Semut-Semut of Bali!

Some (not so short) clips of our resident ant colony in Bali. How we do so love the ants! These clips seemed really fascinating in real time - in a super 'microcosm' kinda way. And.....maaaaybe not so now that we are back in our tidy little American home! Warning to viewers: #2 is long and slow but well worth the wait we think! Enjoy!

Ants of Bali: Ants, eggs and an electrical socket! 

Some of my favorite Bali snacks!

Peanuts and Terang Bulan!

Peanuts - a short film of  Made and Nyoman's peanut frying kitchen in KlungKung, Bali. (for more info refer to 'Super Peanuts' post! Awesome Bali peanuts fried in pure coconut oil and seasoned with Bali spices, salt and sugar. YUM! The business is called Pak Asub. The kitchen is in Klungkung and they deliver all over Bali. Pak Asub produces 400 lbs of unbelievably delicious peanuts every day!

 

Awesomely drippy, delicious folded crumpet-like yumminess sold at roadside night markets throughout Indonesia. There's also a song by the same name written by a French Lyricist in the late 18th century. Not sure which came first...the food or the tune?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terang_Bulan    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apam_balik

 

Making offerings

These are a series of short clips that document our experiences making offerings with palm leaves and rice dough with friends Made (in her home) and D'Ayu (in the temple at Tjampuhan).

Elsa is making some basic offerings, canang ('chanang') sari that women make everyday for family temples and their homes . Made (Mahd-ay) is the woman who owns the villa we rented - she makes 100 of these each day to place in her home and temple and also the other homes that they rent out. It's an amazing amount of work! Folks are using staplers now instead of the traditional bamboo stalks - faster and easier on the fingers but not as elegant.

Made delivered the canang to us along with a giant bag of colorful flowers so that we could do our very own offerings at home.

These are tiny rice dough (think: your mama's homemade playdo) offerings for temple ceremonies. They represent sacred symbols of Balinese Hindu cosmology.

Temple Dance Films

These are some videos of temple dances - girls at Temple Tjampuhan and Topeng at Temple in Penestanan.

Barong videos

 

 

Pulang! Time to go home....

Alas, my 37th post for 37 Bali days...

Today we leave this paradise - in 1.5 hours we leave for the airport. Our first leg will be 9 hours then 9 in Doha, then another 14 until DC. There we rent a car to make the 2 hour drive home!! Happy to see our dog and eat some Trader Joe's chips (seriously - no good chips here and we are a potato chip family!). Today Elsa and I spent one more morning 'sewing' offerings in the temple with D'Ayu. Another big job for the royal family's personal temple. It was a perfect way to send us off. A bitter sweet leave-taking as always. Muda-mudahan (hopefully!) we will be able to return before another 12 years!!! x0x0x

When home, I will upload all of our movies so you can get a taste of Bali in action so check back in soon.  Much love to all!

Our long-awaited Elephant Safari!!

On Friday we went to the near-by elephant park. My sister and brother-in-law gave us the gift of 'Bathing and Swimming with the elephants. It was the most amazing experience! We got there very early in the morning just as the elephants were waking up. The handlers brought them to us so we could bathe them - hose them down and scrub their bodies. Our elephant was Mr. Wong - a giant male with long white tusks. It was truly a magical experience (of course tinged with sadness because they couldn't be free in their natural habitat). But the park was immaculate and the handlers treated the animals with care and love. We got to 'swim' with them in their bathing pool - ride their backs and dive under with them! Then we had a great buffet breakfast, saw them perform in a mini show and then got to ride on their big backs through a jungle path. So fun! Just a few pics below - more later...

Bekah on Ryan - he was the 'smart' guy in the show - doing all sorts of tricks (like painting!)

Elsa with a clean Mr Wong!

Riding high!

Elsa and Daddy riding on Pertiwi - Happy Day!

To the volcano - Gunung Batur

We took an amazing trip north up to the active volcano, Batur. Too hard of a climb for our family this time around but we drove to the bottom to get some hot spring action. There's a beautiful lake at the bottom and a place with many different pools bubbling with fresh water from the volcanic hot springs. Made and her family came with us so we all frolicked together. The weather was perfect after so many rainy days. On the way back we stopped by Tirta Empul - a temple near Ubud that hosts a fresh spring of holy water. There's a spring fed pool and then the water is directed to spigots in the temple wall that pour continuously out from 10 distinct 'faucets'. The Balinese (tamus too) go to Tirta Empul for cleansing and purification. We went in and sampled every spigot! We wore sarongs and went from 'water' to 'water' bathing our faces and heads. There are beautiful offerings on every spigot - brought by the Balinese - constantly being refreshed by worshipers throughout the day.

Batur! More pics of Hot springs to come....

The Black chunky stuff in the foreground is old lava flow rocks from the eruption in the 60's. last eruption 2012.

Tirta Empul : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirta_Empul_Temple

Opening night at the temple!

The opening night was last Wednesday. We went on Tuesday night as well, to wait for all the barongs from neighboring villages. They came slowly in long processions and then had to go way up on the hill behind the temple (along a very narrow, slippery path) to a place of holy water (a spring maybe?) to be blessed before entering the temple. Then once back in the temple they processed up to their respective pedestals - where they stayed for the duration of the ceremony. That was a long night - and hard for Elsa to sit through - not much happening - but the temple was beautiful and relatively quiet. We met a lovely family from Australia with an 8 year old girl, Sophia. She and Elsa really hit it off and so we all chatted away happily together. The next night was the opening night and there was plenty of action! Lots of wonderful dancing (good for Elsa to see since she'd been studying some dance) - lots of girls of all ages and then after that was the traditional Baris dance (a sort of war dance) - high drama! Elsa and Sophia were in the front row which was thrilling! It was a late night for all. We also went back for the final night on Saturday which was extremely crowded! We couldn't even get to see the performances, but the gamelan was wonderful as always and prayed twice - in the inner temple and also one of the outer areas as well. D'Ayu had a tray for us with flowers, incense and some offerings (k'wangen). It was so crowded she had to pass it back to us through the crowd - all very amused! Some pics of the night temple aglow and some of dancers!

More temple prep

This was our final day of making things at the temple before the ceremony. The temple really came alive!!

Random Lovlies

Full moon on our way home from the temple ceremony!

Full moon over the roof of our house!

Another beautiful full moon night shot with our camera! So bright - like daylight!

Sleeping angel....dreaming sweet dreams.

Yumminess from Lala Lili's - favorite little restaurant and shop! This haul: $8!!! We'll miss that!

Monkey Forest at last

There a sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud - monkeys everywhere and a beautiful temple complex and walk along the river. The monkeys can be kind of aggressive but if you don't bother them they scamper around and do their own thing. They are very friendly however and will scruffle your hair if you let them! Compared to my previous visits here, the place was clean and organized and there were folks monitoring the monkeys and making sure they behaved themselves! We saw a couple of very new babies (one with the cord still attached!) some aggressive male posturing, some mating (yes, really), some monkeys lounging in the sun grooming each other, monkeys bathing and lots of playing!