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.