Passage report 17

Sahula Passage Report No. 17

Bali

Wonderful Bali, so different. Its culture so pervasive, that it seems almost disconnected to its neighbours. The beat of Balinese Hinduism permeates every nook, field, home, industry, road or beach. A shrine - incense, frangipani, a donation is refreshed daily. Small industries provide intricate carvings in stone or wood evidenced in all buildings, temples and walls. Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu and an array of lesser gods, beam or frown down on passers by. Balinese Hinduism adds to its Indian roots, a

supreme god, Sanghyang Widi (interestingly not represented in visual form). Islam's robust Ramadan chants break the night air but rest in contextual irrelevancy. Other religions seem barren in comparison.

Skipper hires a scooter/motorbike to tour (with friends on other bikes) nearby Sringaraja, the old capital of Bali. The gods are reassuring. Survival heightens the sense, raises the stress level. A temple visit provides extra credit. Skipper thankfully pays the "fees" - for the ...., the temple head and a "little for me" - the temple guardian.

It is much needed preparation for two days scooter-ing to Ubud, southern Bali.

A delicious Regent's evening welcome dinner sets the scene.

Sunset over Lovina beach is alive with gods, dancing the dances - "mask" and "joged" in gold washed silk. Children scatter as the clown dancer in bug-eyed mask, approaches. Beautiful ladies in golden dress, crown and necklaces, move in utmost grace to gamlen and drums against a setting sky and sea. Skipper entertains the locals to a Joged dance

guided by a gold adorned, intricately colourful, Balinese beauty.

Every Balinese child learns traditional dancing and Balinese language from the earliest age. Every Friday is speak only Balinese day.

Skipper (with Thomas of "Nadha Brahma," German) hires two scooters for a two day odyssey. The intent is to see the Bali of daily village life. Roads are off the beaten track. Sometimes, wide, then two cement tracks, then one, then dirt to encouragement from amazed farmers in rice fields that it all leads somewhere.

Hindu festivals abound - a temple celebrates women, we are welcomed as the only males, inside a riot of colour, a temple adorned in gold, yellow, incense and food offerings. Another is being prepared for a celebration. How could the gods not be satisfied?

We are welcomed by the full spectrum of a community busily engaged in making large golden towers, sacrificial bulls, horses and masks all to be adorned in intricate colourful decorations.

Temples seem to outnumber houses until we observe there is a village temple for different gods and home temples for daily use, often of equal beauty. A village temple was in use by the women or for other special occasions.

We observe the skilful carvers of temples intricate "stone" carving using knives in mix of soft crushed volcanic black ash which later dries hard. The task so huge that their commission is a part, more is done by another small business.

Timber yards piled high with freshly logs, host wood carvers of statues or designs for the temples, local, tourist and export market. Each yard has a particular motif.

We are beset with the aromas. A reminder of the spice islands. Especially drying cloves being harvested from trees by pickers on long bamboo poles.

We pass tourism's ugly face a Lake Batur. Lines of restaurants hassling for the dollar. The caldera provides superb views over the volcanic lake and Mt Abang, a recently formed volcano, centered in the caldera.

The scooters are blessed (for a fee) with sprinkles on the drivers of holy water, and a bamboo creation on the bike.

We visit the ancient palace at Klung Kung and enter the creative region centered on Ubud. We look lost; "where shall we stay?"; immediately a local offers assistance and guides us to Ben's Home stay. Ben and his family, fowls and dogs live in a family town block. It is typical home. Beautiful temple and home buildings in a lovely walled garden. Guests rooms are modern, including a hot shower (skipper is in bliss) and breakfast ($15 per night). It is a short walk to Ubud's many attractions including

nearby rice terraces in verdant green countryside.

Every now and then, one finds a place, so uplifting, so enlightening, that all the senses converge - Ubud is the core of a land blessed with humans, religion, environment, art and culture, in a unique balance. Here artistic endeavour expresses itself through painting, carving, dance, music, voice and architecture, revealing the pulse of Hindu religious belief and daily life.. It's a living culture far from the maddening crowd in a crowded land.

Our hosts expected our return. Ubud in one day is impossible except to the culturally inert.

At night, a myriad of temple dances or at "wayang" - the shadow puppets. Wayang provides traditional village "movies." Hindu stories and drama are told with puppet illustration through a fire lit screen stretched tight by a banana trunk. Production is by a team of three puppeteers and a 5 piece gamalen and drum band.

Dancers perform in an old palace of lotus ponds. Beautifully illuminated surrounding enhance the dancers superb performance.

The city fathers and families have ensured the art of Ubud, its region and Indonesia, is found in some five museums to art and Balinese culture. "Museum" cannot describe these places. Beautiful buildings stand in peaceful gardens, in tandem with music and dance, housing Balinese arts best, expressed through local and foreign artists. It is a coming together of the visual, aural, and intellectual.

Antonio Blanco, a Spanish "fauve" and student of Dali, captures in his "museum," Balinese women in vibrant works of humour, joy and eroticism. Arie Smit, a German Indonesian "fauve," bridges the void between western and Balinese art in expressionist works of vibrant colours. Walter Spies, Rudolf Bonnet, Theo Mier, Paul Husner and a host of superb local artists express beautiful Bali in colour and the traditional intricacy of mythology and village life. Traditional art by local artists is, in Bali,

modern. A single work can take years to draft, more to paint. Oddly, traditional art dates from late 1800's, but most is early 1900's to date. The skipper is in seventh sensual heaven.

Ubud reveals the cultural core, the region feeds into it. In surrounding villages, communities busily paint, sculpt and carve for the market (local and export) or for their local temple ceremonies. Visits are welcomed by smiling, helpful artisans.

On the third day, the scooters left for Lovina, through mountains, steeped in tiered rice paddies. The irrigations engineering for these paddies beggars the imagination.

If daily devotions provide for the after life, it is wise to not return as a dog or a chicken. Their hapless life is one of feel-less starvation, cock fighting or just dinner. There is no RSCPA in Bali.

Skipper has mixed feelings; leaving Bali's magnetism is on basis "I shall return."

Sahula leaves at dawn for Krimon Java via Ras and Bawean islands requiring two solo night sails. The five volcanoes of Bali slowly recede to smokey blue.

A fishers small Hindu shrine, floating miles offshore, wind caught in its incense and yellow umbrella, gives the final farewell.

Night sailing is not for the faint hearted. The heavily built fishing platforms and bouys provide Russian roulette. A collision would damage a modern light yacht. Sahula's steel is comforting.

A challenge; arrival at Ras is in evenings pitch black. The comforting tones of Anne of "Hydrasail" and digital charts (most unwise) guide Sahula slowly to anchor.

Ras to Bawean finds an evening breeze. Mollie (spinnaker, MPS) drives Sahula to the morning anchorage. Close by a traditional fishing boat cheers on Sahula and Mollie. The sailors admiration is mutual. Their boat is painted in resplendent colours, a superb craft, almost indistinguishable from a Viking ship. The variety of Indonesian traditional boats is limited only by the builders imagination and the painters brush.

A giant oil platform service tug passes at speed heading to Broome. Skipper, hopefully, inquires, to a negative answer, if friend, Drew Thompson is master.

The morning finds anchorage at Bawean Island. Solace for a tired skipper. A day of rest for tomorrow its 24 hours overnight to the Krimon Java islands. Skipper will there take a four tour of Java and the World Heritage Borobudur temples. Did, skipper hear mention of a hot shower every night?

These are new adventures for a later report.

Best

David

Sv Sahula