Bali is wonderful and beautiful and I can see why people call this place a paradise. I really had the time of my life there with the diving, the walking, the sights sounds and smells, and I had a hard time leaving it, one week there flew past at warp speed. The weather is similar to Hawaii, balmy, warm breezy… Ahhh. But I am home in Banjarmasin, listening to the wild rains of Borneo nailing the street, my house and any pour soul who is brave enough to navigate through elephant sized rain drops.
I spent my last day in Bali in Ubud and only had the appetizer plate of Ubud… No make that the "to go eat-on-the-run" version of Ubud. One day is not enough for that perfect little artist town. I did get to see the Sacred Monkey Forrest. One came up and sat on Melinda's lap, hopefully I'll get the photos from the other ELFs for this part and some other things I saw and experienced there. I spent my camera battery on the cremation ceremony that we arrived just in time to see.
It was breath taking and amazing to be part of this ritual. I got some video and lots of pics for this. They carried a big tiered tower with the body inside to the cremation grounds, spinning and wobbling the tower around so that the spirit gets confused and won't try to find its way back home. The goal here is to be reincarnated or essentially reach nirvana. Of course with any funeral rite it's hard not to think about those you've lost before. I found this to be a good life affirming thing for me. I did feel a little weird, though, being a tourist at this event, shooting photos and video until I realized everyone including the locals were doing the same. So I attempted to keep a distance, but without knowing what would happen next, I found myself at times right in the heart of things.
If that wasn't enough to bring me to tears, the health food store 'Bali Buddha' almost did me in. I found quinoa, lentils and those great fruit and nut bars I like so much. And it had that familiar health food store smell, probably from those organic soaps. Images of San Francisco's Rainbow, Mt Shasta's Berryvale Market and Santa Cruise's Staff of Life just came flooding to me. (In case you can't tell… I am a little homesick for some things).
And of course you can't visit Ubud without taking in a shadow puppet show. This one was a story of a demon who kept eating people. It was full of heroic puppetry moves, great chase scenes a smattering of humorous English phrases bules hear all day (need a transport? Special price for you…) all the while hypnotizing the audience with the candle light the puppeteer behind the sheer screen wore on his head.
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