Thursday, 28Sep06
Highlights: woke up in Bali, Tabanan, Gianyar
I got my 3a.m. wake-up call in Bali from Nina (= ate some bread & a mango from the airport last night, and went back to bed.
I forgot how powerful & omnipresent the feel of the Hindu religion is here. It’s everywhere you look. Little palm leave offering baskets in front of every store & statue, the Hindu statues wear sarongs and are attended to every day, multiple daily prayers,,, Ramayana is everywhere…
Nothing drove the point home more than 2 random conversations I had with friends from my hotel. Superstition is a powerful reality for the Balinese people. I thought the Javanese were superstitious- but,,, fear of black magic reaches into the everyday decisions of some here.
My friend Henni wants to marry her longtime boyfriend Gede, but her older brother’s wife is against it, and has threatened a black magic spell which would kill her the day after the wedding. They broke up over it, then got back together.
Another friend Arlen told a story about jealous girls trying to use black-magic to break him & his fiancée up. Black magic seems rather practical as a means of getting people to do things they don’t really want to do here. (= I don’t understand why it’s such a powerful influence… but they insist they’ve seen “proof” that it’s for real. All that matters,,, they believe in it. Huh.
Later, i found a driver & went exploring up towards Tabanan, on the north coast, and then down towards Gianyar, on the south coast.
Bali has been hit particularly hard this year with a lack of tourism. I was Kadek’s first passenger in 3 weeks in Ubud. At the hotel, I was the 5th guest all month. Talking to the hotel staff, they split their monthly salary as a percentage of hotel revenues, instead of getting a fixed hourly wage… Henni got paid $56 this month,, and she works 48 hours/week.
Bali is one of the greenest places I’ve visited. Life outside of the beach areas is dominated by rice paddies, wood & stone-carving communities & people working with their hands. There are little road-side food places (warung) everywhere.
And speaking of food,,, I was starving today. Those two bread rolls & mango weren’t cutting it by about 3pm. I felt like the only one fasting here. At the stroke of 6pm I was positioned in front of one such roadside restaurant,,, taking apart a plate of gado-gado. (= mmmm!
Highlights: woke up in Bali, Tabanan, Gianyar
I got my 3a.m. wake-up call in Bali from Nina (= ate some bread & a mango from the airport last night, and went back to bed.
I forgot how powerful & omnipresent the feel of the Hindu religion is here. It’s everywhere you look. Little palm leave offering baskets in front of every store & statue, the Hindu statues wear sarongs and are attended to every day, multiple daily prayers,,, Ramayana is everywhere…
Nothing drove the point home more than 2 random conversations I had with friends from my hotel. Superstition is a powerful reality for the Balinese people. I thought the Javanese were superstitious- but,,, fear of black magic reaches into the everyday decisions of some here.
My friend Henni wants to marry her longtime boyfriend Gede, but her older brother’s wife is against it, and has threatened a black magic spell which would kill her the day after the wedding. They broke up over it, then got back together.
Another friend Arlen told a story about jealous girls trying to use black-magic to break him & his fiancée up. Black magic seems rather practical as a means of getting people to do things they don’t really want to do here. (= I don’t understand why it’s such a powerful influence… but they insist they’ve seen “proof” that it’s for real. All that matters,,, they believe in it. Huh.
Later, i found a driver & went exploring up towards Tabanan, on the north coast, and then down towards Gianyar, on the south coast.
Bali has been hit particularly hard this year with a lack of tourism. I was Kadek’s first passenger in 3 weeks in Ubud. At the hotel, I was the 5th guest all month. Talking to the hotel staff, they split their monthly salary as a percentage of hotel revenues, instead of getting a fixed hourly wage… Henni got paid $56 this month,, and she works 48 hours/week.
Bali is one of the greenest places I’ve visited. Life outside of the beach areas is dominated by rice paddies, wood & stone-carving communities & people working with their hands. There are little road-side food places (warung) everywhere.
And speaking of food,,, I was starving today. Those two bread rolls & mango weren’t cutting it by about 3pm. I felt like the only one fasting here. At the stroke of 6pm I was positioned in front of one such roadside restaurant,,, taking apart a plate of gado-gado. (= mmmm!
posted by jonathan adventures at 11:04 AM
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