Thanks for all the feedback folks, I am grateful for your positive comments, I will see what I can do about getting some photos posted somewhere. Please enjoy part 2..
After our trip across the lake to the Sandalwood tree cemetery we went to the Mother Temple. The main one where all Balinese go at some stage during the year. It dates back to about 9th century and covers many acres on the side of the largest volcano. Gede's family have a family temple there, which apparently confirms his family's status on the Island. After the temple we went to a 'Traditional Balinese village' that dates back many hundreds of years and has been preserved like the National trust houses we have so that people can see how the Balinese lived before western influence. There are people still living there who are descendants of the original villagers and make their living in traditional ways, farming, craft etc, there is s small entry fee of $1 Aud which is shared by the villagers. Once again, not many tourists so I hope they weren't depending on the entry fee for their income. At the entry point we were given a slip of paper with a house number on it for us to visit and be shown around by the family. This is to make sure that all the houses get a reasonable share of visitors. A good scheme I thought.There was an old man outside one of the homes with two roosters and he took great delight in letting them have a go at each other for the tourists.
Finally on the Sunday we moved to Ubud, Gede once again collected us from the hotel, he was so generous with his time. After we unpacked and had a swim he then took us for a drive for about half an hour to a small village where at sunset each evening thousands (no exaggeration) of white egrets come in to roost in the trees in the village. Apparently in 1965 or so when there was an anti-communist riots and a lot of people were killed these egrets just one day turned up, they had never been seen in this village before and there were no records of them occurring in these numbers in one group anywhere on the island, so the locals reckoned that they were the souls of those killed. Others reckon that it was just a natural response to environment damage caused in other parts of the island by logging and urbanisation. We sat in a small warung watching the birds and drinking fresh coconut milk straight from the shell.
The house where we stayed in Penastenan, just outside Ubud, is owned by a friend of ours who has been travelling to Bali for many years and teaches Indonesian Language and culture in a highschool on the NSW north coast. An art gallery owner who was forced to sell it due to the down turn in business due to the bombings originally built the house. It is two stories with bedroom and bathroom on ground and upstairs. A family that lives over the road looks after the place. Surani is in the marketing department of one of the 5 star hotels in Ubud and her husband Wayan works as a construction supervisor. They have two primary school age boys and the Grandfather who is retired looks after the pool and the gardens. Surani comes over each morning and makes our breakfast for about $3 a day each. We get banana pancakes or omelettes, fruit and coffee and then she cleans the house and makes the beds. Really spoilt we are. So after breakfast we have a swim and then set off for the day.
On the Sunday when Gede took us up to Ubud he was told that there was going to be a big cremation on Monday and would we like to go. Hindu cremations on Bali are a big spectacle and you can even by tickets to attend through the tour operators. However, this one was not on the tourist list and we were the only three non-Balinese there. The person was the matriarch of a very rich and important family in a village about 30 minutes drive from Ubud (cant remember the name now) and was nearly 100 years old and of royal decent. The body was laid out in a pavilion in the centre of the family compound and after quite a few ceremonies the body was carried to the funeral tower to be transported to the cemetery. The tower and the bull were placed on large bamboo platforms that were carried by all the local boys who would chant, sing, bang gongs, turn the platforms in circles and zigzag up the road. This is to confuse the spirits so that they did not follow the body to the cemetery, quite noisy and spectacular, you can see why it's on the tourist list.
The cemetery was about one and a half kilometres from the house and there would have been about 200 or 300 people following.
Once at the cemetery (a large open paddock) the top of the bull is taken off and the body transferred from the tower to lay in the open part of the bull. Many prayers and offerings and blessings then happen after which the top of the bull was replaced. In past years the bull would be placed on top of a large wooden pyre but as wood is getting a bit short now on the island and they are more conservation minded they bring in giant gas burners that they fire at the bottom of the bull. After the bull and the body are turned to ashes they then burn the tower so that there is nothing but ashes left. These ashes are then collected and placed in a container that in this case would be taken to the sea and scattered. If the family is not so well off they place the ashes in the nearest river that flows to the sea. It is the Balinese custom that everyone goes to the ocean after death. Once again we were treated like honoured guests when everyone found out that the man who made the tower and the bull invited us. In fact one of the priests doing the blessings of the bull took Jan from over the road where we were watching and made her sit down beside him while he performed the blessings.
So that completed about the whole cycle of Balinese life and death. Quite a cultural experience and not one that many westerners would experience in such a short time, in fact our friend who owns the house is very jealous of us as she has been going to Bali for years and has never been to a Balinese wedding and has only seen one cremation as a tourist.
The other cultural thing we did was on the Wednesday night when we went to a Monkey Dance and Fire Dance in Ubud, we had seen one before but Graeme hadn't and it was very good.
One of the main reasons we chose to go in early May was for the galungan celebrations that cover the entire island.: This is the most important Balinese holiday and symbolizes the victory of virtue (Dharma) over Evil (Adharma). The holiday is characterized by putting " Penjor " (tall Bamboo poles laboriously decorated with woven coconut leaves, cakes and flowers), on the right side of every house entrance. It is important for the Balinese to visit all their family temples on this day so Surani invited us to attend her family temple to observe the ceremonies. Once again we had to get dressed in our finest temple sarongs and ceremonial head wear called a Destar (Graeme and I immediately christened them 'death stars'). After the temple we were invited back to her family compound for morning tea. How much more cultural experiences could we cope with I wondered? After morning tea we went for a walk around the village to look at all the decorations and stumbled across a small beadwork shop where Jan just had to buy several items to bring back as presents.
About five minutes walk from the house is a little café/restaurant (called a warung in Bali) named Made's where we ate at a lot last year so after the cremation we decided to go there for late lunch, I was first to arrive and was greeted with a big 'When You Come?' you stay at Ibu Lee's house again? It's nice to be remembered. Over the next few days we managed to just about to eat our way through the menu The food was superb and very cheap, in fact the most expensive thing we paid for was the beer. Beer was about $3 a large bottle and most of the main meals were about $2 to $3. From there on a little path through the rice fields we come to the main road up to Ubud, sometimes we would walk, sometimes catch a car, cost about $2 for the three of us, needless to say in that heat an aircon car was usually the choice. In Ubud we did the massage thing and manicure, haircut and scalp massage, shopped for CD's & DVD's (about $1.50 to $2 each) and did the markets - usual genuine imitation watches, sunglasses etc. (about $8 to $10) and bought a great traditional Balinese scene painting which we now have on our new family/dining room wall.
While we were in Ubud we met up with a chap that Jan had met on her first trip who is a local tour operator (expat Australian been living there for some years now), and Ketut, a traditional Balinese dancer who stayed with us four years ago and who did some performances at Jan's school. As the tourist industry is suffering a bit and no school groups coming there he and Ketut have branched out into exporting Balinese furniture etc.
Forgot to mention, we also did the sunset at Tanah Lot thing as well.
Then all too soon it was Friday and time to go home. We left the house about 6PM and got to the airport at about 8PM for a 11.30PM flight. The security at Denpasar airport is very good. All luggage is x-rayed as you go into the terminal and your hand luggage is x-rayed again before boarding the plane. As we had a bit of time to waste we paid to go into one of the new lounges that have recently opened at the airport. Instead of having to be a member of Qantas or Garuda club to get into a lounge you now pay about $25 USD and you get snacks and an open bar with TV, game station, internet and nice lounges to doze in. Was worth it as our plane was about an hour late. Even so, we arrived back at Sydney with enough time to catch our coach back to Canberra.
All in all a wonderful trip and a great experience.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this, we are now counting down the days to next year when we intend to stay for a month in the house in Ubud and explore the north and west of the island
Cheers everyone.