So the story is that Mr. Rai Giriganadhi is a younger twin, born 20 minutes after his brother. If he had been the older, he would be the king (sort of), but he is the second born son. He lives in a very nice area in the back of the palace. Mr. Rai came to greet us, a very regal and nice fellow, and asked Amy and me to join him for tea. We sat in his bale (a Balinese area, covered, for sitting and talking story). Our driver, Made, sat below us and was very careful not to stand above the prince, since that is a sign of disrespect (I couldn't help it because I'm several inches taller than the prince). Anyway, he asked us where we were from and when we told him San Francisco, he just lit up. He had been to California 21 years ago, to LA and San Francisco and just loved it. It was very funny, because he told us about all the faux pas he made while in America, like smoking in a shopping mall (he loves Dunhill...what else?) and being asked by a big burly guard to please go outside and put it out, but it was hard for him to find an ashtray. Also, he said he went to some kind of monument in Los Angeles, but stepped over a chain where you weren't supposed to go. Again, some security guard asked him not to do that. It's funny because we (especially Amy) are always on guard to not make mistakes that will insult someone here...when you are in a different culture it's always easy to mess up. The Prince also told us about the 6 weeks he spent in Hawaii and how much he loved it.
We drank some tea with him and talked about an hour. He was really a gentleman and now I can say, unequivically, that I have had tea with Royalty!
So we spent the last couple of days up on the mountainside, in the wonderful Pacung Mountain Resort. This is a nice hotel that has an AMAZING view on rice paddies and 4 huge mountains. It is about 20 degrees cooler up there than it is in Ubud, so the weather is great.
Sunday morning, we were going to one of the great temples of Bali, Pura Batu Karu, which is one of the 6 most important temples here. We went to a local market first, so Amy could buy a Kebaya, the shirt that the ladies where to temple. I also bought another Udong, the headgear, as I had left mine in Ubud. We went back to the hotel to have our Balinese friends dress us up. When we were all dressed up they decided to give us Balinese names!
About Balinese names...there are basically four and it depends on your birth number in your family. From first to fourth child, you are Wayan, Made, Ngyoman or Ketut. then it starts all over again from 5 to 8. If you are a man, your name starts with 'I'. If you are a woman, 'Ni'. So I have become I Wayan Craig and Amy is Ni Ngyoman Amy.
The temple of Batu Karu is quite beautiful. It is on the slopes of Bali's second most sacred mountain, Batukau, about 8000 feet high. The temple is at around 1500 feet and is quite large. Worshipers from all over Bali come here. They were preparing many things for the coming Galungan, which is tomorrow (Wednesday, Nov. 29th). Many ladies were cooking pigs, chickens, ducks and other assorted creatures. The temple was dressed up in gorgeous yellow cloth, which you see alot here.
On the way to the temple, we drove through many villages where the roads were lined with penjors, which are very tall bamboo polls, some as high as 30 feet, which bend over the road with offering baskets and are dressed up with curly corn husks. It is worth the trip to Bali just to see this, as many villages have contests to see who makes the best penjor. Each house has a penjor in front of it, so there can be dozens in each small village. One side of the street, the penjor is dressed up in yellow, with a yellow umbrella over the offering table. The other is dressed up in white.
We spent about an hour in the temple with our driver, Mr. Chok, and then he took us to a butterfly park. This was a big enclosed place with thousands of butterflies flying around. Each butterfly species had its own little area, as there were special plants that specific butterflies ate. They even had a butterfly nursery where the keep the coocoons. It was wonderful being surrounded by many, many butterflies, but boy, was it hot!!! The rest of the afternoon was spent just hanging around our nice hotel, swimming in the pool and taking a short walk in the rice paddies.
Today, after our tea with the King (okay, Prince), we came back to Ubud. Again, there were penjors everywhere along the roads. After we relaxed in the hotel and took a swim (where we met a lady from, of all places, Boise, Idaho, an old stomping ground of mine) we took a walk in the suburban northern part of Bali, where there aren't too many tourists. And boy, was this a great walk. This is because everyone was constructing their penjors. In front of each house, young men (only the men make the penjors, the women are in the house cooking for tomorrow) were making penjors. These were the best we've seen yet, with some amazing decorations on them. Curly cues of corn husks go all the way up the 25 feet + of the penjor with other decorations on top of the spine of corn husks. Then, at the very top, a string of some kind hangs down with rice hangning from it and at the end of the string, an offering basket or decoration.
So tomorrow is Galugan, the most sacred festival in Bali. Our friends, Ketut and Jerry have invited us to temple with Ketut's family. Ni Ngyman Amy and I have our temple gear all ready to go and will arrive at their house around 8:30. Then there is a barong procession after temple where we will follow the barong around for awhile. I really dont know what to expect, I just hope I do everything correctly, as the priest will bless us with holy water and then you are supposed to do something when he does that, but I"m not sure what. We'll try to post in the next day or so to let you know how it went.
Salamat tigkal (see ya later in Balinese)....Craig
No comments:
Post a Comment