Bali

Florence and I spent six nights in Bali before Chinese school starts. It was a wonderful vacation. Of all the places we've been to in Asia, this is the one we plan to return to. It was exotic, beautiful, clean and the people were as friendly as possible. We had so much fun in Bali that the next few blogs will be about different subjects in Bali.

Bali is one of the largest islands in Indonesia. Unlike most of Muslin Indonesia, Bali culture comes mostly from the Hindus of India who came as traders in the 7th century AD. What is now Indonesia was a Dutch colony and Bali was completely conquered by the Dutch in 1908. After World War II, Indonesia became independent of the Dutch. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country with more than 230 million people.(Although India has more Muslim people.) The population of Bali is about 4 million people, with 90% being Balinese Hindus.

In the 1920's the Dutch promoted tourism to Bali by advertising that Balinese women go topless. In those days, the trip to Bali was by steamer. It seems nowadays Balinese men like to work in the tourist industry because of the skimpy clothes the Western women tourists wear. It just goes to show that men everywhere will go to great length to seen a little boob. Nowadays, the Balinese women are the modestly dressed.

Our driver said that only women can carry things on their head because when women walk they sway side to side. Men bounce up and down as they walk and so can not carry things on their head. Florence disagreed.

The art scene in Bali is big, many Western artists have come to Bali and art fits in well with the rich Western tourists. It's good that I know nothing about art.

But there are some unexpected sights in Bali, I don't think I've ever seen this car in the US, but this cherry Pontiac was near the Tanah Lot temple in Bali. I also saw a perfect 1963 Chevrolet Biscayne(Canadian Impala), this was a surprise, the first car I ever bought was a used 1964 Chevrolet Impala.

There is a simply beauty in how the Balinese live, they spent time just making things beautiful for no gain, very different from the West. Like these flower arrangements in front of shops.


But change is coming to Bali, this was a surprise:

Not the traditional Balinese wedding picture.


Drugs and pornography are illegal in Indonesia and there are several Australians on death row in Bali for smuggling in drugs. But there are these realistically styled bottle openers seem OK with the authorities.

At one of the restaurants were were serenaded by this troupe of singers who knew as many Spanish songs as they did Balinese. I hadn't heard "Juan Tanamera" in a long time.

 

The languages are Indonesian, Balinese and English, but we had no trouble just speaking English to everyone. Of course, they loved it when we mangled some Balinese phrases. Everyone was a friendly as could be, even at the airport I felt welcomed, even though they misspelt my name.