Friday, 17Nov06
Highlights: Bali layover, trip to Manado begins
A layover in Bali is by definition a good layover. This one gave me a few hours to stretch my legs & visit my friends in Tabanan.
I took a cab into Denpasar to help a teacher friend (Gusti Ayu) translate a letter into English; just doing a favor. Something that hasn’t come up too much about Balinese culture is the caste system. Being predominantly Hindu, the caste system is something that has been largely thrown out by the majority of Balinese, except for folks borne into the high castes. Gusti Ayu, a Hindu architecture professor at Dwi Jendra University, now in her mid 40’s with an 11 year old son, is of a high caste. I wasn’t asking- but I got an interesting side comment story about the disadvantages of caste society.
According to Gusti Ayu, it is another mechanism for parents to control / dictate whom their children marry. Apparently of all the guys she once dated & loved, she wasn’t allowed to marry any of them because of her birth in a casted family, and fear of upsetting her father. I don’t know why all this came up,,, but maybe she felt the need to vent to a near total stranger. It happens sometimes.
I often hear Indonesians say, “marry now, learn to love your partner later.” Sounds like an old Arnold Schwarzzenegger quote, “follow me now, believe me later.” I’m guessing 12 years hasn’t done the trick here, but before there was enough time to see where this conversation was going, I hustled through the last parts of the page long letter & politely scooted out the door to see a different group of friends. Whew!
A short trip later I was in Tabanan to say hello to Kadek Ayu (happy birthday), Agus, Pak Putu & friends. (=
Dropping my bags off at their house in Penebel, I jumped on the back of Agus’s scooter & we drove up into the mountains,,, literally until the scooter couldn’t go any further (=
Agus is a big boy,,, and those 110 cc Honda’s only pull so hard. Gunung Jatiluwih got the upper hand today- but his wife’s native mountain village (Munduk Lumbang) was nearby, so we dropped in to say hello.
Quite a change of pace from life in the city! (= It was a little like walking into an old storybook of how life was like,,, once upon a time. See for yourself:
Highlights: Bali layover, trip to Manado begins
A layover in Bali is by definition a good layover. This one gave me a few hours to stretch my legs & visit my friends in Tabanan.
I took a cab into Denpasar to help a teacher friend (Gusti Ayu) translate a letter into English; just doing a favor. Something that hasn’t come up too much about Balinese culture is the caste system. Being predominantly Hindu, the caste system is something that has been largely thrown out by the majority of Balinese, except for folks borne into the high castes. Gusti Ayu, a Hindu architecture professor at Dwi Jendra University, now in her mid 40’s with an 11 year old son, is of a high caste. I wasn’t asking- but I got an interesting side comment story about the disadvantages of caste society.
According to Gusti Ayu, it is another mechanism for parents to control / dictate whom their children marry. Apparently of all the guys she once dated & loved, she wasn’t allowed to marry any of them because of her birth in a casted family, and fear of upsetting her father. I don’t know why all this came up,,, but maybe she felt the need to vent to a near total stranger. It happens sometimes.
I often hear Indonesians say, “marry now, learn to love your partner later.” Sounds like an old Arnold Schwarzzenegger quote, “follow me now, believe me later.” I’m guessing 12 years hasn’t done the trick here, but before there was enough time to see where this conversation was going, I hustled through the last parts of the page long letter & politely scooted out the door to see a different group of friends. Whew!
A short trip later I was in Tabanan to say hello to Kadek Ayu (happy birthday), Agus, Pak Putu & friends. (=
Dropping my bags off at their house in Penebel, I jumped on the back of Agus’s scooter & we drove up into the mountains,,, literally until the scooter couldn’t go any further (=
Agus is a big boy,,, and those 110 cc Honda’s only pull so hard. Gunung Jatiluwih got the upper hand today- but his wife’s native mountain village (Munduk Lumbang) was nearby, so we dropped in to say hello.
Quite a change of pace from life in the city! (= It was a little like walking into an old storybook of how life was like,,, once upon a time. See for yourself:
posted by jonathan adventures at 1:50 AM
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