Galungan

Six Balinese months later (210 days) and it is time for the Galungan celebration again.  It is one of the three major Balinese holidays.  It marks the start of a ten day period when the gods come down and take residence in temples.  The ceremonies around Galungan include animal sacrifices and a profusion of offerings.

Every home and business places a decorated bamboo pole in the front on the side of the street.  The curved bamboo pole represents Mount Agung, the large volcano that dominates the island.   The previous Galungan was in February, shortly after we arrived, while we were still getting acclimated.  We loved the transformation of Bali, as the whole island took on a festive air. 

The day before Galungan.  Shopping for decorations for the penjor.

Green School puts on a Galungan assembly the day before the start of Galungan. All the Westerners were told to wear Balinese ceremonial clothing to the assembly.  I never have learned how to properly put on my sarong, so one of the male staff at the next door villa undid the botched job I had made of it and dressed me properly.

At the assembly, the Balinese teachers explained and demonstrated how to make offerings, decorate the penjor, and prepare the traditional food associated with the holiday.  One of the local high priests presided over the occasion.  We all had to sit on our knees on the floor (no one can sit higher than the priest).  The priest asked for blessings from the gods and we were all doused with holy water and given and few kernels of rice to place on our foreheads and to eat.  Alexa and Charlotte are now old hands at these rituals, now having participated in several ceremonies at school.

demonstrating traditional food preparation at the Galungan assembly at Green School

decorating the penjor

Since much of Bali shuts down for two or three days over Galungan, school was closed and Dewa was unavailable, we decided to go for an overnight to the Pan Pacific Resort on the beach in western Bali, about an hour and a half from our place.  We had been to the Pan Pacific once before for a day trip with our friends Rebecca and Tom and their kids.  This time, our friends Reinout and Pauline and their kids joined us the next day.  We saw other Green School friends there as well, which made for a festive outing. 

The hotel sits on the western coast next to Tanah Lot temple, one of the most important and beautiful temples in Bali.  More importantly for the girls, the multi-level swimming pool has a long, twisting water slide that they went down countless times.  They took some time out to look for shells along the beach and then we wandered over to Tanah Lot as the sun set. 

village street decorated with penjors

playing on the rocks near Tanah Lot

priest assistants at Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot at sunset

the ridiculously picturesque view while eating breakfast buffet the next morning

On the way home the next evening, we were surprised to see some penjors lit up with small colored lights.  "Christmas penjors!" the girls exclaimed.  Throughout Bali penjors line the streets.

After Galungan, it is a common sight to see groups of kids playing traditional musical instruments going down the street making a little money by offering on-the-spot performances of the Barong dance.  Two Barong dancers perform while covered by the Barong dragon costume, with one of the dancers animatedly moving the dragon mask.  Charlotte is enchanted by these performances and rushes towards the entrance of whatever building we are in when she hears a Barong group approaching.

Barong group on the move

The day after Galungan is called Manis Galungan:  Sweet Galungan.  It is a day the Balinese spend visiting family.  The girls were back in school.  Putu mentioned that in the afternoon, at the nearby soccer field, greased betel nut poles would be set up and kids would try to scale the poles to fetch prizes attached at the top.  Putu said it would be a lot of fun so I wandered over, the only Westerner in the large crowd.  There were two poles, a tall one for the bigger kids, and a slightly shorter one for the little kids.  Everyone had a good time watching the kids clamber over each other, muddy and slippery, trying to reach the top only to slide back down time after time.  At last, one boy from each group managed to make it to the top, and tossed the prizes down to the ground.

young boys of Silungan trying to climb the greased pole

Updated 9/17; Photos Lynn and Nat, Videos by Lynn

Critters

Our living space is open to the outdoors, so we never know what to expect when we come home, especially at night.  Often it is frogs and toads.  A toad family seems to be living inside our coffee table.  Or it could be a large black snake lounging on the steps near the swimming pool.

We are currently living with a bat in the rafters of our bedroom.  Putu closed the holes in the ceiling directly below the bat with newspaper so that its poop no longer falls onto our bedsheets.  Still, it is disconcerting to hear its high-pitched squeaks in the middle of the night directly over our heads.  On the other hand, we enjoy seeing the bats buzzing over our pool at night, knowing they are devouring mosquitos in their path. 

At least here, unlike at our previous home at Sanctuary, all of our bathrooms are indoors.  At Sanctuary, while we enjoyed our beautiful outdoor shower with a view of the rice field, the girls were often dismayed to find columns of ants in and around their toilet.  Here, they only have to deal with the occasional large spider or tiny gecko scurrying across the bathroom wall.

a caterpillar inside a pod of some sort

came home to this big guy by the coffee table

                           this snake was lounging on the steps to our living area in the middle of the afternoon

this eight-inch spider hangs out near our front entrance

he was keeping me company near my desk

I stuck my face into this guy's web one morning as he had built a web over our dining room table the previous night

this little guy was keeping an eye on us from behind a picture while we had dinner

We've quickly gotten used to having all of these critters in our midst.  And of course we have not even mentioned the swallows, doves and other lovely birds that swoop into our yard and serenade us daily. 

We also recently became pet owners for the first time; we now have four goldfish in a bowl.  Charlotte had been asking for goldfish for a couple of weeks, and one day Dewa surprised her with a bunch of fish in a glass bowl with a lovely wooden stand.  Several of them have already gone to fish heaven (or have been reincarnated, as they are Balinese fish).  They were promptly replaced by a couple of new fish brought by our sitter, Kadek Eva.  We are fortunate to have Balinese friends who are so thoughtful and kind to the girls. 

Posted by Nat and Lynn.  Photos/video by Nat.

Updated Oct 1 with new photos

Anniversary overnight at Kayumanis

In celebration of our anniversary, Lynn and I spent an overnight at the Kayumanis, one of the high-end hotels in the Ubud area.  (Fortunately off-season rates took effect Sep 1st.)  We haven't spent a night away from the girls the whole time we've been here, and Lynn has been very busy with full-time parenting and shuttling the girls around during the 8 weeks of school break.

Lynn does nearly all of our travel planning, so it was about time I tried my hand at a little surprise getaway.  Unfortunately, this effort only proved, once again, that nothing stays secret in Bali for long.  When I didn't respond immediately to the hotel's question about the pick-up time, the woman in reservations tracked down the phone number for the manager of our house.  He in turn called Dewa, who was driving Lynn at the time.  So Lynn got the out-of-the-blue request to return a call from the Kayumanis, and the surprise was spoiled.

But there was a silver lining, as the advance notice gave Lynn time to get comfortable with leaving the girls for an overnight.  Fortunately we have a reliable babysitter whom the girls are very fond of, and with some reservations, Lynn gave it the green light.

Kayumanis means "cinnamon" in Bahasa Indonesian.  The hotel has 23 private villas tucked away amidst a tiny village reached by a bumpy dirt road.  It is located along a ridge overlooking the Ayung River.

We enjoyed our getaway and a little pampering, which included welcome cocktails, an anniversary cake at dinner, and half-hour side-by-side massages the next morning.

outdoor shower

private pool

the living room/dining room/kitchen area of our villa

my sweetie holding the sweets

maybe "anniversary" didn't fit?

breakfast at the villa

on the way to the spa

a stream below

hotel pool

not-great photo taken by hotel guy

Nusa Lembongan

For a last hurrah before school starts up again, we took an overnight trip to Nusa Lembongan.  Lembongan is a small island ("nusa" means island) a half-hour fast ferry boat ride from Sanur.  Sanur is on the east coast of Bali, about a 40 minute drive from our house.

We didn't know much about Lembongan except that it was supposed to be a laid back place with some good spots for snorkeling and surfing.  We picked a cliff-side hotel that was well reviewed in TripAdvisor and reserved the last available room.

The ferry service picked us up from our house in an eight-seat car smaller than Dewa's car.  This would have been fine, expect that when made the next stop to pick up a young New Zealand couple, they were waiting with enormous surfboards next to them.  There was no way they were going to fit into the car.  Our driver quickly enlisted a driver from the hotel to bring the couple and their boards, and we were off again toward the ferry launch in Sanur.

Sanur is the location of the popular kite festival we attended last month.  As we approached Sanur, we saw trucks carrying enormous kites heading to the beach.  It seemed that yet another kite extravaganza was in the works.

a perilous perch above impressively stacked loose corn

We reached Sanur in time to have a buffet breakfast at one of the small beachside restaurants and to wander along the beach watching local families playing in the water.

The ferry ride was uneventful, even though the ferry had been delayed in arriving due to mechanical problems.  A fresh set of offerings was loaded onto the ferry.  Each of the three outboard motors received its own offering, and the front of the ferry was stacked high with more offerings.  Smoke wafted from the burning incense sticks placed above the 'No Smoking' sign.

When we reached Lembongan, we disembarked onto the surf.  Ferry boat passengers were sorted by their hotel destination onto various pickup trucks outfitted with benches.  All the trucks departed leaving us (the only people traveling with kids) and a group of Spanish surfer dudes stuck at the dock.  Eventually another truck was located, and we clambered on board, a half dozen surf boards wedged between our feet.

We chatted with one of the surfer dudes who was fairly fluent in English, and the surfers took turns showing off the nasty gashes and scrapes they had suffered from being smashed by waves against coral reefs.  A short while later, amidst a blur of Spanish, I heard "Hitler".  I wondered what on this beautiful sunny day could have prompted that comment.  It soon became clear that the surfer was discussing the omnipresent swastikas.  Lynn joined in trying to convince him that the symbol is drawn differently in Bali, with the arms facing in the opposite direction.

Our hotel was located on a cliff above a beach facing back towards Bali, with a spectacular view of Mount Agung in the distance. 

steps to our room

mystery fruit growing next to the hotel pool

After lunch, we headed down to the beach.  Several shacks offered snorkels and stand-up paddleboards.   It was the first time Charlotte and I had gone paddleboarding; Lynn and Alexa tried it last summer in Vermont.  Lynn and I took turns going out with Alexa or Charlotte.   It was good fun, even with several unplanned dunks, and we all had a chance to paddle.

After returning to the hotel to change for dinner, we headed along a path beside the beach to a nearby cluster of hotels and restaurants.  Along the way we saw seaweed farms exposed by low tide.  Lembongan is well known for its seaweed farming.  The seaweed is nutriet-rich and is sold to the Japanese market for cosmetics.  We went to explore, navigating our way along strips of wet sand and hopping over tide pools.   We stopped to help a fisherman remove thin stands of fine seaweed from the larger branching specimens that are carted away for sale.  We stuck around on the beach to watch the sun set.

Mount Agung, on Bali, in the distance, with seaweed "paddies" in the foreground

We ate at a high quality restaurant overlooking the beach as the sky turned dark under the new moon, and the stars came out.  We then returned to our hotel along the poorly lit path, relying on the meager light from my cell phone to light our way back.

Not sure which door leads to the men's room?  Problem solved.

The next morning we rented two paddle boards.  Alexa and Lynn went on one.  Charlotte and I on the other.  We paddled over the clear water with coral visible below.  The girls took turns paddling, and when they tired of that they jumped off the paddleboards to swim nearby and then would come back to lie on the boards while Lynn and I paddled.  The paddle boards were a good discovery as we had a lot of fun with them.

We paddled to the neighboring beach which we had to ourselves.  The girls passed the time collecting sea shells.  Then it was time to paddle back, have lunch, check out, and return by the ferry to Bali.

On the drive from Sanur back to our house we passed large flags still flying from Indonesia's August 17th Independence Day and an entire neighborhood walking in a funeral procession. 

It was a great way to end the long school break.  We were happy to discover that such a relaxing retreat is just two hours door-to-door from our place. Now it's time to prepare for the start of school tomorrow.

Photos by Nat.  Comments, edits and additional photos by Lynn.