Finally!

King of Kings palace

Yesterday was spent in Bali.  Now, the Bali we all have read about, the Bali from “Bali Hai” in the South Pacific musical, isn’t quite the same Bali.  Still, after our days of floating in the ocean like the Twilight Zone, Bali was a welcome respite.  And we learned that Bali is only one island in a multitude of islands that make up Indonesia.  Names like Java, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea – all these are under that blanket name of “Indoniesia”.  And each area is culturally the same and different.  For instance, Bali is peopled with residents who originally came from China.  They have been there thousands of years, still they are basically of Chinese origin!  And that is true of each little ethnic island.  In two days, we will be in Java to see how similar or different that will be!

Kathy enjoying shade.

Musicians playing bamboo xylophones

First of all, we had Steven, our tour guide.  He was a wealth of information on Bali, the Balinese, the Indonesians.  That really helps.  And we had a longgg 8 hour day traipsing around the island to learn about the Balinese way of life.  It is hot here and very humid.  And men wear skirts, sarongs, especially when going to the temple.  Each home has its own family temple in the northeast corner of their compound.  And then there are village Hindu temples, where every 210 days they have a village celebration, thanking their gods for everything good – and bribing the bad gods to go away!

Off the boat.  Into a bus.  Sounds the same, doesn’t it?  But that’s where the similarity ended.  Our first stop was the king’s palace.  Apparently, Bali had lots of kings (sort of like our governors), but there was one king that was the King of Kings (sorta like our President) and he would call together the other kings and settle arguments, disputes, etc.  Then the Dutch came along.  Now, you probably understand that all these islands were prized by European adventurers and, when they landed, there was usually a strong-armed fight for control between locals and foreigners.  Of course, you also understand who won – the ones with the guns, which were not the Balinese! 

Another Hindu Monument

Hindu Monument

As we drove along, Steven told us about life in Bali.  I did not know they have a caste system similar to India.  They have their Brahmins, the top class.  And the Brahmins are the only people who can be priests.  And there are 3 other classes.  What puzzled me is that, if you are born into a caste you can never get out of it.  You could make a million dollars, and if you were borne in the lowest class, you will always be the lowest caste.  And they are so docile about it.  It’s okay, apparently.  And, since they are Hindu, they believe in reincarnation.  So, if you do good deeds throughout your life, this could reflect on your next life.  You might come back in a higher caste.  The best to hope for, Steven said, was to come back as American or Canadian!!

Woodcarver

When you die, it costs a lot of money to bury or create someone.  So, if you are poor, you bury the person and, when a rich person has a cremation ceremony, you did up the poor person and piggyback off the rich person’s expensive funeral.  Actually, the indigenous people, who live on a special island, do not bury or create their dead.  They just lay the dead person under a tree and supposedly the tree absorbs the bad smells from deterioration – and there are skeletons all over that island.

Schooling?  Children take Balinese language in school through 3^rd grade.  Then they take English until high school.  In high school they take German or Japanese.  Why?  Steven says it is because they want to learn technology and, apparently, those are the technical languages.  It made me reflect on how we in the US do not require our children to learn, I mean REALLY learn, foreign

Furniture sho

languages!  Even the Balinese could teach us something.

Most Balinese are farmers – half the land is wet, for growing rice, and the other half is dry, for raising fruit trees, grazing cattle, chickens, pigs.  And, of course, as everywhere, the young people do not want to farm and are leaving the area.

We saw the de rigeur Balinese folk dances in play form.  The costumes look like the Chinese scary dragons, monsters, animals that we’ve seen on tv – and the plays are about good and evil.  The difference is:  no one wins!  Ever. We had a Balinese lunch. It consisted of things we might get from Dynasty delivery in St. Louis.

We stopped at a wood carving shop and a batik shop. The artisans in each place were truly artists.  But it was mostly to see how the hot wax was applied to the silk in the batik place – and how tedious the wood carving can be!

 But, you ask, what about those fancy resorts we read about in the US?  Well, we didn’t see them. I figure there must be great advertising agencies that put out propaganda on those places.  Mostly what we saw were small buildings that were jammed together along dusty streets – not places any of us would care to stay!  If they exist here, they are somewhere else in mythical lala land. 

What we DID see, as we road around were lots and lots of what we would call mom-and-pop shops, cheek by jowl on every street and road.  They were chockful of wood for carving, pottery, silversmiths, batik shops. As a matter of fact, John Hardy’s studio is in Bali, although we didn’t get to see it. Darn.  And lots and lots of furniture shops.  I mean “LOTS”.  All I could think of was, in North Carolina where my daughter lives, her friends are married to “furniture designers.”  Apparently, there is a thriving business in the US designing furniture.  But no longer MAKING furniture.  50 years ago almost all US furniture was made in that area. Now the designs are sent off to places like Bali, Indonesia, Thailand, China and they are produced there, many with imported wood like mahogany.  And we saw piles and piles of chairs, tables, display cases, beds, sofas, etc.  And then the items are shipped to the US and sold under names like Henredon, Ethan Allen, Hickory Chair, etc.  So interesting what a multi-national world we have become!!!  

We were sorry to leave Steven at the end of the day.  Sorry, but satisfied.  We are so lucky in the US.  I think we were born, accidentally, in “the Garden of Eden” when I see the poverty, the climates, the ways of life in other countries!!  We can thank our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, who made that trip to the US years ago for the blessings of place!!!