list of bali thing

[tielan]

Before I forget.

Wednesday Night

- arrive exhausted, get picked up at airport by host, driven to host's place: traditional Balinese house a little outside of Ubud
- wake up, fed simple breakfast by host (not trad. Balinese breakfast, but kind of a french toast already spread with chocolate and coconut syrup)
- food tour at 3pm: great guide - Putu - had 12 years exp on a cruise ship so could explain complicated faith concepts in solid English. Got taken to Denpasar markets, but was pretty quiet because it was during Galungan, a Balinese holy day

Penyekeban: 3 days before (Cooking of bananas for offerings)
Penyajaan: 2 days before (Making of jaja - fried rice cakes)
Penampahan: 1 day before (Slaughtering of pigs or chicken for feasts)
Galungan
Manis Galungan: 1 day after (Visiting family)
Kuningan: 10 days after (Prayers, offerings - spirits return to heaven)
Manis Kuningan: 11 days after (Fun)

Had lots of food, have notes somewhere. I liked Putu as a guide because he was really good at answering questions about the culture and the faith, which our host struggled with. Our host seems young, maybe mid-20s, living with his parents' generation and maybe his grandparents' generation on the family 'estate' in the village. More about that later.

Friday
Monkey Forest: large spots of downpour
Ubud: some of the fancy shops, some of the market shops - I have three things I want to buy while here: a pair of loose elasticised cotton pants, a silk shift-dress, and a length of fabric to make a dress. (I know. Me and fabric.)
Were supposed to come back to see the Uluwatu temple sunset and Kecak and Flame dances there, before a seafood dinner, but the guy didn't read our "okay" as a confirmation of our going that night and so he didn't pick us up. We switched it to Saturday.

Saturday
- got a phone card with SIM for continuing use in Indonesia
- went to farmer's market at Moksa restaurant, and explored attached permie garden
- Uluwati temple tour in the afternoon

The temple was pretty but I didn't have anyone explaining things to me, so it wasn't as interesting as it was to all the people taking photos...and there were too many people to take the kind of photos that I wanted to take. The Kecak Dance was interesting, but more in the stories that they told and how they told it: they rely on you to know the story, to have the background before you step into the performance. And the performance itself is kind of like a meditation to the deities, so it doesn't necessarily have meaning to the viewer unless you are also in the meditation to the deities.

I think the Flame Dance was pretty much just them setting up a circle of light fuel material around a performer (the Monkey King of the Kecak Dance) and setting it alight. I was expecting something more like the candle dance which apparently is more west Sumatran than Balinese.

Watch on YouTube

Sunday
- relocate to our second stay (we thought we'd try a second location; kind of glad we did)

Monday (planned)
- batik making
- silver smithing
- maybe the markets for the three things I'm looking for

TUesday
- relocate to Kuta (necessary after our flight got pushed back a day)
- be 'touris-touris'

Two flies in the ointment:
- uncle of the host addressed me the first time of meeting with "hello beautiful"
- host (young, maybe 20s) asked both my travelling companion and me if we had boyfriends. She said yes, and got asked why he wasn't travelling with her; I said no, and while he didn't ask for my number there and then, when I got the Indonesian SIM card with data and an IDR phone number, he wanted my phone number, and then asked the guy in the shop if he'd be able to contact me with it when I left Indonesia.

A general observation:
- I really hate feeling like every interaction has a value attached to it. So, you know when someone is asking you something with an intention behind it that's blatantly obvious? (eg. a guy asking if you have a boyfriend when he intends to hit on you if you don't) So here, a lot of questions that might be innocuous in other countries take on a loaded meaning when it's all 'clickbait marketing'.

So they ask if you're doing something, if you're busy, do you have plans for the next few days, what do you like doing?

What they're doing is scoping you out for business opportunities. They can drive you here and there! They have someone who can take you to that place! They can suggest this thing!

It gets tiring after a while. I just want to say "look, stop suggesting things. I would be so much more likely to recommend you if you're not so pushy" but that's not their style here. They don't make money by standing out, they make money by being the same as everyone else but hustling ahead of the pack.

Which, I guess, is becoming a western thing, too. One doesn't get noticed by being unique, special, or better anymore. And thus is created a curious paradox. Because people aren't noticed by being 'better' anymore, our fantasies are heavily trending that way (the Chosen One narrative, the Special One, the Good Person, the Honourable Hero), but the way we sell that fantasy is by pushing something that's a lot like everything else out there, merely differentiated by the size of the explosions and the secrecy of the plot.

I think it's about time that we headed out to our next stay.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

It's great that you found a good guide in that first place. We've been fortunate in our travels to generally have someone who is either local, or very familiar with the area. It makes for an easier trip!

[paulamcg]

Thank you for sharing so much about your travels (in places where I’ve never been and I’ll probably never get to go), and also that thought based on what people offer. It must be true in entertainment: you must fit in a genre. And I feel it’s true in fandom: you don’t get attention if you are unique, and you learn you’d better resort to tropes.