Bali - Weaving

After a while, our driver figured out that we weren't into temples that much. So he took us to a weaving house in Gianyar, East Bali. Here women wove by hand the sarongs worn by both men and women in Bali. Because of the time and skill needed for these handmade textiles the prices were out of our range. Even though in the middle of nowhere they took Visa. Our driver said that if you bought these textiles in the big city, like Kuta, you would pay double what the price at Gianyar. Either way we only looked.

 Of course, it is always women who do this kind of work. Our driver said men don't have the patience to weave, he was probably right.

This unsophisticated operation had innovative technology, I like this use of a bicycle tire rim.

There was a lot of effort into successively dyeing the material. The undyed material was wrapped with plastic ties that were removed after each dyeing operation.

The results were vivid colors in a geometric design.

Bali - Kamadalu

For the 6 nights in Bali we stayed at the Kamadalu Resort in Ubud. It was about $150 per night for our cottage. Kamadalu is not the most expensive place in Ubud and there are fancier and larger "cottages" at Kamadalu.

Kamadalu is outside the center of Ubud and we had to take a taxi or use the Kamadalu shuttle to and from the center of Ubud. This was somewhat of a hassle but it made staying at the Kamadalu very peaceful. After a day of touring it was nice to relax in a serene, calm and beautiful place.

This is the front of the resort, every time we drove up in a taxi, the guard would examine the taxi for bombs.

In 2002 and 2005, extremist Indonesian Muslims exploded bombs in Bali. The first bombing killed more than 200 and the second 20. Those bombing targeted the Westerners in the coastal city of Kuta and killed more Balinese than Australians and Westerners. Tourism took a big hit after each bombing but is back bigger than ever now. Our driver said that he didn't want his children to work in the tourism industry because the work is so irregular. Australians and Japanese are the largest nationalities coming to Bali and in the week we were in Bali there were lots of cancellations from the Japanese because of the tsunami and nuclear problems at that time.

Our cottage had this picturesque bed, but the mosquito net wasn't really necessary in the air conditioned room.

In our private courtyard there was this gazebo fashioned like a temple for afternoon naps.

Breakfast was included and the buffet was set up to cater for both Australians and Asians so it was varied. The staff at the resort were always friendly and helpful. We ate once at the resort outside of breakfast but found the food better in the restaurants in Ubud.

The grounds were peaceful and beautiful, but we were so busy going places that we didn't even try the pool and poolside bar.

The grounds were immaculately tended and used the terraced rice fields as a decorative motif.

It was a wonderful place to relax, too bad that on vacation we never relax, we always go, go, go.

Bali - Butterflies

There should be a law that you can only visit one temple per day, because after a while you begin to lose track of which temples you went to. Luckily there are other, better places to go to than just temples. One place is the Bali Butterfly Garden. This is a garden enclosed in netting that keeps the main attractions from flying flying away. Once inside the garden there are butterflies everywhere and many different kinds.

They are hard to photograph because they don't cooperate and sit still. One time when they are sitting still is when they are mating.

The guide said that they can mate for 8 hours at a time. One of our fellow travelers said "That seems a bit too much." But after mating, the male dies and soon after laying the eggs the female dies too. They never live long enough to see their children so it's just the sex that they are interested. But when mating you can see than the male and female have different colorings.

If they are flying it's impossible to get a good shot, you just have to wait for them to alight and then start shooting. Just keep shooting and sort the pictures out later. With the digital cameras it's no big deal but in the film world just think of the waste!

They have brown ones:

Colorful ones:

And my favorite, the black and white one:

And in the hatching room they have moths too.

I never did get a good shot of the "black and yellow", the "iridescent green" and the "blue one". I guess now I have three reasons to return to Bali.

Bali - Flowers

Bali is 11 degrees below the Equator so you would expect flowers to grow well in this tropical island. Florence and I didn't know that the banana plant could have such a beautiful flower.

Here is the view out of out cottage in Ubud at the Kamdalu resort.

We went to the Bali Botanical gardens and they had a large orchid garden but since we came at the end of the rainy season and before the heavy tourist season there weren't many orchids in bloom(and not many other tourists). But there were some good ones.

Even outside of the Botanical Garden there were flowers everywhere. I think this is called a trumpeter flower.

Florence says this is called a shrimp flower.

And this is the passion flower. Called the passion flower because the parts of the flower are used to tell the story of the "Passion of Christ".

Bali - Architecture

In Bali, it is warm there is no need for walls to kept the heat in. Most building need only be pillars and a roof, only for privacy do you need walls. The roof is slanted at a 45 degree angle to get the rain to drain quickly and the pillars allow the cooling breeze.

Here is all it takes.

But to support that roof with native materials like bamboo and rattan takes a complicated structure on the inside.

And it all assembled by hand, in stitu, no mass production allowed.

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With small structures it seems possible, but in the big structures like a temple or meeting hall the trusses to support that large roof at a 45 degree angle becomes complicated.

All without nails!

How many of these structures collapsed before the formula was known? Like building European cathedrals, all by trial and error. And of course, decorated to boot.

Bali Food

The food in Bali was was great. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Being an island there was always fresh fish, even in the central mountains where we stayed. Being a Hindu island I would say that beef is not their specialty but chicken and pork was perfect.

Most of our time by ourselves was spent walking the street of Ubud in the central mountains. The intermittent rains would give us a reason to go into the nearest restaurant and see what was on the menu. My accident we found this place in Ubud. It was not listed in the guidebook but should have been.

The avocado chicken was super. Even simple dishes are plated with artistic flair and colors.

The Balinese language is a spoken language with it's own script, but because the written language isn't taught in school, there are few readers of Balinese. Here is a sign that shows Indonesian(the Latin script) and Balinese(the sanskirt like script).

In Ubud there is a famous restaurant for "Dirty Duck" which I think is deep fried duck, I think the word "dirty" in this case just means wild.

The sauces served with the dishes were always made fresh with onions, shallots, peppers and spices. Of course, all this food tastes better with beer. There is an excellent Balinese beer than I drank the whole time, BinTang. It looks like a Heinken knockoff but it was better than Heinken. I think Heinken is a Dutch beer and in this area the Balinese have exceeded their colonial masters.

Bali - Animals

I haven't seen any geckos in Taiwan this time, because it's been too cold. Maybe they have all migrated to Bali, because Bali has tons of geckos. This little one, I think is called a cecak. They hang out at the ceiling lights eating insects. Remember, lizards that eat mosquitoes are our friends.

This is a gecko, it actually makes a series of sound at night, "geck-ko". If you hear seven such sounds in a row it is a lucky omen.

There are lots of this fat yellow bellied skink around.

Beetles that look ferocious.

Ants devouring a cacao pod(chocolate). You can see why the pod has to be so tough.

Monkeys, Bali has monkeys. In some places if you don't feed the monkeys they will steal you glasses or jewelry. This one is deciding which half of the coconut to eat first.

This is a "walking stick", something like a praying mantis. Must taste good if it needs this much camouflage.

Where is the insect in this picture? Another tasty morsel.

Even the snails are pretty in Bali.

Bali - Temples

Bali is a island full of temples, each household has one, each village has a couple and a town will have a few dozen. They say there are more temples in Bali than houses. Tourists could visit just the major ones and not be finished in a month.

This temples is from the Royal residence in Mengwi call  Pura Tanam Ayun. "Pura" is the Balinese word for temple.

The same temple is surrounded with a moat and garden. Unlike the cathedrals of Europe, the temples in Bali fit in with gardens and have only one level for humans. The building about the ground level is for the gods.

The temples are placed in auspicious places like seacoasts, lakesides and in the mountains where the gods reside. Here is a lakeside temple, we saw so many temples, I've forgotten the name of this one.

 There are 8 important seaside temples one for each of the 8 points on the compass, this is a southern seacoast temple, at Tanah Lot.

This temple called Taman Kertha Gosa and has the Museum Semarajaya nearby in Semarapura, East Bali.

These temples have been tourists's attractions for a long time. Here is a sign from better days.

 Does anyone use film anymore?