OMG! How did that much time pass since I last wrote in this blog?! Honestly it is a mystery to me how it is possible that when you first begin a trip/adventure the time seems to stretch out in front of you like it is endless but the nearer you get to the end date....that same time begins to FLY BY! This is definitely the case for us. We’ve been using a calendar (thanks Summerland Credit Union) to have a common visual that is easy to access and update. Those little squares have been so full the past several days that there is little white space left on the page!
My last post referenced a movie we were going to see...(I’m Not Your Negro) at BetelNut. It was a great documentary that proved to be very thought provoking and encouraging of interesting conversation for the rest of that evening but by the next morning our thoughts had turned to what was on our calendar for that day. A Balinese Cooking class. :-). What a delicious way to spend a day! Delicious for so many reasons. Of course there was the obvious ...that we’d get to eat all that we cooked and boy were we stuffed when we rolled out of there mid afternoon! But it was also delicious to visit the Ubud market where we learned about everything from Balinese ceremonial offerings to spices and exotic fruit and veg. We got to experience the back recesses of the market first hand. For me, it was reminiscent of my very first market in India so many years ago. The dichotomy of smells that simultaneously assault the senses....fresh and stale/animal and human/perfume of incense blended with the stench of garbage/ the unique aromas of items like durian (smells a bit like a strong cheese) and pandan (smells something like freshly mowed grass)/exotic spices/coffee/and...well you get the idea.... On top of that there is the heat and humidity, the slippery floors, the noise of people bargaining/trolleys making their way down the narrow aisles/dogs barking/vehicles honking/vendors setting up their tourist wares as others take down their domestic produce and local items. Yes, it is truly a place all abustle! Life in the market begins before the sun is even up every morning (about 4 a.m.) and it doesn’t really end until about 11 pm. The switch from a focus on local to tourist sales takes place around 10 or 11 a.m. But enough about the market because I haven’t even gotten to the cooking yet!
We were taken by van to Ketut’s Cooking School (formerly Payuk Cooking School) in a little village about 15 minutes from the market. The road led us through rice fields and residential areas.....all sights of the city were left behind. Did you know there are 4 kinds of ginger?! Well there are! And did you know that you have to rock your wrist back and forth in a mortar and pestle about a million times to crush roasted peanuts enough to turn them into peanut sauce? Well you do! And did you know that Bumbu Bali is a blend of spices (16 I think there were) that are turned into a paste that was then used in every single dish we made at the school? How did we turn them into a paste you ask.....well.....we had to use a massive log as a pestle (almost as tall as me) that we smashed into an oversized mortar that was on the floor at our feet.....and again......approximately one million smashes are required. Cooking Bali style is a whole new type of exercise program! In the end we enjoyed: soup, rice, fried noodles, chicken curry, chicken satay, peanut sauce, fish cooked in banana leaf, sambal (a spicy sauce that has many many recipes but that is served with every meal so the guests can spice things up to their liking), and caramelized bananas with ice cream (we used cooking bananas/plantains that are much firmer and less sweet than the bananas we have at home). Is your mouth watering yet? Ours sure were by the time we were finished preparing everything and ready to sit down to eat! It was all unbelievably delicious and all of the grinding and pounding and chopping was totally worth it. :-). By the time we arrived back to our rooms all we could think of was laying down in a cool air conditioned room for a quick little cat nap....something we seem to be growing quite accustomed to of late. LOL!
The next big event we attended was a royal cremation. I feel so fortunate to have been able to experience one of these both times I’ve been here but for Tami and Barb it was a new experience. Rhiannon decided to join us for the day and so there were four. It is difficult to describe just what a royal cremation is like but in an attempt to do so I’ll ask you to imagine that the courtyard outside the Vatican (when the pope is making an appearance) is filled beyond capacity. Many of the people are devout and others are curious tourists anxious to get a feel for this very unique and special occasion. Now cross that scene with a busy day at Disneyland.....there are vendors and people are having fun. It is hot and made even more so by the fact that you’re in the middle of a massive crowd. The humidity is stifling and you’re not sure if you need a shower or just had one as you’re soaked right through. Are you getting the picture? I am not exaggerating. There are literally thousands of people crammed into the crossroads in front of the Ubud Palace as this is the only city where royal cremations ever take place. The tower that will carry the body of the deceased (who passed away about 6 weeks earlier) has been under construction at this location for at least a month. It is 27 meters tall and has been decorated with wings and faces and snakes and a turtle. It truly is a work of art! The top. Section of this tower was just added this morning. It is a pagoda shaped structure that sits above the body and feels like we’ve just watched the “cake” be iced via a feat of engineering the likes of which none of us has ever seen before. The pagoda shaped topper is tall.....almost as tall as the tower was before it was added. This entire structure is built of bamboo and wood. It must be HEAVY and as we’ve walked past it during its construction we’ve marvelled at the fact that it is supported by nothing more than a few single bamboo poles. Men have been climbing all over the structure using a portable type of scaffolding to attach the various decorations (wings etc) and never once have we seen it even wiggle on it’s foundation! If we’d seen nothing else other than the construction of this tower we would have had a forever memory locked in there but honestly....the tower is just one aspect of the grandeur. In addition to the tower there has been a massive bull built elsewhere and transported to the front of the palace where it has been watching over the proceedings for the two weeks preceding the actual cremation day. The bull is also massive! I’m not certain of the height of it but my best guess is that it is about 20’ tall and then add to that the fact that it sits atop a platform that is about 3 feet tall....it too is an imposing figure. The bull is beautiful! It is likely made of a wooden framework and paper mache that has then been covered with fabric that actually looks like the hair you’d see on a beautiful big black bull. This bull is designed to be exactly accurate in all ways. The ratios of leg to neck and body to head all make it appear like there is really a massive bull standing there in front of the palace! In addition, the bull’s anatomy is added in detail too. This year I noticed something I didn’t see last year (but that I’m assured is always there) was the string of sperm that is attached to the bull’s erect penis....yes you read that right! Even to that detail this bull is perfection and able to demonstrate his good health and fertility as he carries the deceased into the next life. That is his purpose you see....the body will be carried through the streets (followed by thousands) on that very tall tower for a little more than a km. Once the cremation site is reached the body will be moved from the tower to inside the body of that bull as it’s back will have been cut open at the cremation site. Once final prayers have been made over the body now inside the bull it, and the bull, will be burned till there is nothing but ash left. This year, the same as last, I felt a combination of emotion at being privy to this auspicious event and marvel at the engineering and logistics feat that it all is. This ceremony (from the time that the body is placed into the tower until it is finished burning) takes the better part of a full day and the entire ceremony (there are many events that occur prior to this and that will take place afterward) will take several weeks (maybe as much as a month). By the time the body had been moved into the bull I was ready to call it a day and begin to head in the direction of home (still a long walk on a hot day. Very early in the day Barb had become separated from the rest of us so it was just three of us making our way home around 4:30 that afternoon. We learned later that Barb had stayed longer and had witnessed the actual cremation so we were able to swap stories about our experiences. She’d missed the moving of the body from the tower to the bull and we’d missed the burning but in the end we got to hear about and see photos of it all.
This particular cremation had been for one of the queen’s (second wife of the old king or second mother to the current king if the info I have is actually accurate and there is no guarantee of that! LOL). I am certain it was a queen but the details of which one are where it gets a little murky. When it is a royal cremation it takes place at this Ubud Palace and it happens within a few weeks of their death but for every other Balinese person the location would be their own village/temple and the cremation would not take place immediately following the death. In fact, it may be up to 5 years before their body will be cremated and the rest of the ceremonies will occur. Cremations and the associated ceremonies are very expensive and so villages band together to have group cremations. Individuals are buried when they die and then exhumed when it is time for the cremation. Just one more very very interesting thing that is the norm here in Bali. And just one more fantastic example of what we’ve been privy to as we’ve been given the gift of peeking behind the curtain of this beautiful culture.
So much has happened since I last wrote and with all this running around I’ve found myself in need of a couple new tops so decided to visit Wayan the tailor at Rai Pasti (just a little way up the street and down another tiny gang much like the one we take to get to our accommodation). I have him a couple of my tops, some fabric I’d picked up in Seminyak, and he promised to get them back to me asap. I was counting on the ASAP part as I don’t have many clothes here to start with so being without a couple of them meant that I’d be wearing the same thing pretty much every day! In the end, Wayan came through and I now have my old stuff plus a couple new things to mix it up for the last couple weeks of my time here.
Neither Barb nor Tami had ever seen Uluwatu and it really is a place that everyone who visits Bali must experience soooo.....we decided to make a massive road trip of it and do both Uluwatu and Tanah Lot in the same day! And...since we were already in a westerly direction and since Tami hadn’t yet been to La Laguna in Canggu and since Barb and I were happy to go there again....we decided to make it our final stop of the day for sunset at the beach. What a great day it turned out to be! We had to be in the car and on the road by 8 a.m. which is early but.....we’re glad we made the effort. We were slightly ahead of some of the traffic and it meant that we could be at both Uluwatu and Tanah Lot ahead of the afternoon crowds that flock to both places for sunset. The weather couldn’t have been better (but it was HOT). Even Barb was sweating for part of it! That truly is an indication of how hot and humid it was. Tami is a pretty good sweat’er and I am literally a professional sweat’er but when Barb sweats you know there may soon be flames shooting up from the earth’s surface or that one of us (likely Lorrie) may spontaneously combust at any second! Even at the top of Tanah Lot (where there is a shaded area that usually is home to a beautiful cross breeze) it was hot enough for the lizards to be moving slow enough that Tami was able to photograph one of them from up close! In spite of that heat both temples were once again highlights for all three of us. You could never get tired of visiting either of those phenomenally naturally beautiful locations that are home to a sense of spirituality born in the fact that people have been using them to pray, give offerings, worship, and meditate for thousands of years. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again...I attribute some of the magic of Bali and the ‘love bubble’ that is Ubud to the fact that the spiritual practice of the Balinese people is constant and ever present. All those offerings and gratitude and contemplative intentional practice does something to the ether....the gentle goodness that lives here is tangible.
After a day of wandering the cliff sides and trails of those two special temples we set off for Canggu and La Laguna. Canggu is another little city that is generally most popular with a younger crowd but it is also home to some great scenery and in particular one restaurant on the beach that both Barb and I really enjoy and that we wanted to introduce Tami to. As usual, Jati’s timing was perfect and so we arrived at La Laguna with just the right amount of lead time to find the “best” table to watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean. It was exquisite! Honestly, it may stick in my memory bank as one of the most perfect sunsets I’ve ever seen. Not that the skies were super clear, in fact there were lots of cloud BUT thanks to Tami we saw shapes in those clouds that actually told a story and that were as clear as if they were written on paper. In addition, there was a small pool of water on the beach directly between our table and the ocean/sunset so we got the sunset as a reflection almost more clearly than we did in the sky! Dinner at La Laguna was also perfect. All of our meals were delicious and coupled with the view.....nothing could have made it any better. La Laguna is designed around a gypsy style decor. Nothing particularly Balinese about it except that it conjures up a zen and tranquil and slightly exotic vibe that has everything to do with Bali. By the time we arrived home that night 13 hours had passed since we’d climbed in the car that morning...yes....it was a long day but a good one!
The next day Barb and I decided we’d treat ourselves to some R and R in the form of a visit to Verona (my favourite local spa). I opted for the four hand with Ngurah and Mila. This talented twosome are magical in my estimation and so if you’re in Ubud at Verona on Monkey Forest Rd I encourage you to ask for them by name. I’ve had other four hand massages but the one they give is different and I LOVE IT! If there was a way I could bring them home....honestly....I would! While I was off in la la land with my 4 hand, Barb was enjoying a spice massage and bath. That meant that her therapist used a blend of spices in the body scrub that followed her massage and that her bath was filled with a spicy sachet vs the flower petals that I was soaking in over in my own little oasis. Two hours later both of us rolled out of there with smiles on our faces and a second appointment booked for the following week.
I will leave this post here for now and come back to write another as soon as I can.
So....till then,
Lorrie, Barb, and Tami
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