It seems that blogging has become a weekly activity versus a daily one!
Since arriving back in Ubud we've been busy! Right now we're taking the opportunity to get a little blogging done at the same time as we rest our weary bones in an oasis in the middle of Ubud. It is a large piece of property called ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) that is home to beautiful tranquil gardens as well as gift shops, museums, restaurants, and accommodation. We've been walking for the past couple of hours so sitting here in the cool of the gardens listening to the sound of running water, song birds, and the distant hum of city life is really really nice! Our entrance into the park/museum (80,000/person) includes a hot or cold coffee/tea so when we're finished in here we'll be sitting down again to take advantage of that cold drink.
Since we last blogged we've attended a royal cremation, participated in a universal exercise in collective conciousness where the intention was to help heal the world, experienced our first ever sound healing - in a pyramid to boot! ....and volunteered at a nearby english school where our hearts were touched by their enthusiasm and reverence. We've had a party on the neighbours deck, a grilled corn and bintang party on our patio, had dinner out with friends, and I've also managed to fit a full day of work in too so....it's been a busy week!
......I'm back.....started this post while sitting in ARMA and now it is several hours later and we've moved on to Mingle where we are on our second "happy hour" special. :-). Delish! Honestly....there isn't a lot of drinking here but tonight looks like it might be a little different. My espresso martini was not short of booze and now my white russian is more booze than milk for sure! Lynda has moved onto a chocolate chili martini on the heels of her rum and lime drink so for those of you who have been drinking with her you will know that she is feeling no pain! LOL. :-)
Backtracking to the cremation ....what an amazing experience that was! The person who died was actually a white woman who had married into the Royal Family and lived on Java where she passed away a month ago and was mummified in preparation for the cremation. Usually when people die they are either buried (for up to a few years) or placed on top of the ground at a place where magically bodies don't smell or decompose. The reason they might have to wait for up to several years is because it is so expensive to have a cremation! The royal cremation we attended would have been many many thousands of dollars in expense and regular people can't afford that so they wait until there are many many people that can all be cremated at the same time and then everyone chips in to cover the costs. Anyway....the parade with the cremation started at the palace and so we walked up to the palace from our place. It was HOT HOT HOT and there were a LOT of people. I can't even begin to guess how many people there might have been. There were literally thousands and thousands of them all squished in to the street between the sidewalks on either side of the road. All of the cars had been told to stay away EXCEPT for a couple that hadn't gotten the message somehow. Those poor cars were either broken into and pushed out of the way OR if they couldn't break into them the cars were just scraped all along the side as the structure that the bull and the tower were atop of squished past them along the roadway. I actually took some video of one car that was dented and scraped all the way from back to front! Locals just said, "they shouldn't have left their car there. Everyone knows that they were supposed to move their cars for the cremation and so....too bad for them!" I can only imagine what the owner might have said when he/she returned to find their damaged vehicle. But back to the procession....we had managed to station ourselves in a great place along Jalan Rayan (the main road that goes from the palace to the temple where the cremation would take place). How do we know it was a great spot? Simple! it was because all of the family of the deceased came at the front of the parade and stood right with us! Yes...we were in the middle of the family section of the event! First down the road (after the women of the family and a whole bunch of other people) was the bull. The big black bull was HUGE and the reason it was a bull is because her family is of the bull caste. The bull was carried on a bamboo structure that was being carried by dozens of men. The bull was being ridden by a guy in a white shirt and black and gold sarong. All of the men who were dressed like that were also members of the royal family...in fact they were all princes. As well as the guy riding the bull there were others sitting on the base that the bull was standing on. The bull was so heavy that the men carrying it had to stop every fifty yards or so to rest for a bit. This made the parade take even longer than we thought it might! After the bull came the tower. The tower was sooooo tall! It was 9 tiers tall which is the tallest that the towers ever go. It was so tall that the city had to have electrical crews stationed at each power line to take the line down for the tower to pass and then put the line back up once it was through. The tower too was being carried by dozens of men....maybe even more than the bull as the tower was bigger and heavier I'm sure! The body was in a white coffin about 1/2 way up the tower and there were also several other princes riding on this structure. Again, the men carrying it had to rest every so often too. Along with the mayhem that you might imagine already as you read this...add to that the sound of men cheering as they encourage the carriers along their way and the sound of drums and other percussion instruments celebrating the life of the deceased and encouraging the crowds the entire way. Cleverly, we managed to get ahead of the procession by sneaking through the market and then we bounced back and forth between being in front and then behind the bull all the way to the temple. Once we finally reached the temple the body was moved (along with the coffin) from the tower to the bull and the body was removed from the coffin and placed into the bull's body. They had cut a chunk out of the bulls back to allow for this to happen. Then the high holy man placed a huge number of offerings into the bull with the body and blessed the body one final time. The family members were all there right beside the body about 30 feet in the air (on the side of the bull's platform) and finally...the fire was lit and eventually the whole bull erupted into flame and additional flame from a massive gas torch was added to the section where the body was to ensure it burned fully. This cremation is just one step in the process. This was to separate the body from the mind. Ten days later there will be another one to separate the mind from the spirit. Again we were reminded of how important ceremony is to the Balinese culture. We both felt so honoured to be able to witness this event. The only unfortunate part of the whole day was that so many tourists had climbed onto the stairs as soon as the body had been moved down from the tower. That felt so disrespectful to me and I was ashamed of the fact that they were treating the event as a spectator sport instead of the important ritual it was.
Lynda has been asking and asking if I've gotten to the burning bit yet as she sucks back another yummy drink. It is reminding me of another time a few years ago as we sat in an airport in Mexico, Chiapas I think it was. That time I was searching for cheap flights and she was drinking her drink and mine too! LOL. Good times! :-)
After we left the temple we popped into Bali Buddha where we met up with Komang who returned our passports to us. Passports were freshly stamped with a new visa date of March 16th so we're good for another month.
The next day was Valentines, Feb 14th and what a day that one was too! We thought that we'd been emotionally drained the day before at the cremation but no....the 14th was going to be an even bigger roller coaster ride!
Lynda and I hooked up with our friend from the Netherlands, Miranda, and the three of us shared a cab to the Pyramids of Chi where we had signed on to participate in a universal exercise of collective consciousness intended to nurture peace, love and harmony in the world. It was valentines day after all and with all the awful stuff that's been going on in the world it seemed like a really good thing to do and it was! About 30 of us gathered in one of the pyramids where we spent about 10 minutes of focused chanting and meditation in support of that peace and harmony. From there we shifted into a sound healing exercise. We each had our own mattress on the floor of the pyramid to lay on. We had little eye pillows to help us to relax even more and for the next hour and a half we lay there in total relaxation as gongs and didgeridoos and rain sticks and drums were used. Sometimes the sound was far away and other times it was right over us as they "washed" us in sound. At the end of the time we all had to admit that it was like nothing any of us had ever experienced and the only word we could think of was "drained". In fact, I would say I was even a bit dizzy walking back to the restaurant from the pyramid! I guess the science of it is that the sound waves affect the molecular structure of the fluid that is inside of our bodies which leaves us in a state of readiness to be "refilled" with stress free positive vibes. I know it sounds a bit hippyish but honestly it was very good and both Lynda and I plan to do it again before we leave here.
After a great lunch at the pyramids of chi we headed back to our home with just enough time to get ready to go to volunteer at an english school (about 25 mins away by car). The school is for kids aged 12-14 years and Lynda and I were the only show scheduled for the evening class from 6-8 pm. While there were moments that it felt a bit awkward (as no one would say anything - they were all to nervous and shy) overall it was AMAZING. At the end of the evening each of the kids came up to us and spontaneously put their forehead to the back of our hand. It was like nothing I've ever experienced and honestly as I type this I can feel the emotion welling up in me again. It was not because they were "supposed" to....it was just that they wanted to show their appreciation and respect to each of us. WOW! What a way to be "refilled" with good stuff after the sound healing emptied us out! We've both agreed that we will go back to the school next month before we head back to Canada. What a gift to be able to meet these wonderful kids!
The day following neither of us had any energy left and so it was a quiet day for both of us. Somewhere in there Lynda had a pedicure and I went to see my reflexology guy. Seeing as everyone works until about 10 pm....you can fit a lot of stuff into a day! :-). On Thursday I ended up working all day (had two proposals to complete) and that brings us to today which was another great day. Actually every day in Ubud is a great day and if I'm truthful about it....the longer I'm here the more I can see myself coming back here for a long time again.
Today we walked and walked. Lynda ordered a couple new tops and we stopped for coffee along the way. Eventually we made our way to ARMA which is where this post started. The thing that I haven't told you yet though is that while we were at ARMA wandering the amazing gardens that were the vision of a guy named Agung Rai....Lynda actually recognized Agung Rai from his photos in the guide book we had. There he was...just sitting in the gardens (having taken a break from pruning the shrubs and bushes). Yes, the founder/owner of this amazing place was there and he was working in the gardens! Of course, Lynda asked Agung if it was really him and from there a very interesting and inspirational conversation ensued. We are soooo LUCKY! And Lynda is soooo observant!
After leaving ARMA we tried to get into the salt therapy place but unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to go back another time to check it out. By then we were both pretty much done for and so we decided to hire a couple of bikes to give us a ride back up to the part of the city where we live. In fact, we decided we'd get them to take us all the way to the Paradiso movie theatre as there might be something worth seeing on and since you can have dinner there....we could kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately there was nothing we wanted to see at the show and so we set off on foot again. Wandering along we stumbled across Mingle (which is where we are now). Again....lucky girls that we are....we ended up sitting right beside the woman who owns the place and within minutes we'd agreed to go on a vespa tour with her tomorrow. Who knows just what that is going to look like but I gotta tell you...we're feeling pretty excited for another new adventure!
Now....I think I'd better sign off and get Lynda headed in the direction of home. Her eyes are currently at half mast and the drink she is currently working on is looking a little forlorn as she ignores it in favour of a bottle of water. :-). #balilife is GOOD....really really good. :-). Once again, we are so appreciative of having the opportunity to live here for this long as that has afforded us the opportunity to see Bali from a very different angle than most tourists get to witness.
Till next time,
L & L
P.s.
It has been such a busy week that I actually forgot to mention that we had an earthquake in there too! I'm not kidding! It only registered 4.6 but it shook our chairs (we were playing cards on the patio) and rattled the glass in the windows and left us feeling a bit like we do right now....like we've had one too many to drink! Another bali adventure chalked up....earthquake.....check!
L & L
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