April 7th, 2005
We got up early the one day, had big buffet breakfast and got a ride to see one of the Bali Dances.

We went to a town near Ubud but to the South-East, Gianyar, and caught a local performance of the Putra Barong, The Barong and Keris Dance which cost us about $2.50 USD per person. The dance was held inside a small amphiteatre and as soon as we walked into the room, there were slight gasps from a school group of mostly girls (from Java) who were already seated. Bill entered infront of them first, and in an animated way walked infront of them acknowledging their giggles. This definatly caused the air in the room to rise a bit so when Jeremy walked in next, the gasps increased and giggles became louder and all these girls were looking at him in apparant awe. Neither Sherry nor I received that much attention so we went and took seats. The girls kept looking over at Jeremy and so Bill, encouraged him to go and sit closer to the center of the group. When he did, these girls went absolutly crazy! They piled all around him and wanted to have their pix taken with him. For about 10 mins this crazy, giggling, estrogen filled air encompassed the entire room.


I call the next few shots, "Java Heavan". This group of girls was visitiing Bali from Java, the island to the North of Bali, to learn some of the Balinese Dances. Those of you who know Jeremy, know that he loves his coffee and another name for coffee is "java". These girls LOVED Jeremy and so I think it only appropriate that he got his taste of Java this way this particular morning. I am sitting off to the Left crying, I'm laughing so hard.


It was a sea of estrogen maddness and they all wanted to touch him. You can see them pulling at him right about now, he's trying to decide if he really likes this or not.


As long as they could wrap their arms around him and keep a hand on him they were in heaven. This was Jeremy's 15 mins of fame and he admitted afterwards that he was getting a bit nervous and now understood how famous actors must feel. I wonder if they thought he was a famous actor, like Owen Wilson, or if it was just b/c they hadn't seen a blond haired blue eyed surfer boy before?


Then, when Jeremy came back over to sit with me, freeing himself from the clutches of these young Java hotties, they would come over to us, one by one and ask to have their pix taken with the two of us. There was more excitment before the Dance and you would have thought that Jeremy was the entertainment.


Our driver (we had a different one for this morning) was able to take Bill behind the scenes to see the dancers getting ready for the performance.


Prepping flowers for the performance.


The guys inside the Barong.


Here is the Barong costume hanging up until it is put on.


Close up of the Barong head, with fresh flowers tied into it's beard.


View from inside the Barong mask. You don't get to see this angle everyday!

And then the play began.

I learned doing the write up for this blog, that special preparations are necessary for the Barong and Rangda performances to ensure that a balance is maintained between good and evil. All masked dances require great care (b/c when wearing a mask you take on another personality) and it is wise to be sure that the mask's personality doesn't take over. Masks used in the Barong and Rangda dances are treated with particular caution. A Rangda mask must be kept covered until the instant before the performance starts (A Rangda is a widow-witch and ruler of evil spirits). They feel that these masks have powerful satki (spirits) and you must be careful of their magical, often dangerous, spiritual vibrations.

We actually recorded some of the music as with these dances there is a gamelan orchestra that accompanies the play. I don't know how to add sound to the blog, or if it's even possible, but the music really is quite unique.

Enter, the Barong. The Barong play is about the eternal fight between good and evil spirits. The Barong is a mythological animal that represents a good spirit.


You can see it takes 2 guys to pull off this costume.


The Gamelan which is a traditional Balinese percussion orchestra.


The Barong's friend, the Monkey. He was a real schmoozer! Balinese dances often combine serious moments and slapstick comedy. The Monkey definatly played to the audience posing for pictures.


This is Dewi Kunti.


These jokers are the servents of the Prime Minister...don't even ask how this all fits together, b/c even though I read the script before it started, and followed it along while it was in progress, I just couldn't follow who and why most of the time...


These are the servants of the Rangda and they are looking for the servants of the Prime Minister.


There is the Rangda in the background, supposadly with human entrails draped around her neck, huge parody breasts, fangs protruding from her mouth, and a long lolling tongue.


The Rangda enters the servants and makes them angry.


Not sure how this fits in...I'm trying to follow two scripts for the same play, and I just don't know who these folks are.


Sedewa is Dewi Kunti's son, and Sedewa is supposed to be sacrificed for the Rangda. But, Sedewa turns into a boar (lying on the ground) but is defeated. As with the Balinese slapstick, you can see where they insert the penis for good humor. This portion of the skit lasted for few minutes while the other guy tries to chop it off. Not sure why??? (But, you learn in the end, that it's the boars tail afterall)


These guys are supporters of the Barong and have come to the Barong's aid. But, the Rangda puts them into a trance and they turn their swords (called Kris) onto themselves trying to pierce themselves. But the Barong uses it's magical powers to protect their skin from being pierced.

Finally, the Rangda tires and is defeated and good has triumphed again. But, b/c so many men have become entranced during this dance, they need to be brought of it, so they can return to the real world, so holy water is sprinked on them to release them, and other ceremonies have to be performed like sacrificing a chicken to avert the evil spirits. (We didn't see the chicken sacrifice, hopefully it didn't really happen, but who knows...the people up near Sumatra where the earthquakes are happening want their leader to sacrifice 1000 sheep to calm the spirits who are causing the earthquakes... this stuff is for real around here).



We left feeling duely amused and headed for the Bali Bird Park.


Bali Bird Park

When we got to the Bali Bird Park (Taman Burung Bali Bird Park and Rimba Reptile Park) we had no idea that it would be so interactive. So, if you remember from the "Jer's folks visit" blog entries I said that we missed the opportunity to go to the Singapore Bird Park which was something that Buffy really wanted to do coming to Singapore, we were very pleasantly surprised when we had the opportunity to go to the Bali Bird Park to find it so interactive, upclose and personal with the birds.


These were steps that we saw as we went to pay our entrance fee (which cost about $14 USD per person, so far the most expensive thing per person we have done) and I was just impressed by the details and how time consuming it must have been to place each and every one of those river stones in that pattern.



After a quick potty break (they had nice bathrooms here) we started our tour of the bird park. We came upon a patio area where there was a bird handler and a few species of birds and you could have the bird sit on your arm or head and have your pictures taken with them. So of course we did. Who could pass that up?


Kel with the Bar Pouched Wreathed Hornbill. Remember in the Jurong Bird Park blog entry, the bird that attacked Jeremy thru the cage bars? Well, this is what it was.


And the handler started getting out of hand, and started just placing birds all over us. The red bird is a Lorey, and so is the green one on my head. Remember in the Jurong Bird Park Blog post when we went into the Lorey enclosure and got to feed the Lorey's? More on that in a bit.


Sherry sporting the Hornbill and Loreys. The Hornbill was actually a heavy bird by the way.


And Jeremy making friends too.


I have to say this now, but everytime you see Buffy with an animal, look at the expression on his face, and then look at the expression on the animals face. Notice here, they all have their mouths open. And later you will see even more of the expressions of Bill and animals. Jeremy says that it's b/c he's "in tune with them"...


Family photo opportunity.


After getting several pix taken with the birds we heard that there was going to be feeding time in the Lorey enclosure. So, we hustled it over to that area of the park, but on the way, saw the biggest Pelican, an Austrailian Pelican, any of us had ever seen. He was big, not so graceful and cranky!


And we made it in time to feed the Loreys. In this enclosure they fly all over the place, landing on all parts of you and really just want the food. The staff there monitor that you aren't reaching for the birds or trying to touch them as they are 'still wild birds' that are so hungry they land on your head, even with sunglasses on.


This was an awesome shot with Sherry. We think this bird just liked her hair!


An upclose Lorey shot.


At the Jurong Bird Park these Common Crowned Pigeons walked within their enclosure but all around your feet. Here at the Bali Bird Park, it seemed that spring had sprung, and this bird was sitting on a nest of chicks.


And since we had to run to get to the Lorey cage, we initially missed the Giant Fruit Bat cage. So we went back and saw these massive bats hanging upside down from the mesh ceiling. When they are too hot, they open up their wings and fan themselves. We saw a lot of that as it was after noon here at the park.


We had lots of rain on our trip to Bali, but like I said before, we didn't care. It just allowed for other photo opps like catching water droplets on this red flower within one of the enclosures.


When Jeremy and I visited the Jurong Bird Park we saw an exhibit for a Golden Pheasant to be coming to that park. Here at the Bali Bird Park they already had some, and they are gorgeous birds, but almost too fast to photograph!


Just when you think you'll get a great shot, he decideds to walk away. But at least you can catch a glimpse of his gorgeous tail feathers too.


And one of the main attractions at the Bali Bird Park was that they had Komodo Dragons on display. Komodo Dragons are the world's largest lizards and is native to Komodo, Indonesia.


This Komodo Dragon is at least 8 feet long including his tail...maybe longer. They are carnivorous.


And as with the Jurong Bird Park, we also saw the Single Wattled Cassowary here too. This bird is at least 5 feet tall.


It's amazing the color of blue on that flap of skin too!


After we left the Cassowary we walked by this little sitting area with Balinese statues and a planter. I really liked the feel of this little quiet spot.


And I can picture these statues in my garden at home. Now just how to get them back home...


Blooming flower at the park.


And we saw more of my favorite bird from the Jurong Bird Park, the East African Crowned Crane. There was a pond area as we were working our way towards the exit and the East African Crowned Cranes just walked freely around you and the pond area. The bdg in the background is called a Toraja House and is a typical house from Sulawesi and it's nearly 100 yrs old. It was dismantled, moved and re-assembled at the park.


This one is getting out of the way of Jeremy and his camera!


But this one couldn't go anywhere!


Because it's protecting a nest of eggs!

When we left the Bird Park, we totally forgot about going next door and visiting the Reptile Park. But that's OK. We got to see great birds up close and the Komodo Dragon. And as an update to things going on in the news here in Singapore...in the last couple of days there have been animal attacks at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. One instance, a Jaguar escaped from it's enclosure and was loose for about a half an hour (no attacks though), the second just happened a few days ago, when a Serval (a wild cat about the size of a golden retriever) attacked a woman during one of the performances at the Night Safari, and just two days ago, a crocodile attacked a zookeeper and he had to be rushed to the hospital. So, I think missing the crocs and pythons is OK for now. Somethin's in the air....

© December 6, 2008