Okay - this is late, but better than never. We did visit Ketut Liyer! It was an amazing experience. He read our palms, backs, faces, pulses and determined that we are "very good!" When he first saw us he said "honeymooners, perfect match!" This was good to hear! I guess better than the alternative. He is a very old man, he said 87, but who knows if that is his real age. It was quite an experience!
Later that day we took a stroll through the Sacred Monkey Forest. These monkeys are like birds here in Bali - they are everwhere! If you are holding something that they want, they will crawl up your body and take it! We have several videos and pictures of them doing this.
Our last day was great and the sunset on our last night was absolutely breathtaking. I will post this later on tonight.
We are back in Chicago now, enjoying our horrible jetlag! After 36 hours we finally made it home in one piece. We are happy to be home! We had a great trip and made memories that will last forever.
Thanks for reading!
Jenn and Jeff
Monday, January 7, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Bali - Day 4
I'm sitting here in the backyard of my villa writing you this post as I overlook the beautiful Indian Ocean. I can't believe our journey is almost over. It has been an adventure of a lifetime and much more than a vacation for Jeff and I. We have been enlightened by the things we have learned and the wonderful people we have met.
Today we hired a driver to tour Bali. Our driver was so wonderful and spoke really great English. Part of the experience in Bali is getting to know the people here. This is a very strong community, with hardly no crime, and people that are so genuine. I believe this is from their spiritual beliefs in Karma and a balanced life. What comes around goes around is the motto here! Unlike Indian Hindu's, Balinese Hindu's believe in only one God. This one God has many different functions, just like one person can be a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, etc. This is a facsinating religion, especially if you have the chance to oversee some of their rituals.
Our first stop was in Mengwi. Mengwi is 1 hour N of Jimbaran and home to the Jagalah Kebersihan temple. This temple is from the 17th century and still used by the public for daily rituals. The temple is surrounded by a moat and beautiful gardens. Very simple architechture and grounds - unlike Thailand
Our second stop was in the Mount Batukaru hills. We took some beautiful pictures of the mountain side before proceeding up to another temple.
While visiting this temple in Bedugul, they were beginning a cleansing ceremony. Someone had passed away and they were taking their ashes to the family temple to be spread. The music and the costumes were beautiful. Our driver told us that sometimes people don't have the money for creamation here, so they will bury the body for up to 5 years while the community raises money for creamation. It can cost up to $1000USD for creamation here, which is very expensive in Bali. This can be more than their yearly salary if they are a farmer or in the tourist industry. This temple sat on Lake Bratan. We saw so many temples as we drove through Bali - so with a little explanation from our driver, we understood why. In Bali they have 4 different types of temples - each family has their own (which is generally placed in front of their home), there is also at least 3 temples for each village, a temple that depicts which class you belong to (upper, middle, and lower), and a public temple. There are so many here that even the Balinese don't know how many exist. I figure since 4 million people live here, there has to be at least 3 million temples in Bali, if not more.
Our final stop of the day was in Gitgit, home to Bali's largest waterfall. This was pretty awesome! People from all over Bali visit this fresh water waterfall to swim and to drink! It also was surrounded by natural flowers, spice trees, and herbs. You could see many fresh fruits growing on the trees as you walked down the 300 steps to get to the waterfall. This was our last stop of the day. We are postponing the Sacred Monkey Forest and Volcano till tomorrow. We are excited for this trip, as we are also going to visit Ketut Liyer, the famous Balian Healer.
One last note, while the people here are so polite and genuine, they are very poor. Our driver today got up at 6AM drove from his home in the country to pick us up at 9AM. He drove with us all day until 4PM. He then has to drive back home 3 hours. His day was from 6 - 7PM. While this may seem like a normal working day for an American, his entire pay for the day was a mere $3.50. Balinese that work in the tourist industry only make 10% of the booking fee! This man was a wonderful person - he is taking care of his entire family (2 young children, a wife, his parents, and his aunt). He is the only one that works in his family. He explained to us that education is very important to him and he wants his children to be educated so that they will have a better life. Education in Bali is not government funded and has to be privately funded by the citizens. We found this very sad, as this man did not want to eat lunch because he saves all his money for his children. This put a lot in perspective for us - how fortunate we are and how we should not take what we have for granted when others have so little. The most amazing part of this man is that you would think he was the richest man in the world - always smiling, loving his family, and so down to earth. We need to take a few lessons from him.
Until tomorrow - we will have a lot to share about our experience with Ketut.
Today we hired a driver to tour Bali. Our driver was so wonderful and spoke really great English. Part of the experience in Bali is getting to know the people here. This is a very strong community, with hardly no crime, and people that are so genuine. I believe this is from their spiritual beliefs in Karma and a balanced life. What comes around goes around is the motto here! Unlike Indian Hindu's, Balinese Hindu's believe in only one God. This one God has many different functions, just like one person can be a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, etc. This is a facsinating religion, especially if you have the chance to oversee some of their rituals.
Our first stop was in Mengwi. Mengwi is 1 hour N of Jimbaran and home to the Jagalah Kebersihan temple. This temple is from the 17th century and still used by the public for daily rituals. The temple is surrounded by a moat and beautiful gardens. Very simple architechture and grounds - unlike Thailand
Our second stop was in the Mount Batukaru hills. We took some beautiful pictures of the mountain side before proceeding up to another temple.
While visiting this temple in Bedugul, they were beginning a cleansing ceremony. Someone had passed away and they were taking their ashes to the family temple to be spread. The music and the costumes were beautiful. Our driver told us that sometimes people don't have the money for creamation here, so they will bury the body for up to 5 years while the community raises money for creamation. It can cost up to $1000USD for creamation here, which is very expensive in Bali. This can be more than their yearly salary if they are a farmer or in the tourist industry. This temple sat on Lake Bratan. We saw so many temples as we drove through Bali - so with a little explanation from our driver, we understood why. In Bali they have 4 different types of temples - each family has their own (which is generally placed in front of their home), there is also at least 3 temples for each village, a temple that depicts which class you belong to (upper, middle, and lower), and a public temple. There are so many here that even the Balinese don't know how many exist. I figure since 4 million people live here, there has to be at least 3 million temples in Bali, if not more.
Our final stop of the day was in Gitgit, home to Bali's largest waterfall. This was pretty awesome! People from all over Bali visit this fresh water waterfall to swim and to drink! It also was surrounded by natural flowers, spice trees, and herbs. You could see many fresh fruits growing on the trees as you walked down the 300 steps to get to the waterfall. This was our last stop of the day. We are postponing the Sacred Monkey Forest and Volcano till tomorrow. We are excited for this trip, as we are also going to visit Ketut Liyer, the famous Balian Healer.One last note, while the people here are so polite and genuine, they are very poor. Our driver today got up at 6AM drove from his home in the country to pick us up at 9AM. He drove with us all day until 4PM. He then has to drive back home 3 hours. His day was from 6 - 7PM. While this may seem like a normal working day for an American, his entire pay for the day was a mere $3.50. Balinese that work in the tourist industry only make 10% of the booking fee! This man was a wonderful person - he is taking care of his entire family (2 young children, a wife, his parents, and his aunt). He is the only one that works in his family. He explained to us that education is very important to him and he wants his children to be educated so that they will have a better life. Education in Bali is not government funded and has to be privately funded by the citizens. We found this very sad, as this man did not want to eat lunch because he saves all his money for his children. This put a lot in perspective for us - how fortunate we are and how we should not take what we have for granted when others have so little. The most amazing part of this man is that you would think he was the richest man in the world - always smiling, loving his family, and so down to earth. We need to take a few lessons from him.
Until tomorrow - we will have a lot to share about our experience with Ketut.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Bali - Our Villa/The Grounds
Bali - Day 3
We layed by the pool this am, but it was a little overcast so we decided to visit the village of Kuta in the afternoon. However, before visiting Kuta Jeff decided that he wanted to do some laundry! He refuses to pay the laundry prices here, so take a look at him cleanign his clothes in our beautiful bathtub - this was a priceless moment!
Kuta is roughly 30 minutes Northwest of Jimbarin Bay. It is a tourist destination, full of shopping, restaurants, and gimmicks (bungee jump, fake tatoos, etc.). We were able to bargain some great prices for some hand carved wooden statues and had some traditional Balinese food, which mostly consists of a variety of satays - seafood, chicken, pork, beef, ect. The most interesting part of our trip to Kuta was our cab ride. Our cab driver was a very religious Hindu man. He was telling Jeff and I about his spiritual teacher. Most Hindu's have teachers that show them how to be better men and better Hindu's. He has been seeing this man for only 3 months now, but gave us a background on him. He is 60 something years old now and started teaching when he was 38 years old. When he was 20 he had the vision to be a spiritual leader. He decided that he needed to find God first, which consists of fasting. To most of us, fasting means no food. This man had a different idea of what fasting meant. Supposedly, he dug a hole in the ground, built himself a coffin, had his family bury him alive, and gave himself only 1 long peice of bamboo sticking out of the ground for air.
He sat in this box and "fasted" for 40 days!!!!! After 15 days they thought he was dead because when they poked him with the bamboo they did not feel him move. While they feared that he was dead, they followed his guidance and did not dig him up until the 40th day. He was alive, but felt that he still was not with God. This man decided to leave his family and lived in the forest for 18 1/2 years meditating, eating wildflowers and bamboo to survive. After 18 1/2 years, he heard a loud bang. He says this was God telling him to now go back to his village and teach his Godly ways. Now the may has been teaching for 25 years!
He is known to heal all kinds of ailments. He told us a story of a very reach Balinese woman who was diagnosed with cancer and cured by this man. He told us of newly married couples not being able to have children and they were cured by this man. This was definitely an interesting story and we felt very honored that he shared it with us. Our cab driver gave us a great Balinese compliment when he dropped us back at the hotel - he told us that we were now like his family and that he hopes to see us again. In the Balinese culture, this is one of the best compliments that can be paid to another person.
We are doing our 10 hour Bali tour tomorrow - Sacred Monkey Forest, Volcanoes, Waterfalls, Temples, etc.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Bali - Day 2 continued
We just returned from Ubud, the center of art in Bali. We actually bought a 1.7 million dollar painting! HA HA in the Rupiah...this is only $170. We bought it from this outside gallery found in an alley in Ubud. This painting is so beautiful and would go for 10 times this price back home. The Rupiah is very weak. The exchange rate is 1USD to 10,000 Rupiah.
The people are very poor here. They live in huts with sometimes just a single 40 wat light. They are artists, preparing wood carvings, which can take some of them 2 full days to carve for only $30USD. We drove through the artists villages prior to reaching Ubud and saw the painting, wood carving, gold/silver, and stone carving crafts. It was really interesting to see hut after hut offering these beautiful pieces of art.
Ubud was really intersting, a ton of Hindu temples and shopping. Hindus are constantly preparing for rituals - sometimes spending almost 2/3 of their day in ritual.
At least 3 times a day, they place bamboo trays of flowers, fruit, and sugar cane in front of their homes and businesses to invite in the good spirits and keep out the bad. You have to be careful not to step on these! They are also very superstitious, such as the direction they sleep (North and West only), the hand you use to eat as a visitor in a Hindu home, animals having certain ranking overs, etc. You can see some of the many Hindu temples above. They are very different than the Buddhist temples in Thailand - made of limestone and depicting a variation of different Hindu Gods.
There are also wild monkey's running around everywhere! Jeff saw one jump on a tourist woman's back today and steal her food! You have to be very careful of anything too flashy or food because these monkeys are wild and will take it form you! We will see more of them when we visit the Sacred Balinese Monkey Forest on Thursday.Tomorrow we are off to Tamah Lot temple to watch what is supposed to be the best sunset in Bali. Afterwards we are heading to Kuta, where the nightlife and shopping are supposed to be great.
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