There is a song that plays at the MiniMart down the road - "All I want for Christmas is you" (which is my current earworm). There is a line in it that goes "I don't want a lot for Christmas, I won't even wish for snow..." and really, I can't think of a more unlikely wish to come true in Bali. It is so hot here, hot even for me, who is used to the heat after all this time. Do you know that they do "hot yoga" here at 42 degrees Celsius?! I don't know if you could even get a room up to 42 degrees in Canada. ("For a really good stretch!" - lordy, I'd be eligible for Cirque du Soleil).
Bali is a beautiful place, and many, many people have discovered this fact. I think that the sum total of the industry here is tourism and all things associated with it. We have been in many touristy places over the last year, but i must say that in Bali, I have never felt more like a mark. I keep hoping that someone will say "hello" to me without adding on the "...massage?" or "....transport?" or "...taxi?" or "...surfboard?" or "...come see my shop?" or "...sunglasses?" or any of the other innumerable things that they might be selling here. I realize that this is how they make their money and their livelihood, but...I just feel like we're about to scammed all the time. It's not a comfortable way to feel.
Though there are lovely parts of Bali that you can find if you sneak up on them.
In the morning and afternoon, ladies walk around with platters on their heads with little green baskets made out of palm fronds. They fill them with seeds and flowers and crackers and incense and leave them on the numerous alters that are distributed around the island, making the air smell fragrant.
The funny thing is that people also leave them in front of storefronts and houses and out on the streets, leaving tourists to wonder whether they've just done something sacreligious by kicking the little basket across the road, as so often happens. I think that they are supposed to be kind of destroyed...the birds go and eat the seeds, the incense burns, the flowers dry up. These offerings are replaced twice a day. It IS kind of funny though, seeing a tourist trying to put a basket back together after accidently messing it up.
Yesterday we were walking along an almost empty road (a rare enough occurance in a land overwhelmed by motorbikes along narrow, winding streets) and came across a ceremony in front of one of the temples.
Everyone was dressed in a white shirt and everyone was carrying offerings for the temple. Under a tent, there were more people standing with larger offerings, a chinese-type hairy brown dragon with a moveable mouth, and dancers dancing to the music of the clanging xylophone-type instruments and gongs making melodies on the street.
The ladies would lay the offerings at the feet of the dragon, who would clack his jaws and stomp all over the baskets. Then these guys took knives and stuck them into their chests - HARD! I think the ends were quite dull, and they didn't draw blood, but it looked painful all the same.
We were happy to feel like we had encountered something authentic, something real, that wasn't just put on for the tourists, but that was important to the local people.
Every day we go to the beach and try to simultaneously catch a wave (on the boogy-board) and avoid a sunburn. Everyone's earworm should be "wipeout" because it's an ideal beach for learning to surf...and falling in the water. There was one Japanese fellow yesterday who was taking a lesson and who had trouble lying on the board even when he wasn't moving...I think he'll need a few more lessons.
We leave Bali in a few days. Christmas in Thailand...I think!
ACDB
Bali is a beautiful place, and many, many people have discovered this fact. I think that the sum total of the industry here is tourism and all things associated with it. We have been in many touristy places over the last year, but i must say that in Bali, I have never felt more like a mark. I keep hoping that someone will say "hello" to me without adding on the "...massage?" or "....transport?" or "...taxi?" or "...surfboard?" or "...come see my shop?" or "...sunglasses?" or any of the other innumerable things that they might be selling here. I realize that this is how they make their money and their livelihood, but...I just feel like we're about to scammed all the time. It's not a comfortable way to feel.
Though there are lovely parts of Bali that you can find if you sneak up on them.
In the morning and afternoon, ladies walk around with platters on their heads with little green baskets made out of palm fronds. They fill them with seeds and flowers and crackers and incense and leave them on the numerous alters that are distributed around the island, making the air smell fragrant.
The funny thing is that people also leave them in front of storefronts and houses and out on the streets, leaving tourists to wonder whether they've just done something sacreligious by kicking the little basket across the road, as so often happens. I think that they are supposed to be kind of destroyed...the birds go and eat the seeds, the incense burns, the flowers dry up. These offerings are replaced twice a day. It IS kind of funny though, seeing a tourist trying to put a basket back together after accidently messing it up.
Yesterday we were walking along an almost empty road (a rare enough occurance in a land overwhelmed by motorbikes along narrow, winding streets) and came across a ceremony in front of one of the temples.
Everyone was dressed in a white shirt and everyone was carrying offerings for the temple. Under a tent, there were more people standing with larger offerings, a chinese-type hairy brown dragon with a moveable mouth, and dancers dancing to the music of the clanging xylophone-type instruments and gongs making melodies on the street.
The ladies would lay the offerings at the feet of the dragon, who would clack his jaws and stomp all over the baskets. Then these guys took knives and stuck them into their chests - HARD! I think the ends were quite dull, and they didn't draw blood, but it looked painful all the same.
We were happy to feel like we had encountered something authentic, something real, that wasn't just put on for the tourists, but that was important to the local people.
Every day we go to the beach and try to simultaneously catch a wave (on the boogy-board) and avoid a sunburn. Everyone's earworm should be "wipeout" because it's an ideal beach for learning to surf...and falling in the water. There was one Japanese fellow yesterday who was taking a lesson and who had trouble lying on the board even when he wasn't moving...I think he'll need a few more lessons.
We leave Bali in a few days. Christmas in Thailand...I think!
ACDB
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