The Real Bali Tour

Our tour started out with a visit to a traditional Balinese dance theatre.  Balinese theatre and dance are intimately linked. Indeed Balinese use the same word - sesolahan - for both. Until the conquest of Bali in the early twentieth century and the arrival of Europeans, almost all performance was dramatical, often involving a combination of dance, singing and acting that went on all night, and drawing upon a vast literary canon which included Indian and Indonesian epics and stories from elsewhere.

The house band

Thai people are mostly Buddhist, Malaysian people are Muslim and Balinese are predominantly Hindu.  Hindu temples are everywhere, and we aren't being facetious.  Temples are on street corners, and along the side of the road; people build huge temples in front of their homes, and there are community temples for big gatherings.  Hindus believe that there are Gods everywhere, and the Hindus provide offerings to the multitudes of Gods.  We first saw these little offering packets in the airport, as we were buying our entry visa ($40) to get in to the country.  They are little palm leaf trays which contain small bits of coffee, rice, a cookie or cracker, flowers and sometimes incense.  They look festive, until a car runs over them.  Then, they just look like garbage. 



Offering, in view of our breakfast table



Community Hindu temple-dates from 942.  Everybody had to wear a sarong.

We had only seen the tourist area of Kuta and we wanted to get some understanding of the real Bali.  We asked our waiter if he knew someone who would drive us around and he set us up with his buddy, Norman.  Norman took us off the tourist trail and we saw the real deal here. 

Bali is not industrialized at all.  The factories are located in Jakarta, on the Indonesian island of Java.  Yet, Bali produces a wide range of handicrafts, which are all made by hand in home industries by families.  Often, a community will be dedicated to one type of product.  There are specific areas for stone carvers, and for batik (cloth dying), wood carvers, and for silver and goldsmiths.  The raw material is brought to Bali for the workers because Bali doesn't produce all the necessary natural resources.



Cottage woodworking industry



Wood carvers-learning from the master

Wood carving shop



Stone worker carving by hand





Stone carvers yard



The tax rate is exceptionally high here (and that's coming from Ontarians!) at 21%.  That's broken down into 11% government and 10% service charge.  Yet the education system is only funded to the end of the elementary level.  High school and beyond must be paid by the user, so only the people who can afford it get to go.  Rural people seldom go to high school, and their only option is to continue to work in the family craft business, at low wages. 

Rice is the staple here and it produces 3 crops per year.  It is very labour intensive since it is planted one rice plant at a time, and harvested by hand.  Then, the rice grains are laid out on a plastic sheet to dry.  Finally, the grains are bagged and walked to the processing area, usually on someones head.

Rice stalk, grains are harvested by hand.  Rice field in the background.

Terraced rice paddies





Women taking harvested rice to the processing area

Rice drying in the sun

Roadside fruit stand

Bali has a volcano, which is still considered an active volcano.  It last erupted in 1963.  It's most recent tragedy was in March, 2011, when a tourist hiked to the summit, tried to look into the crater, lost his footing and fell into it.  He died.  We only saw it from a distance.  It wasn't erupting.  The adjacent lake is the primary water source for farmers on the island.  The rice paddies, coffee and cocoa farmers use it for irrigation.

Lunch beside the volcano.  No glass on that window.

We had the most fun when we toured the Sacred Monkey Forest of Padangtegal in Ubud.  The Balinese Macques monkeys roam freely in this park.   It houses approximately 340 monkeys.  There are four groups of monkeys each occupying different territories in the park. Overall, they aren't large monkeys.  The fully grown ones are about the size of a standard house cat.  We did see a few larger males, and we saw many, very tiny, young monkeys.

Sometimes the monkeys are scary

Grooming loved ones.  Has a side benefit that they eat what they find. 

Mother and baby

On our way back to the hotel we drove past Sanur beach.  It was pretty and we've decided to relocate there.  We're booked onto the Hyatt for two nights.  Then, we fly to Phuket, Thailand on May 29th.

Kim and her new friend