to cover my legs. I pictured a temple to look like one big building, but really it's on acres of land, with many sacred ponds, smaller temples, statues. This place was really spiritual, women were making offerings, people were praying and leaving offerings on an 'alter' type structure. I could have stayed here all day.

After that, Fidel drove me to the Uluwatu temple where I experienced the highlight of my day: the Kecak and Fire dance. It is the most unique Balinese dance which has a choir of about 70 men, who perform 'sanghyang' or a trance dance. In this dance/ceremony, a person is in a state of trance and communicates with the deities or ancestors. I am truly blessed to have experienced such an amazing culture today.