Friday, 5 Jan07
Highlights: met some Balinese friends
Ok, I’ve done all I can for the moment with the travel requests, and now there is but to wait for the responses from Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Hanoi (Vietnam). I’ll have to work the Visa requests through their embassies as well.
With a little time on my hands, and $60 round-trip tickets available, I decided to say hello & happy New Years to my Balinese family in Tabanan. (= I feel blessed to have so many great friends here in Indonesia. Didn’t want to leave anyone out.
There are a lot of striking social differences between Bali and Java. A significant one is the social comfort with which Balinese treat the human body. As in France and Greece, the human body is treated as a natural thing here. Traditions keep the concept of nudity a few layers removed from preconceptions of religious requirements that are so heavily felt on Java. I can’t think of a venue which brings this into sharper clarity than co-ed bathing.
Most Balinese outside of cities and tourist areas don’t have the luxury of running water at home. A centuries old tradition of bathing in rivers and streams continues here.
There are still many places in Java where this is the norm too, but with Islam so prevalent, there is a much stricter separation of the sexes. Here in Bali its much more open & common for friends and even total strangers to bath naked together.
There is a modern sense of modesty, however centuries of tradition is hard to stamp out and much of the bathing in the countryside takes place in streams, rivers and aqueducts by the side of the road.
My friend Agus explained the unwritten rule here is to leave dirty thoughts at home & keep your mind clean while bathing. Washing clothes & dishes often happen in the same spots. Incidents of violations against women are rarely heard of. There is a pretty strong atmosphere that this is natural and normal here. It’s great.
My next thought was a calculation of the water temperature, as most of this water is runoff from the nearby mountains. Yep! One quick toe dip confirmed that temperatures are below my impression of “ideal”. Hope was not lost, however, for there was a nearby hotsprings which pumped near perfect temperature waters into a public pool and shower complex.
Highlights: met some Balinese friends
Ok, I’ve done all I can for the moment with the travel requests, and now there is but to wait for the responses from Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Hanoi (Vietnam). I’ll have to work the Visa requests through their embassies as well.
With a little time on my hands, and $60 round-trip tickets available, I decided to say hello & happy New Years to my Balinese family in Tabanan. (= I feel blessed to have so many great friends here in Indonesia. Didn’t want to leave anyone out.
There are a lot of striking social differences between Bali and Java. A significant one is the social comfort with which Balinese treat the human body. As in France and Greece, the human body is treated as a natural thing here. Traditions keep the concept of nudity a few layers removed from preconceptions of religious requirements that are so heavily felt on Java. I can’t think of a venue which brings this into sharper clarity than co-ed bathing.
Most Balinese outside of cities and tourist areas don’t have the luxury of running water at home. A centuries old tradition of bathing in rivers and streams continues here.
There are still many places in Java where this is the norm too, but with Islam so prevalent, there is a much stricter separation of the sexes. Here in Bali its much more open & common for friends and even total strangers to bath naked together.
There is a modern sense of modesty, however centuries of tradition is hard to stamp out and much of the bathing in the countryside takes place in streams, rivers and aqueducts by the side of the road.
My friend Agus explained the unwritten rule here is to leave dirty thoughts at home & keep your mind clean while bathing. Washing clothes & dishes often happen in the same spots. Incidents of violations against women are rarely heard of. There is a pretty strong atmosphere that this is natural and normal here. It’s great.
My next thought was a calculation of the water temperature, as most of this water is runoff from the nearby mountains. Yep! One quick toe dip confirmed that temperatures are below my impression of “ideal”. Hope was not lost, however, for there was a nearby hotsprings which pumped near perfect temperature waters into a public pool and shower complex.
posted by jonathan adventures at 11:09 PM
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