Holidays

Today was Galungan, a very important Balinese holiday that we still only understand on a pretty superficial level. All I really know about it is what I have read on wikipedia, and a little bit from talking to the locals. It occurs every 210 days, because traditionally that was how long it took for a harvest of rice. (Apparently nowadays with hybrid varieties you can get 3 crops of rice a year). Balinese people are very spiritual, and on Galungan one of the things they do is to make large offerings (even more than normal, because smaller offerings are made EVERY day anyway). All around the streets there were things set up that held offerings, like the ones below. Each family erected their own.

They also erect these large decorated bamboo poles. One person told us that they are symbolic of the whole world, and another said that they bring good luck. In any case, the poles were up everywhere. People also do a lot of praying on this day. Apparently on Galungan, most of the prayer takes place in the family temples (which are located inside each family compound). However, I overpaid a taxi driver (because i am not good at bartering yet) who promised to take us to a temple where people were praying.

We were told by a local woman that we should wear sarongs on this holiday, and all over Bali you absolutely must wear a sarong in order to enter the temples. So here are me and Dov, decked out in our new sarongs. We looked snazzy when we visited the temples today.

After we saw what there was to see of the holiday celebrations, we walked back out to Campuan, a neighboring town. It's really nice out there and it might be my new favorite spot in the Ubud area. Here are some shots of our walk today, and our awesome lunch spot (where the entire bill for 1 milkshake, 1 mango lassi, 2 entrees, and 1 hot tea was somewhere around $10). We probably spent a good 2 hours sitting in Made's Warung - the lunch spot - as no one in Bali is ever in a rush. We have learned to take books with us everywhere we go and just enjoy the scenery for awhile every afternoon. It gets pretty hot in the middle of the day anyway, and in Bali they will never bring you the check until you ask.