Festas Felizes

I see more sea

Sadly, I see waste. This is not a nice treasure to find.
I see a woman talking with other women, but you don't see those.
I see a duck grazing, looking for yummy treasures among the seaweeds.
I see floating boats in the bay.
I see the sun setting but not in the sea like at home.
I see a man and a woman preparing some fish that we could have eaten. Instead we ate barracuda and mahi.
I see a beach, pantai in Indonesian.
I see a quiet blue sea and a white sand beach.
I see the way home. It rains. It's the rainy season.

Selamat jalan!

By the sea I see...

Eyes that guide fishermen.
Fishermen helping each other. When one arrives to shore, others are waiting to help bringing the boat out of the sea reach.
A fisherman calling it a day.
Someone having a rest. What a nice lullaby is the sound of the sea.
Like everywhere else, I see a shrine.
I see women selling fish.
Here I see people fishing stones.
The sea rolls and polishes vulcanic stones and men and women catches them.
They separate them by sizes.
They dance with the waves that bring them and then take away what they're looking for.
The waves are strong... I wonder if I dared to go there.
I see the sea.
I see a man selling knifes. She wants to buy for Rp. 20,000- he wants Rp. 40,000, there's no deal. For us touris harga, Rp. 100,000 was asked but Pak Edu bargained.
I see smiles. I liked this one in particular. One thing I'll miss from Indonesia is people's smile. It's part of their wealth.
I see more coulourful fishing boats.
I see Li looking for treasures.
I see Lu finding one.
I see someone gazing into the horizon, maybe looking for a treasure there.
 I see baskets with feathered treasures inside. They're meant to fight.
I see two fishermen fishing side by side.

Fixed!

The "Monkey Dance" post pics are fixed you can watch them alright, now.

Here's another set of the second part of that evening show, the 'trance dance':

Wishes and postcards

Monkey dance

On friday evening we all went for a traditional dance show in the Pura Dalem Ubud. It is called the "Kecak Ramayana and the fire dance". Kecak is a form of Balinese dance and music drama  accompanied by a male chorus. The play depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. It ended with a trance dance, where a a man on a horse kicked fire in all directions. We liked it very much. 


Here you can hear what it sounded like:

Lord Viswakarma day

Today is the day of Lord Vishwakarma, the god of the machines. As a mark of reverence, he is still worshiped by the engineering community, industrial houses, artists, craftsmen, and weavers. He is regarded as the supreme worker, the very essence of excellence and quality in craftsmanship (source). 

So today in the sewing workshop of our landlady all the sewing machines were being adorned with offerings and special offerings were made to the God of the machines. Our car was also blessed with such offerings and so, we jumped in and rode like nothings could mess with our mighty blessed super car. Notwithstanding all the blessings, holy water and offerings Pak Edu's door at a certain point didn't open, he locked and unlocked it, pushing and pulling that little black thingy until it was pulled all the way out. Well, Ketut, the driver/gardener says that it isn't a very nice car, it has banyak banyak tahun. It seems that the power of Gods does little compared to the power of aging, the Lord of Time.

Still we should not underestimate all the powers at play, we had a safe trip from and back home. Selemat jalan everyone!

I'll post the photos in a while ;)