Absurdities

I wrote this post two months ago, about three weeks after we arrived in Bali.  I was intentionally taking the most jaundiced look I could at things, and it isn't an accurate sense of how I felt overall at the time.  But I wanted to get these thoughts off my chest.  I didn't want to publish it right away because I first wanted to sit with it for a while to see how I would feel about these concerns after being here longer.    First, here's the original post...

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Our stay so far in Bali has been great, but I also recognize that it is filled with absurdities.

1.  We came to Bali in part to experience Balinese culture.  But what we are really experiencing is 'Expat culture'.   We are separated from actual Balinese culture, as if by a semi-permeable membrane.  We live in a house with Western amenities, although with Balinese stylistic touches.  Nearly everyone we deal with speaks English.  The work of living in Bali is performed primarily by others - the housekeeper, the gardener, the driver, the concierge at the school who is available to help parents with everyday practicalities.  We engage with the Tourist/Expat economy, not the local economy.  We eat at restaurants that are patronized only by visitors.  As I learned from hard experience, our stomachs cannot even handle eating the food that locals eat.  Much of our shopping is in stores tailored to expats.  We don't fit into the network of social relationships here, so it will be challenging to even socialize with Balinese locals.  We have not yet found a way to usefully engage in a project here, so until that happens we are in effect on an extended vacation.

2.  We wanted to expose the girls to a developing country, with the hope in part that it might lead them to better appreciate all that they have back in DC.  What we are in effect exposing them to is an even more privileged way of life than they led before.  Are we opening their eyes, or reinforcing the expectation that they will always lead a pampered life?

3.  We are paying a lot of money (ok, not compared to DC private schools) to send the girls to Green School which has a mission of educating children to be good stewards of the environment.  What that means in practice is that they are learning bits and pieces of how to be a subsistence farmer.  They feed scraps to pigs, plant, weed and harvest a rice paddy, tend a garden and compost leftover food.  We are coming to a country that is desperately trying to develop beyond subsistence agriculture, and are preparing our Westernized children for a technologically advanced world by teaching them the skills of a subsistence farmer.  I'm sure a Balinese farmer would be glad to teach the kids how to farm first hand, and would do so much more effectively, for a hundredth of the Green School tuition.

4.  In order to learn about conservation and environmental stewardship, we are consuming the fuel necessary to fly us halfway around the world and back again, leaving a perfectly good house in DC empty most of the time, consuming Western-level amounts of electricity and water in a society where these are scarce resources, and generating Western-level quantities of trash in a society without recycling.

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Nearly three months in, I recognize that while these concerns are still valid, these thoughts and feelings were part of the process of adjusting to Bali.  The longer we are here the more ways we can pierce the 'bubble' by forming deeper relationships with English speaking Balinese and by learning enough Indonesian for rudimentary exchanges with Balinese who don't work in the tourist industry.

The girls are enjoying their adventure and are being exposed to so many things that they couldn't get back home.  We hope this year will have a positive effect on them that will benefit them their entire lives.  The shared adventure is also bringing us closer together as a family.

The point of the green studies curriculum at Green School isn't to teach the kids how to be subsistence farmers, but to not take for granted the source of how we nourish ourselves from food and animals. 

We are still consuming well more than our fair share of resources living by Western standards here in Bali.  But we hope that we can contribute more than simply some money to the local economy.  Many expats do make positive contributions, including Robin Lim, CNN's Hero of the Year who has helped thousands of poor Indonesian women have healthy pregnancies and births, who is just down the road in Nyuh Kuning.  We are still essentially consumers- consuming an experience instead of a product- but there may be opportunities for us to make some small positive contributions as well.

Outings

On the weekends we try to visit attractions around Bali, or as Dewa calls them, 'tourist objects'.

Tanah Lot

The Saturday before last we headed west to the Pan Pacific five-star resort located on the ocean near Tanah Lot temple.  Friends from Green School were escaping their small house in the rice fields for a weekend of pampering at the hotel, and we were invited to hang out with them for the day.

The setting was gorgeous as the hotel overlooked the ocean, with the waves crashing into the rocks below and sending sprays high into the air.  The kids loved the multi-level system of pools with water slides going from one level to the next.

Tanah Lot temple is on a rock outcropping just next to the hotel that can only be reached at low tide.  In the late afternoon, with the tide out, we crossed the tidal pools for a closer look.  The temple is supposedly at a spot where the priest who brought Hinduism to Bali once stopped for meditation and rest.

                                                            Alexa getting nowhere fast

Elephant Safari

We went to an elephant park north of Ubud for my birthday.  The Aussie owner rescued several malnourished elephants from Sumatra and gave them a home in Bali.  The elephants are much smaller than their African cousins, which is a good thing when you a perched precariously on top of one.

Charlotte in particular had fun feeding the elephants, including the baby elephants.  The elephants also put on a show, playing basketball, soccer, and painting, after a fashion.

Puppet Museum and Nyuh Kunning

Lynn had heard about a new Mask and Puppetry Museum not far from Ubud, so on Sunday we went for a visit.  The collection was assembled by a Javanese businessman who felt strongly that these cultural artifacts should be preserved.  He then constructed a museum spread across several small buildings to showcase his collection for the public.

It was a very impressive collection with masks and puppets from many different cultures and periods.  The museum hadn't officially opened yet so we were the only visitors and received a private tour from the guide.  The guide said that it wasn't possible to house the museum in Java because of the cultural insensitivity of the religious fanatics there.

I particularly enjoyed an exhibit of finely carved and expressive puppets-

the museum owner meets Obama, as puppets at least

After returning from the museum we joined a couple other Green School families for an impromptu picnic in Nyuh Kuning, as small village adjacent to Ubud.  Unlike most other places where expats live in villas built on converted rice paddies outside of a village, in Nyuh Kuning (which means 'yellow coconut') the Green School families live in existing housing among the local Balinese which makes them more a part of the community and there is more opportunity for the kids to play together.

There were several Balinese boys playing with the Green School kids at tug-of-war, frisbee toss, wrestling and a limbo line.

Rice Paddies outside of Ubud

One afternoon I went exploring on the motor bike.  Turning off a busy main road from Ubud onto a twisty, potholed road led to some farming villages.  Many farmers worked in the fields that stretched off into the distance, but there was a quiet unbroken by the sounds of any machinery.

Singapore

The evening of the hike up Mt. Batur, we flew to Singapore.  Singapore could hardly be more different than Bali.

We departed from the shabby, dingy airport in Bali and arrived in the gleaming, world-famous, uber-modern airport in Singapore. 

We walked right through what we assumed would be a daunting Customs examination without them showing the slightest interest in us, and straight to a waiting cab.  The cab was driven by a hilarious ethnic Chinese guy who spent the cab ride complaining about his recent family vacation to Bali.  They didn't like the food, and the beaches weren't nice.  The only fun thing they did was take a rafting trip, but the hike down the ravine to the river and then back up again afterwards so strained his leg muscles that he could barely walk for two days.  He hadn't left the tourist traps near the airport in Bali to explore any of the sights in Bali.  He had no interest in going back.

We sped on a super-highway through nearly deserted streets and soon reached our hotel.  Our heads hit the pillow at 2 am.

Our first morning began with Charlotte's favorite aspect of travel:  an expansive breakfast buffet.  We then set out to explore the Little India neighborhood.  Alexa enjoyed trying on "Punjabi suits" in one of the shops, and Lynn bought one of the outfits for Alexa and an armful of blue bangles for Charlotte.  We rode their in the clean and efficient subway.  The signs in the subway were in four languages -- Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil -- evidence of its multi-ethnic, merchant culture.

Historic Merchant house in Little India

The girls were fascinated by the gold shop in Little India

That afternoon we visited an expat British family we had been introduced to through a mutual friend.  They had two kids roughly the same ages as Alexa and Charlotte.  The kids all had a blast playing in their pool while Lynn and I chatted with the parents.  The dad was in love with Singapore.  He was friendly but quite opinionated.  He couldn't understand why we would choose to live in "backwards Bali" when Singapore was so much better.

He discussed at length all the sensible things that the Singapore government did, and how the government was so much better run than the U.S. or the U.K.  I had never given Singapore much thought, even though I visited briefly as part of a work trip for the Department of Commerce nearly 20 years ago.  So what he had to say was eye-opening for us.

In spite of being a small island of five-million people with few natural resources (even requiring the import of its water supply), Singapore ran a budget surplus.  Instead of saddling every citizen with a share of a huge national debt, as in the U.S. and the U.K., Singapore has one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds.  Singapore has almost no unemployment.  It has almost no homelessness, as the government builds affordable housing on a mass scale and provides it to lower income earners at cost, including long-term loans at the government's cost of borrowing, so that workers could become home owners by paying only $30 or so per month.

Because of its draconian drug laws, it has almost no drug problem.  In part because it doesn't have the crime spawned by drug dealers and drug addicts, it has very little crime.  Since it has little crime, it needs only a small police force and few jails.

Singapore has low income taxes of around 10%.  It has no capital gains tax.  It manages a budget surplus in part because it heavily taxes certain forms of consumption.  To control traffic congestion, cars cost two or three times what they cost elsewhere.  A car can only be purchased and driven in Singapore with a separate license to drive that particular car.  The licenses to drive the cars are auctioned off to the highest bidder and can run $75k for a 10-year right to drive the car.  All cars come equipped with a version of an EZpass.  Highways are "smart priced", so if you want to drive into the business district during rush hour, you will pay a higher price than if you travel during off- hours.  (The government also built a 16 km tunnel under the heart of Singapore city to ease congestion -- and managed to build it in three years' time.)  The consequence is that even though it is a small, densely populated island, the roads are not clogged with cars and you can quickly get where you need to go.  For those who can't afford a car, the government licenses over 30,000 taxi cabs that charge quite modest rates, and has an extensive public transportation system, including the underground metro (MRT) that runs throughout the island.

Singapore appeals to the global rich, whom the government actively woos.  Singapore has the highest rate of millionaires in the world, at over 15% of the population.  The fact that home prices are so expensive that even a modest row-house will run over a million dollars, means that anyone who had owned their own home free and clear is now a millionaire.

Singapore has set its sights on becoming the vacation destination for China and South-East Asia.  It is packed with theme parks and zoos.  It has also become a gambling destination.  In 2010 it licensed two resort casinos.  (Singaporeans are charged a high entry fee to the casinos, to discourage gambling by the locals.)  Due to the high rollers it attracts, and despite having only two casinos, Singapore has quickly surpassed Las Vegas as the number two gambling market in the world, after Macau.

After we receiving this extensive tutorial on the glories of Singapore, we set off for the Night Safari.  The kids were photographed with a large, yellow-eyed owl upon arrival.  The restaurant on site had a wide selection of pan-Asian offerings, and after a large Chinese tour group departed, we enjoyed a meal there.  The girls set their sights on the Ben & Jerry's shop for after the safari.  The father of the family hosting us is 6'10" so we had to wait for a tram where he could sit comfortably in the seats.  (He informed us he is literally the tallest person in Singapore.)

The park is designed so the animals are only about 20-40 feet away from you as you sit in the tram.  They are on the other side of a deep chasm, but it the chasm is cleverly disguised by grass to give the appearance that there is only open field between you and the lions, tigers, and hippos happily eating their meals just a few feet away.   The effect is unnerving as it seems that with one pounce a tiger could land inside the tram.

Mid-way through the ride -- right when you start feeling antsy -- you exit the tram for a walking tour where you share a large enclosed space with large fruit bats, flying squirrels, and later have an up-close view of leopards behind a glass partition.  The Night Safari excursion made for a late night with the kids, but we all found it pretty impressive.

The next day I took the girls to the Singapore Science Centre while Lynn did some shopping. Later we took a boat tour along the Singapore river.  There is a building boom going on, much of it on reclaimed land near the harbor.  The most impressive are the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest Ferris wheel,  and the Marina Bay Sands, the world's most expensive casino, at $5.6 billion, built to look like a cruise ship resting on top of three skyscrapers.

Alexa lost her head at the Science Center

A popular sculpture along the river bank

the symbol of Singapore

the new concert hall

the Singapore Flyer

the Marina Bay Sands from a distance

In the afternoon we went up to the Skypark at the Marina Bay Sands, located at the prow of the "cruise ship".  The prow juts 200 feet into thin air beyond the supporting structure, 56 stories up.  We could also admire the nearly 500 long infinity pool at the center of the "ship".

not a good picture, but you can still make out the large infinity pool suspended in space

Alexa at Skypark

No city is complete without a floating soccer field

the Singapore skyline seen from Skypark

After dinner at a Korean chain hamburger joint - quite good - we watched the Wonder Full laser show projected on a curtain of water formed by fountains in the harbor.

the curtain of spray from the fountains

amazing images from projecting lasers onto water droplets

lasers shot out from the Marina Bay Sands, and it too was lit up with lasers

On the cab ride to the airport for our flight back we passed a couple mile stretch of potted plants in the median, instead of the usual procession of trees.  Our cab driver quizzed us as to why, but we couldn't guess.  He said the answer was an open secret, that in case the airport was attacked the potted plants could be quickly removed to create an alternate landing strip.

Our experience of Singapore was somewhat surreal.  So many things were over the top, from the government that micromanages every detail and plans 50 years into the future, to the buildings unlike any elsewhere in the world.

Bali certainly doesn't measure up to Singapore in so many ways.  But we were still glad to come back to its dilapidated airport, to the lush landscapes, the colorful chaos, the ceremonies and the spirits, and best of all, Gran and Papa Joe, who had planned their trip back to the States so that we would overlap at the airport for a last visit and some ice cream.

arriving and departing

Posted by Nat and Lynn

Making Ogoh-Ogoh

Monsters are gradually taking shape all over Ubud.  Turn a corner, and you might come upon a large, multi-headed demon grinning maniacally at you.

The monsters, or Ogoh-Ogoh, are large sculptures made of a bamboo frame and paper mache.  They are part of the upcoming Nyepi celebrations.  Nyepi is the Balinese day of quiet.  It is a day of reflection, when no activity is supposed to occur.  No one is supposed to leave their house, and no games or work is allowed.  Even the airport closes down; Indonesia is the only country in the world that shuts down one of its international airports for a full day.

We decided to postpone our Spring break trip to Australia to stay in Bali for Nyepi.  Sitting inside all day with nothing to do doesn't sound like much fun, but we've been told that Nyepi is not to be missed, for the excitement of the Ogoh-Ogoh and the absolute quiet and peacefulness of the silent day.

The night preceding Nyepi is a raucous one.  The Ogoh-Ogoh are out in full force, carried by men fortified with alcohol, and accompanied by troupes of musicians playing frenzied music.  The Ogoh-Ogoh attract the evil spirits who then inhabit the sculptures.  The Ogoh-Ogoh are carried in a procession through the village, spun frequently to disorient the evil spirits, and then set aflame and burnt to ashes to purify the village of the evil spirits.

Whether by inspired design or lucky accident, the construction of the Ogoh-Ogoh is entrusted to the teenage boys of the village.  This keeps them occupied and out of trouble, gives them an honored role in the community, and provides them an outlet to express their grotesque imaginings, which often involve super-sized yet realistic body parts.

Alexa's class is making its own Ogoh-Ogoh at school.  We're looking forward to seeing all the finished Ogoh-Ogoh.  We're not quite sure what to expect at the Ogoh-Ogoh procession in Ubud which will packed with men carrying heavy 10 to 20 foot-high structures, crazed by the evil spirits roaming around them.

Banjar Silungan - ten minutes south of Ubud

One of the artists - a chatty guy who spoke English quite well

Banjar Taro, home of the Elephant Safari Park

Banjar Pinjul, a small, remote village northeast of Ubud

Banjar Padang Tegal - a relatively wealthy neighborhood in Ubud

March 19th Update

With the Ogoh-Ogoh procession just around the corner the Ogoh-Ogoh are nearing completion.

Adding hair, in Nyuh Kuning village

In Padang Tegal, on one of the busiest shopping streets in Ubud

A different sense of identity

Making an offering

In Bali the culture doesn't lend itself to people viewing themselves as self-created individuals.  A Balinese belongs to a larger whole and is primarily defined through his or her relationships - to family, to friends, to village, and to the spirit world.

The naming conventions are one reason.  For a Balinese there is nothing individual about one's name.

Although there is some variation in the names available, one's name is determined by one's birth order.  The first born is commonly named Wayan.  Made is the name for a second child.  Nyoman is the name for a third child.  The fourth child is Ketut. 

These names are mostly gender neutral.  There are mothers named Made who have sons named Made (ma-day).  There are husbands named Nyoman married to wives named Nyoman.

The woman who works around our house is named Wayan.  She is not the first born in her family, however.  She is the fifth child.  After the fourth child, the naming cycle starts over, reusing the names for the first through fourth children for the fifth through eigth children.  Her eldest brother is also named Wayan.  When they are at home and their mother calls "Wayan!", they both answer.

Wayan with the girls, all dressed up

The Balinese believe in reincarnation.  When a baby is born, the family visits a high priest to find out which relative has been reborn as the baby.  Perhaps it is the grandmother, or a great-uncle.  According to our driver, Dewa, the reincarnations stay within the family and don't cross species.

[Corrected]  Dewa belongs to a higher caste than Wayan.  Dewa is a title or honorific used by many of the men of the second caste.  The eldest child in the second caste is named Putu.  Our Dewa is also the fifth child in his family, so he is Dewa Putu.  His oldest brother, also a driver, is Dewa Putu as well.   Dewa the elder brought Gran and Papa Joe to Ubud.  In Dewa's family, both are called Putu.  His brother has the nickname, 'Gede', the older one, and he is called 'Cerik' (chuh-reek), the younger one.

Dewa Putu

Dewa's Eldest Brother, Dewa Putu

Friendship comes before business, and even business is a way to create new friendships.  On the drive back from Mt. Batur, I learned that our driver, Gede, who was the driver for one of the Green School dads on the trip, had a side business renting motor bikes.  I had recently returned the motorbike I had rented from a friend of Dewa's and needed a new motorbike.  Gede's price was less than half the price I had paid to Dewa's friend for the same kind of motorbike.  I was eager to rent the motorbike from Gede.  But Gede refused.  He was afraid of offending Dewa, with whom he had becomes friends while spending time together at the parking lot at Green School.  As Gede said in a text message, "Nat, we are Balinese.  We are so close with each other, so I don't like to make a mistake.  I prefer the friend than the money."  Only after a dozen texts and repeated assurances from Dewa that it was no problem, did Gede relent and allow me to rent the motorbike from him.

Even bargaining in the market between Balinese is not oppositional.  Rather it is a friendly give-and-take with one of your neighbors in the hope that she will become a new friend and a long-term customer.

Balinese retain permanent ties to their village of birth.  They cannot easily uproot and reinvent themselves.  While they may move to a new village and attend ceremonies at the temple in the new village, they maintain ongoing obligations to the village of their birth.  The most important obligation is to make an appearance when someone in your village has died.  Dewa's village is a couple of hours to the west.  He has had to go back to his village ten times already this year to visit the family of the recently deceased.  He often leaves in the early hours of the night, spends an hour or so visiting the family and delivering gifts, and then returns in time for a day of work. 

Dewa is fortunate that he owns his own car.  Those from his village who live in this area and who don't have their own transportation have to rely on public transportation.  This means three separate bus trips taking over three and a half hours to reach his village.   For them, it is a full day's commitment to fulfill the obligation to make an appearance after someone from their village has died.

The biggest event in your life is your death.  Your cremation will be held in your hometown village.  If you have been diligent in attending others' cremations, then the village will turn out for yours.  But if you haven't been making your appearances, then don't expect others to come to your ceremony.  The village may even blockade the path from your family's house to the temple, preventing the cremation from occurring.

Balinese live in a world populated with powerful spirits and gods.  The spirits reside in trees, in animals, in rivers, in the ground, in shrines.  They are everywhere, and they must be frequently appeased with offerings or their blessings requested with offerings.  If the offerings are neglected, the spirits may get angry and cause bad fortune to befall the neglectful.

                                          The offering ritual.  The offerings are made two or three times per day.
                                          There may be a dozen or more offerings to make each time.  All the offerings
                                          are painstakingly created by hand.


The gods themselves at times come down to earth.  At the major festival of Galungan, the gods are believed to return to earth for several days.  This is a time of major temple ceremonies and offerings.

It is a humbling perspective to have, as one is constantly trying to placate forces more powerful than oneself.

The Balinese see themselves as part of a larger whole, enmeshed in a web of social relationships and responsibilities.  In the West, we often view ourselves as self-created, and make enormous efforts to differentiate ourselves from those around us.  For the Balinese, this sense of themselves informs their behavior and personalities.

The zone of privacy we are used to is missing.  Balinese feel comfortable asking you, and telling you, very personal things.  You can expect to be asked whether you are married, where are you staying, for how long, where are you going to next, even how much do you pay in rent.

Deeply personal information that might never be shared even to one's closest friends back home are readily divulged to strangers.  Chakra, the warung owner on Pasir Putih beach, easily shared that his wife had trouble conceiving because of his sperm motility problems.  Within half an hour of meeting us, our Indonesian language teacher, a middle aged woman with four boys, shared that she had planned to abort her last pregnancy but couldn't go through with it after seeing the ultrasound.  She now has had her tubes tied.

In the nearly two and a half months we have been here, we have yet to hear a Balinese raise his voice in anger or annoyance.  As Dewa says, when you speak in anger you create an opening for the bad spirits to enter your body.

The Balinese don't strut cockily, or show off with flashy clothes.  There is little attention seeking, or pushy people acting entitled. 

It would seem ridiculous.  If a Balinese were to act that way, you could imagine his friends saying, 'Made son of Made, reincarnated spirit of your great-aunt, who today made offerings to the dozen spirits who reside in your home, what makes you think you are so important?"

Photo Credits:  Photos of Wayan and the Dewas by Gran

Trekking up Mt. Batur

One morning I watched the sunrise from the top of Mount Batur.  I went with four other Green School dads for a nighttime trek up the mountain.  We left Ubud at 2 am in order to make the moderately strenuous hike in the cool of night and to be able to reach the summit in time to catch the sunrise.

Mt. Batur is a volcanic mountain in the northeast of Bali, but at 1,700 meters it is barely half the height of the tallest, Mt. Agung, at 3,148 meters.  Mt. Batur is the most active of the Bali volcanoes, erupting over 20 times in the last 200 years, with the last major eruption in 1963.  At one point it was over 4,000 meters tall, but a massive prehistoric eruption blew the top off the mountain, created a vast caldera, and left Batur with a deep crater at its center.

The region is sparsely inhabited and quite poor.  The village whose territory includes Batur recently set up a system of official guided tours at $30 per head, and put an end to freelance climbing of the mountain.

Despite being woefully out of shape, I made it to the top - though with a lot more huffing and puffing than the other dads.  The view from the top was gorgeous as the sun came up and lit up the clouds.  I felt a satisfying sense of accomplishment at having made the climb.  This despite our group being accompanied to the top by a young guy from the local village who carried a bag full of Cokes, just in the hopes that we'd buy some off him.  On the final push to the summit, still in the dark, he heard me puffing for breath, so he took my hand and guided me up the track that was made slippery with loose volcanic rock.  I felt obliged to pay him the $3 for a Coke once we reached the top.   Another of our group bought one too, so I hope he found it was worth the trouble for the $6 he made.

After we watched the sun come up, our guide took turns taking pictures of us pretending to hold a massive boulder in the air.  He had us put our arms over our heads like we were holding something large and then held a tiny volcanic rock near the camera to create the illusion.  Mine didn't come out well, but the others he took looked quite realistic.

We then went for a trek around the rim of the volcano.  Hot steam rose from vents in the rocks.  The crater inside the mountain was very deep and very steep.  The rugged landscape with rivers of rock from the lava flows stretched for miles.  On the horizon was the circular rim of the large caldera in which Batur and the nearby lake, the largest in Bali, were located. 

 

View of Batur from the base.  We summited the right peak, then walked along the rim and came down off the left peak.