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.