#me if drawing men with yellow backgrounds was illegal

[waistcoatsandwhatnot]

Am I human enough yet?

[wanderlust225]

Exploring East Bali

When I first booked this trip and gave the most time to Bali (outside of Japan) I wondered if I was making the right decision - now that I'm here, I feel as though I could easily spend a month exploring the wonders of Bali and another few exploring the other Indonesian islands. Given that, we booked a driver to take us around- despite being in fairly significant pain from yesterday's hike. Our driver Putu (which I later learned was another name for first born), picked us up promptly at 8am. Still tired from the previous day, we confirmed we wanted to head to snorkeling on the East coast and he headed for a village called Amed, while we slept for almost the entire 2.5 hour drive. Putu is extremely knowledgable (as you'll see further in this post) and told us that 20 years ago this had been a mere fishing village but now it had grown into a prime tourist destination. When we arrived on the beach he helped us find snorkel gear and beach chairs. On such a gorgeous day we couldn't help but grab a Bintang (hey, we had missed breakfast!) and enjoy our beers before we got into the water. They were delicious and I felt compelled to take a picture with my dad's jacket and the beer (at 11am), as I'm sure he is looking down on me with pride in his heart and a smile on his face. We did evntually go snorkeling and it was lovely. Listening only to the cracking of shells on the ocean floor, we glided over a gorgeous coral reef filled with schools of fish, many neon colored (finally, we know where inspiration for 80s neon fashion came from), sea urchins, blue star fish and even an underwater altar! The water was clear and warm and the cove with Mt Agung in the background felt very safe and relaxing - it was perfect. After snorkeling we had some lunch on the beach (and another Bintang, of course) and then headed back to the car for the rest of our adventure! Putu then drove us up, up, up to Pura Lempuyang a beautiful mountain temple or "stairway to paradise" as many westerners call it. On our way he saked us some very personal questions to make sure we wouldn't disrupt the sanctity of the temple which can never have a drop of blood on it and then gave us sarongs to wear. Interestingly, it is both the men and women who wear sarongs in Bali - though the men also wear small turbins on their heads. We walked up the steep stairs through three gates, each one more ornate than the last and looking back, each one with a better view, making the ascent worthwhile. He taught us a lot about the temple, a few notes: - Their god is also a trinity of 3 beings; yellow (west), white (east) and red (north) -- black fits in there too, maybe south? The trinity also represents creation, protection and destruction which flows through into every part of life (i.e. you would pray to the god of creation for schooling and knowledge because knowledge creats opportunities) - There are different types of temples: Family at the home, Village temple, Occupational temple (i.e. at a hotel for the employees or on a farm for the farmers) and General temple, where anyone can go - There are only 210 days in the Balinese calendar and when you're young (under 5), you celebrate these "otons" instead of western calendar birthdays - There is no mourning in the temple as it is supposed to be a place where you are fresh and happy. The learning didn't stop there though and in the car to the next destination we touched on: Trump (they don't like him here either, and they miss Obama), the fact that tourism is 65% of the Balinese economy and they worry about geopolitical events (i.e. North Korea) and how that might affect people traveling, and chickens who wander by day but always go back to the same place to sleep. Our next stop was the Water Palace (really a weekend retreat) which the King of East Bali built back in the early 1900s. It was absolutely incredible with the ocean to the East, mountains to the North and gorgeous tropical forests all around. We also learned that the Dutch came in shortly after, using the Palace as a place for parties, then Bali was taken by the Japenese during WWII, then the Dutch tried to come back after the war but Bali negotiated independence from the UN. Sadly though, the original palace was ruined in 1963 with the big eruption from Mt Agung - a theme we heard repeated at the next place we visited. Next we went to a small village closely by - called something like Tengagam (I'm sorry for all of my spelling as most are likely very off). The significance of the name tenga is that it means middle because these vilagers positioned themselves in between the hills to protect their clay houses from falling again (like they had after the 1963 erruption). Our guide, Ketut, explained that there were currently 235 families in the village and everything is shared and though some are artisans and others farmers, everyone is on an equal social level, in peace. As we met on of our guide's friends, he said Brooke Sheilds when he met me - honestly, it never gets old. We finally went back to Ketut's home and met his wife who did the double-stitch weaving they're famous for and he showed us the wood carving and caligraphy he does, which has been passed down generation to generation. Both were incredibly intricate and very pretty. The odd part in my mind though is that during their annual fetival, shirtless men will lash out at each other, with the purpose of drawing blood. They also have rooster fighting (common for ceremonies in Bali, illegal for betting) and they sacrifice a water buffalo and roast a pig. In such a peaceful place, this seemed very odd. After a long day exploring we headed back to Ubud and tried Dayu's Warung for dinner. A warung is kind of like a cafe - serving all meals of the day in a less formal setting than a restaurant. We enjoyed delicious fried rice and noodles, along with some coconut and corn fritters and a lemongrass and tumeric health drink (there are many places in Bali that don't serve alcohol, which makes me feel a little better about the Bintang breakfast and all the rice we were eating). It was a beautiful end - until we realized we had run out of rupiah and couldn't use a credit card - oops! I wandered around Ubud for about an hour until I finally found a functioning ATM but alas, when I started to feel frustrated I saw a tear-off flyer that said "take only what you need" and I took "freedom" and "love" for Amy, and "peace" and "confidence" for myself.