SATURDAY, FEB 20TH--BALI, INDONESIA

Up early as we dropped anchor on the island of Bali at 7am. We tendered ashore for our “Ancient Bali” tour at 8:30 with our friends Allan & Carolyn. Once again we had a very nice, small air conditioned bus and there were only 22 in our group. When we stepped ashore we were greeted (as you will see in photos) by beautiful Balinese girls and a Balinese band. We were literally attacked every time we got on and off our bus today by locals trying to sell us all kinds of hand-made things. They followed us on motor bikes to every stop the bus made on the tour. We had a nice 30 minute ride through the countryside seeing lots of rice fields, their primary crop, before our first stop was at the ancient village of Tenganan. The government makes them rotate crops-rice, soybeans, and sweet corn. Anyway, the village was very interesting and once again lots of hand made clothing, wood carvings, pottery, and you name it! The Balinese love to bet so they have rooster fighting and even cock roach fighting which they bet on. The roosters are treated well with special feed and they even massage them. We went into a home that certainly was not like yours and mine as you will see in photos. In back of house with no walls separating them were the pig pens. In fact they were next to a cooking area!! Our guide said the Balinese do not eat meat (chicken, pork, or beef) except for special celebrations. They normally eat seafood and lots of rice and fresh vegetables & fruits. Bali is mostly Hindu unlike the rest of Indonesia which is 95% Muslim. Hence, there are thousands of temples on Bali and every house has a small “family temple” always located on northeast side of their houses. There is a caste system in Bali and there are 4 classes of people. Our guide said he was lowest class and it all depends on what you are born into. Each class has a talking dialect and if he talks to a higher class person he has to speak in his dialect and visa versa. First question when they meet someone new is to ask what their class is. Fascinating class society, religion, and village customs. Another interesting fact is menstruating women are not allowed to be in public as they are considered, “not clean”. Also the family land is passed down to the sons, not daughters. They are expected to marry a man with land. Next stop was at the Royal Palace of the King back in late 1800’s. Not one of my favorite stops but got some photos for you. Last stop was at Rama Resort Hotel right on the bay for some Indonesian snacks and drinks. Here we were treated to a Balinese show with band and colorfully costumed dancers. Then back to the harbor. We bought some Balinese handicrafts again today. I will try to take a picture of them for tomorrow’s post. Everything is very inexpensive here and they expect you to “bargain” with them. Our guide said to pay about 70% of what they first asked. Tomorrow we were suppose to go on an 8 ½ Regent excursion called “Discover Bali”. But I found a guy today that has an air conditioned van and he will give us day tour for 6 people for only $80 (that’s for all of us). So we can see what WE want to and for how long WE want to. We are to meet him on shore at 9am. Yes, we are spending two days here on Bali. Tonight we have “Dinner and a Show”. Set dinner at 6:30pm in Signatures Restaurant followed by a cabaret show only those at the dinner. It is featuring a female Australian singer and dancer. Later at 9:30 in the show room we will be seeing a 47 member Balinese group performing traditional songs and dances. That should be very good.