Monday 24 April: a quite reasonable trip on Garuda despite being re-routed through Brisbane, got to Bali about 3pm local time, easy through customs and immigration and caught a taxi to Sanur where we were staying for the first week. Last year we paid about 50,000 Rupiah but the cost of petrol there has skyrocketed since then so we had to pay 80,000 rupiah, about $11 Aus.
When we checked in at the Puri Santrian we were greeted warmly by the manager who remembered us from last year, however after he checked our vouchers he discovered that there was no record of our bookings from Qantas holidays, he was very embarrassed as the rooms we had booked were full, so we were upgraded to the Club wing (where we were last year), worked out really well for us. We had ground floor rooms two steps from the pool. Although there are not too many Australians in Bali the place was packed with Germans and Dutch..
This hotel does a lot of marketing in Europe and runs at about 70% occupancy whereas the others in Sanur are only at about 30%. The Balinese shop and stall holders are really doing it tough as the Germans tend not to leave the hotel grounds during the day so as we wandered up and down the main street and into the markets we were usually the only tourists to be seen. The restaurants at night tended to be a bit busier as the Europeans eat out at night. We went into one market area about a mile or so up the road and we were really hounded as apparently we were the first customers they had seen in three weeks. Only bought a couple of small things.
The problem with the downturn in tourists is that the markets and shops don't turn over the goods and most of the stuff looked tatty and dirty/dusty. Really most of it was junk anyway so we didn't do much shopping in the Sanur area and intended to get most of the things we wanted in Ubud. However I bought a leather coat, great value at $130, fitted like a glove.
We had a breakfast package at the hotel and each morning we would sit in the upstairs dining area overlooking the lagoon with a small gamelan orchestra playing in the courtyard below. Real resort stuff, the food was excellent with a full range of cooked food and fruit with lots of Balinese coffee. I had an omelette or poached eggs while my wife and our friend (first time Bali traveller) would do the bacon and eggs thing. At night we would walk out to the beach where there were lots of restaurants on the sand lit by flares with seafood and Indonesian dishes.
On the Wednesday we rang our friend Gede who spent some time with us last year to see if we could catch up at some stage. Well, you would have thought we were visiting royalty.
Firstly, he rang us back on Wednesday night and said that there was a 'Tooth Filing Ceremony' in his village on the Thursday and he would pick us up at 7am to take us. (he was one of the 'honoured guests' (Turns out that he is of royal Balinese blood and is a very highly respected member of his village/community.)
A tooth filing ceremony is something every Balinese has as a final rite of passage, the final gift the parents give the child. In Balinese carvings, masks etc all the ‘demons' have long and sharp eyeteeth. To make sure that you do not resemble a demon each person has their eyeteeth filed so that they are square and even with the other teeth. These days it is more a symbolic act however it sure looked more than symbolic to me.
Some of the participants were related to Gede, that's how he ended up being there. It was held in the Family compound of his neighbour and they converted the central square to a temple area. Prior to this ceremony, there was a 'Post Cremation' ceremony (this particular one can be held at anytime after the cremation, in this case about ten years have passed) where the family of the deceased gather to pay respects to the deceased. It's a full Hindu ceremony and the family circle three times around the 'alter' where the priest blesses the offerings being carried on the heads of the women relatives and the men lead a sacred cow on a leash. This particular young cow is very much in demand as his colouring is perfect yellow. That is done with much chanting, burning of incest etc. Very colourful.
The tooth filing ceremony then follows. The participants, boy and 2 girls get dressed up to the nines in traditional Balinese prince/princess outfit. Very colourful. They are laid on the their back on a raised platform where the priest does the filing and then the blessings. This took till about 2pm, much food and soft drinks and water on hand. This was all followed by a traditional ‘Mask Dance' performed by Gede's brother who is a professional dancer. He travels all over the world doing the traditional things for the Bali tourism Board. He also makes the bull and towers for the cremations.
Everyone there welcomed us and made us feel like honoured guests, made sure we were seated in the front and those that could speak English told us what was happening. We all had to get dressed up in our finest temple clothes that Gede supplied and dressed us in. We left our temple clothes with Gede but his wife who is a tailor/seamstress had made for my wife a 'kebaya' traditional women's blouse and sarong as a gift so when we arrived back at the hotel we were met by the manager and staff who made such a fuss over her. When we told the manager what we had been doing he said that we were very lucky as not many people get to see the ''mask' dance these days as there are fewer and fewer men learning the art and to be able to see it in a non tourist setting was especially important.
The following day we were invited to a tradition Balinese wedding of a girl who also stayed with us the year before last and we had met here fiancé while we were in Bali last year. The wedding was held in his family compound and was a Hindu ceremony with lots of symbolism, blessings by the priest etc. Typically it was all done on 'Island Time' or as it is know in Bali 'Rubber Time', we were asked to get there at 9am for a two hour ceremony, needless to say it didn't start till 1130 so at about 2 pm we had to go because our driver was running out of time. Once again we were made to feel that we were honoured guests (we were the only non Balinese at this and the tooth filing ceremony). We didn't have to get dressed up in our temple gear for this one so Graeme and I bought a nice batik shirt each to wear.
On the Saturday Gede then collected us from the hotel and took us up to the mountains to the large volcano. In the crater is a large lake and on the other side of the lake is a village dating back to about 1000AD populated by 'aboriginals' as the Balinese call them. In this village they have a rather strange burial custom. Just outside the village grows an enormous Sandalwood tree. The only one growing on Bali and is supposed to be about 2000 years old. Here they lay the bodies of the dead out on the ground and cover them with a wicker frame and let the bodies just rot away. For some unknown reason, attributed to the Sandalwood tree, the bodies do not putrefy or smell. The place is littered with bones and skulls. A bit strange, maybe gruesome, but oddly interesting.
I have writtten this for my family who have not been to Bali so if it sounds a little simplified for you Bali regulars, I apologise.
More later if you would like , eg cremation and gulangan