September 12, 2006
restday in Kuta Beach: Getting the bikes back together
"What is your name?" asks the friendly young girl in the MBA Shop (Made's Bali Adventures). "Where are you from?" We are arranging a sunset tour to the Tanah Lot Temple for later today. We have already checked out several tour guide places and all seem to be the same price, so no bargaining, then it is a matter of who we like and if there is an English-speaking guide. We arrange a price for the tour of 400,000Rp ($20 each).
Another woman in the shop is giving offerings to the alter on the wall, sprinkling oil or water and lighting incense. We asked about the ritual. Bali is mostly Hindu and the offering she was making is to the "good spirits". The offerings we have seen in the streets in front of businesses or doorsteps are to the "bad spirits". This is to keep them from getting angry or jealous of the good spirits. The offerings are square boxes made of reeds and filled with flower petals and food like rice or crackers along with a stick of burning incense.
As we walk the streets, we are amazed at how the motor scooters, cars and pedestrians avoid hitting each other as well as all the hazards in the road. We return to the market, Mata Hari, where we shopped yesterday for our cheap flip flops and laundry soap. In the supermarket section, we purchase breakfast for tomorrow's early start: yogurt, pineapple juice and Dutch cumin cheese (so cheap compared to the cost in Boise).
Today, Rachel found a batik cloth purse that zipped up into a package. The buying process is interesting. Rachel gives the purse to the clerk and is given a slip of paper as the clerk walks away with the bag. Not sure what to do, Rachel found the cash register and behind the clerk were numbered cubicles with the purse she was wanting to buy. She gives the clerk the paper, the purchase is rung up and Rachel pays, and the transaction is complete. Just another part of the learning process of the ways of other cultures.
Yesterday, Patrick had put the bikes together with the help of one of the hotel employees until he had to go to work. So today, we are organizing our bags as Rachel does laundry in the sink, we've already started our travelling routine!! We learn a few local words and phrases: Terima Kasih is thank you, and Selamat Pagi is good morning.
We are picked up at our hotel around 2:30-3:00pm for the tour. And oh, what a ride! We saw some of the streets we will cycle tomorrow! Not sure if this is ever a good thing to see from the perspective of a vehicle. The car has a small steering wheel-like race cars and we think Bali drivers would make excellent race car drivers. The driver weaves in and around motor scooters, cars and vans going down narrow, winding roads at 60+Kms/hour. Rachel thinks the white center line of the road serves no purpose. A car coming toward us would be passing a group of motor scooters as one scooter was passing the car, while we were passing a scooter and being passed at the same...not to mention the pedestrians and bicyclists also on the road going in both directions. There are no collisions or hostility, just everyone going with the flow slowing or speeding up as necessary to keep the traffic moving.
The tour is first to Menguir to visit the royal family temple of Taman Ayun (XVII Century) surrounded by an artificial moat. We then visit Alas Kedton, the monkey forest. We buy peanuts to feed the monkeys. Rachel thinks it only makes beggars out of them. Unlike the Bali people, the monkeys are aggressive! The tour guide for the monkey forest shows us her shop at the end of the tour. Always on the lookout, Rachel purchased another sarong. After giving her the money, she touches other goods in her shop with the bill for "good luck".
The tour ends at the Marine Temple of Tanah Lot built on a promontory offshore. The tide is out so we walk around and near the bottom of the temple. The sun is behind the clouds.
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