around the world in 180 days

As I stood at the top of Mt. Batur and watched the sun rise over Lake Batur, the Indian Ocean and several other volcanos this morning, I was thinking of my father, whose birthday was yesterday. We, meaning Anna and I, Anna’s mom Mary, and Paul and Patty, awoke at 2:30 am, rode in a car for an hour and climbed Mt. Batur in by flashlight so we could watch the day’s first light touch the horizon. We arrived at the top sweating and tired, and it reminded me of how I felt at the beginning of grandma’s last year, sticky with humidity, and I thought of my Dad and his training for grandma’s this year. I hope that you had a great birthday, Dad, and I hope that your training is still going well. Sorry that I didn’t get to call you, but in Bali, we are 11 hours different, which makes timing difficult. I will try to call tomorrow.

The gentleman who suggested we climb the volcano was our driver from the airport. We are staying in Ubud, which is a village that is inland from Kuta, the main beach/party area. On the way from the airport, we chatted with our driver, asking what there was to do in Bali and whatnot, and found out that, ever so conveniently, he is also a tour guide. He suggested a few things and gave us his card.

The following day, Mary was arriving in the afternoon and Putu was also picking her up. We called and arranged to have him show us around the south of the island, the area around Denpasar, which is where the airport. He was the best guide we could ask for. He speaks fluent english, so there was no language barrier or communication issues, and he has lived in Bali all his life, so he is very familiar with the culture. Traveling with him has allowed us to see and understand things that we otherwise would have missed.

For instance: this week, there is a large Hindu celebration in Bali. Bali is 93% Hindu, despite the fact that Indonesia as a whole is the most populous Muslim country on earth. The celebration is for the annevesary of the temples and is something that every Hindu participates in. There are large processions, where groups of people walk together to temple and pray as a group, and the temples are decorated with brightly colored flags and large dragon symbols woven from palm leaves and bamboo. Because we were with Putu, we were able to enter the middle courtyard of a temple while this ceremony was going on today–the inner temple is for Hindus only. He dressed us in sarongs, sashes, which headscarfs for me and Paul, and we walked with the rest of the worshippers to the temple.

The walk to the temple was some of the best people watching I’ve ever had, and it was entirely watching their response to us, five ridiculous looking white people whose sarongs didn’t match their sashes and shirts didn’t match their sarongs. We walked single file, with Anna and I at the back, and it was great watching their faces as we passed. At first, they contained themselves, as Paul passed, few could suppress a smile, and as I brought up the rear, a lot of them started laughing. Every single time someone laughed at us, it made me laugh too.

Entering the temple, we could hear a drum troupe playing music that is specific to that temple. It was very melodic, with lots of bells tuned to scales that were not western at all. This area was elaborately decorated, but quite peaceful. As we passed through the gate into the middle temple, there were many more people and many more drum troupes, some playing and some not. There were pigs and chickens and ducks that were to be sacrificed and used to feed the visitors to the ceremony and, through another set of gates in the inner temple, there were priests leading prayers. It was overwhelming and we stood there for about an hour, just looking around and soaking everything in.

In the afternoon, Putu took us to the house that he grew up in, where his three uncles live now, with their families. He explained how the house was set up to align with the cardinal directions and how this was meant to make man aling with God, man align with man and, in the back, where the gardens and animals were, man align with his environment.

In Bali, balance is an important philosophy. One must find balance between all things in one’s life, never becoming too intent on prayer, or money, or food or any one thing to the exclusion of others. All things have their place and all things have their time. I like that.

Well, there’s more, so much more, but I’m sweating and it is impossible to distill life into a blog entry, so I won’t continue to try. I hope all is well at home!

            When you land at an airport, clear customs and are trying to figure out how to get to a bed as quickly as possible, there’s something comforting about seeing a guy holding a sign with your (or your wife’s) name on it. It means you can relax, because the rest of the trip has been taken care of.

            We’re staying in Ubud, which is north of the main beach and disco area and is much more of a cultural destination rather than the party scene that the main tourist areas can be, which is fine with us. Bali reminds me of Fiji in some ways, but it’s nowhere near as expensive and there is more than just beaches. They both have a tropical climate, though, so it’s hot and steamy during the day and warm and steamy at night. We’ve got a room with A/C here, which is well worth the extra cost.

           We spent the day with Paul and Patty, wandering around Ubud, ducking into different shops and looking at paintings, woodcarvings and other crafts. We also took a walk through the monkey forest, which is not just a clever name. At first, it was cool to see so many monkeys running around wild and free, just being monkeys, but it was surprising how fast it became commonplace. They were sort of pests, because they would steal any food they could get their hands on and they’d bother anyone who had anything that looked like food.

            We also walked up to a rice terrace area, which was very cool. Rice paddies stretched off into the distance as far as you could see, and, way off, you could see three volcanos. I think we’re going to climb one of them, starting early in the morning so we can be at the top for sunrise. It sounds spectacular, as long as the weather cooperates.

            Tomorrow Mary (Anna’s mom) arrives after many long flights and many long stopovers. The four of us are going to make a day of it, riding down with the driver in the morning and checking out things along the way before picking her up from the airport. The driver will be the same one who picked us up from the airport, and he was very knowledgeable and polite and spoke excellent English. I think he’ll make a good tour guide.