April 9th, 2005
We saw some great stuff just driving to and from our destinations and for lack of knowing where I should put these in the blog, I thought I'd just list them. Anyway, it won't be as much of a cultural 'lesson' as the other posts have been.

I hope I can get this all done too, as now, we've got another trip under our belts that I really want to share. (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Batu Caves COMING SOON)



Bamboo for sale on the side of the road.

As we drove into this little village we saw that they were primarily focused on woodcarvings. Here are some guys working on some carvings that you may even recognize from a Pier 1 store?


Stacked wood carvings, unfinished.


What do you think? You've seen these before at Pier 1 or maybe even Pottery Barn?

And as we came around this corner, we saw these women out doing laundry along side of the road.



And so Jeremy stole some photo opps.


As we were driving up into the mountains we kept seeing these beautiful stacks of fruit along side the road. We had to get a picture. They are just for sale if you want a bite to eat.


And as we stopped at an overlook to catch the view, and a snack at a roadside shop, these women came over to us and tried to get us to buy some offerings. It's hard, but you just have to be firm with them! You get bombarded everytime you stop for anything.


Just another great bike shot!


And along this road everyone was selling watermelons! This year they had great watermelons, nice and sweet b/c they hadn't had as too much of a rainy season.


And we stopped for lunch at this local hawker area and Bill saw this little Muslim girl riding with her Dad on the motor scooter.


They would fry up all kinds of stuff in big woks of hot oil.


And set it out for you to choose your snacks.


We saw a lot of folks using banana leaves when it was raining whether they were working in the fields or walking down the street.


Banana leaves are pretty big!


Silversmith

There are also towns that specialize in just doing gold and silver jewelry. We stopped at this one gallery, hoping to get to see them making jewelry, but ended up back at one of the big tourist galleries...however, we did look around, and we did do some shopping. The ornate and intricate design of this chariot is the same as the design on a bracelet that Sherry bought.



And Jeremy bought me a ring, that is a moonstone (Batu Boolan) ring. It's been rather difficult to photograph, so you'll just have to wait to see it till we get back. Sometimes it looks clear, and other times it catches the light and is a purple/blueish color. Everytime I look at it I am reminded of how amazing Bali was and how amazing Jeremy is.

Balinese Dance-Kechak Fire and Trance Dance

Kechak is a unique Balinese dance in which the artists are accompanied by a choir of 100 men rather than the traditional Gamelan Orchestra. It's origins can be traced to an ancient dance ritual called, Sanghyan (Trance Dance).

The dancers enter a trance-like state which allows them to communicate with deities or ancestors who express their wishes through the dancers.

Sita and Rama


Golden Deer surrounded by the choir of men.


Demon King Rahwana


Kidnapped Rama and Sita.


Sugriwa, the King of the Monkeys.


Sugriwa in the center of the choir of men chanting.

The chanting leads to a man on a horse (Jaran) dancing around a bonfire of coconut husks. If the Sanghyang song leads him to the fire, the man will dance in a trance-like state on the fire.


Fire built of coconut shells.


Man on a horse dancing around the fire...


And he enters the fire! The man is in barefeet!


In and out of the fire he goes, spreading the burning husks out towards the crowd.


And at the end, a man of the temple stood up and said that all the ticket sales would go towards the upkeep and maintenance of the temples and thanked everyone for coming. Each ticket cost 50,000 Rp, which is about equivalent to $5 USD. Then, after the dance was over, people gave donations to the man who was entranced. I admit, we gave him some Rupiah, it was impressive! Can you see his feet?

The other part of the fire and trance dance that was impressive, was the chanting itself, which sounds like 'chak-a-chak-a-chak'. Of course, b/c it's a series of sounds and call outs, Jeremy really got into all the noise! It will be his new songs to practice in the shower. : ) We will hopefully be buying some of the Balinese music when we go back to Bali, but for now, all we have are snippets on our video camera from clips of the dances.

© December 6, 2008