This morning we climbed up the 145 stairs to
Deck 11 for breakfast at 6 a.m., even before the sun rose. The ship was anchored and the lifeboats were
being lowered to transport people to shore as this is a tendered port. The temperature
was about 24 C, the sky was part cloudy, but a bit of distant haze, the sea was
calm and there was little wind. Mount
Batur could not be seen.
By 7, we were waiting for the staff to begin
to send the first groups from the Aurora Theater to the tender boats for the
ride into Benoa, Bali harbour and the port’s cruise terminal. The boat ride took
about 25 minutes accommodating 92 passengers.
Some people commented on the plastic debris floated in the harbour. We
walked past the colourfully costumed female dancers, in red and gold costumes
dancing to traditional music provided by eight musicians, through the terminal
and found our 32 person capacity air conditioned bus. The dance performance was
probably a traditional Barong dance of the ancient Legong style which is
characterized by intricate finger movements. Then the nearly full bus waited 20
minutes for the final two people from our group, assigned in the theater, to
make their way, the 600 meters from the pier, to the bus.
Bali
is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sumba
Islands, between Java and Lombok. It is slightly larger than Prince Edward
Island having a population of 4.2 million.
This Indonesian province has three large volcanoes and five smaller ones,
kilometers of sandy beaches, wildlife and tropical forests. It is a popular vacation destination for the
residents of Western Australia. 83% of
Bali’s population is Hindu, in contrast to the other Indonesian islands which
practice the Muslim religion. In the 11th century when the Islamic religion was
introduced to the neighbouring island of Java; the Hindu residents moved to
Bali. Indonesia has a population of 250
million, living on its 17,554 islands. It is the fifth largest country in the world
in terms of population. From east to
west it is 190 km and from north to south it is 90 km wide. The social
structure of Bali is based on a Caste System that our guide explained to us.
About 80 % of the population is part of the third caste with the first and
second caste as higher socially and economically.
Ari, our guide, wore native men’s clothes
including a men’s sari. He distributed to the passengers traditional “basket
hats” that can double as fans. We were warned to only drink water from sealed
water bottles, which Ari provided. Ari explained that each village has three
temples in the community and each family compound, within a village, has its
own shrine to the three Hindu gods Brahma (underground), Shiva (main god), and
Vishnu (ground), for honouring their ancestors, built in the northeast corner
of the compound courtyard. Northeast is the place of the holy spirit (Shiva) in
the Hindu religion. Family compounds are
assigned by the community and no one owns the community land. Only in the capital of Denpasar can property
be bought and sold. People who were not
born in Bali are not allowed to buy land.
As the driver negotiated the rush hour
traffic, we noticed that most the building has roofs of red tile, thatch or
metal and constructed of concrete blocks covered in a smooth concrete white
washed coat or brick. Looking down the narrower lanes reminded us of the hutong
alleyways in Beijing, China. There were
many cars like Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans and even more Vespa scooters and small
motor bikes that flitted in and out of the traffic. As we entered the capital,
Denpasar, we noticed familiar names such as, Dunk’n Donuts, KFC, FedEx, DHL,
McDonalds and Pizza Hut.
The first stop was the Celuk Village's gold
and silversmith workshops and store to view the silversmith’s creating
intricate pieces and admire the jewelry and other items for sale in the store.
The silver sold is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. After a chance to shop here,
the bus continued to Kehen Temple in the city of Bangli. Bangli also is the
name for one of the nine kingdoms of Bali. We passed the Tirta Gangga Water
Palace in East Bali which was the former Royal Palace.
Kehen Temple, or Pura Kehen, is a Hindu
temple first built in the 13th century, but rebuilt every 25 years, to bury the
five metals used in its construction. It
is part of the religious ceremonies. Kehen Temple is an important regional
temple. Formerly, it was known as “Hyang Api” (God of Fire) temple, Brahmen who
protects the temple. The
stairs base has guardian statues which relate to the story of Ramayana. To enter
the temple property your knees must be covered and a sarong is used to
accomplish this for both men and women. There are people selling beautiful sarongs for
just $5 Australian; we were lucky that our guide provided the temporary use of
sarongs.
It
is 11 stories high and exhibits Chinese features due to influence from the
marriage of a Balinese king to a Chinese princess in the 8th century. This
marriage brought Chinese immigrants to Bali in the 8th century and with them
they introduced rice to the culture. It is a staple grown in rice paddies
around the region with two crops per year. From the base of the temple high up
you can see an eleven storey tower with a Chinese influenced architecture. Balianese
Hinduism is a mixture of ancient beliefs combined with 6th century Buddhism and
11th century Hinduism from Java.
11 is a significant number in the Hindu
religion and represents directions and gods which all have corresponding
colours. East and West have special significance with East having white as its
colour and yellow or golden being the colour for West. These two colours were seen throughout the
day on shrines. The Swastika has been a
Hindu symbol of peace for many centuries. It originally came from Iran through
Europe and India. The first level of the temple required people to climb 45 stairs
to the lower courtyard where a 700 year old Banyan tree grows. There are
several intricately carved and decorated structures on this level. Climb another 28 stairs to the second level
and third level you arrive at the base of the eleven storey tower which rests
on the back of a turtle. This level has
something to do with the balance of life and keeping everything stable. The second level has a wall where cemented
into it are blue and white English china dishes depicting English scenes.
Back in the bus we travelled to the next
stop, Penglipuran, a village of about 650 people living in the family compounds
of traditional architectural styles. As it looked like rain later, Ari, issued
a poncho to each passenger. (We did have our umbrellas with us.) Along the way
we passed rice fields newly planted and flooded and fields where the crop was
ready to be harvested. It was a pleasant
walk that sparked a memory of the ancient Roman streets of Pompeii that we saw
last fall. The group visited the village
school which a collection of building for administration building and different
grades forming a courtyard. The public
school system is free, but the children’s families have to pay for uniforms and
books. The children are taught in the Malaysian language but speak Balinese at
home and learn some English starting in grade three. The classrooms contained a
wooden desk and chair for each child and blackboards or green boards, no
computers were noticed in any of the classrooms. The Malaysian language is spoken in
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Ari explained that in the Bali culture the
left hand is considered unclean, so only use the right hand for giving and
receiving, and for picking up food.
Children are forced to write with their right hand. The children attend school six days per week
from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Then we returned to the bus for a drive
to Kintamani Village for an Indonesian buffet lunch at Lakeview Resort which
had a good view of active volcano, Mount Batur. It erupted once in 1918 and villagers were
advised to move to higher ground, but refused and the lava flow stopped just
before a village temple. Again in 1928
another part of the volcano erupted and villagers were told by government
officials that they must move to higher ground, again they refused and the lava
flow stopped just before a village temple.
But in 1972 a third eruption occurred and the villagers were forced to
evacuate to higher ground and the lava flow destroyed the temple. There was a minor eruption in 2001, which you
can still see the black lava path. Batur
Lake is situated in the caldera of the first massive eruption. We enjoyed the buffet with stir fried
vegetables, chicken, fish and other good food.
Desert was a selection of Lychee fruit, black rice pudding with coconut
milk and pumpkin cookies and tea or coffee.
After taking photos of the view we walked back to the bus as a sprinkle
of rain started that evolved into a 20 minute down pour as the bus drove to our
next stop at a painting gallery.
The bus passed some coffee plantations and
more rice paddies. There are three
different kinds of rice grown - White rice which is usually used for steamed
rice; Red rice which has less carbohydrate and is better for the diabetics of
the population; and Black rice which is used for pudding.
As the bus turned into the parking lot for
the Art Gallery, on the other side of the road was rice laid out on the ground
to dry. There were many colourful
paintings of different styles in the art gallery. The group finished their viewing in less than
30 minutes and we were off to the final stop of the day, the batik factory at
Kesiman Village.
At the batik factory we were shown the
covered workshop where the crafts women created the batik patterns and how the
waxing and dying process worked before browsing in the store. There was a selection of cotton and silk
fabric as well as shirts, blouses, dresses, kimonos, ties, scarves and
children’s clothes. Larry found a nice
blue patterned shirt. We were told that
the prices were fixed and there was no bargaining at the store, but he was
offered a discount of 20% off a price he considered was fair and willing to
pay.
Then it was time to return to the ship after
an excursion of more than eight hours.
We passed the statue of Ramayana at the start of a bridge. It is a large
white monument taking up the size of a hockey rink.
Since we needed to return to the ship by
tender, we found the line though the Port of Benoa terminal building of about
500 people and growing. We needed to
show our Seapass cards to enter the terminal, next the usual security
processing of the X-ray machine of contents of bags, backpacks and purses, then
people. Another line, for waiting in the
shade before proceeding to the 600 meter walk along the pier to where the
tenders docked. Then a 30 minute wait, on the pier under cloudy skies, but with
ice water, from the ship, being offered several times. In the tender it was a
25 minute ride to the ship, but then a 25 minute wait for the tenders ahead of
us to unload. We entered our stateroom
one hour and fifty minutes after we had been dropped off by the bus.
Too late for our 6 p.m. reservation for
dinner with Bob and Maureen, we cleaned up and climbed the 145 stairs to Deck
11 and the Windjammer buffet. There was
a nice selection of food – salads, hot pork loin, steamed rice, vegetarian
paella, scalloped potatoes, hot green beans, chicken and buns. The desserts selected were hazel nut mousse,
orange almond slice and lemon vanilla mousse.
The ice cold beverage choice was water or tropical mango juice.
During dinner, the ship’s captain made an
announcement that everyone was just about on board and apologized for the
length of time it took to get on board with the tendering process. By 7 p, m,, the ship was leaving the Port of
Benoa and sailing into the Indian Ocean on the way to Port Hedland, Australia.
After finishing the meal, we stopped on
Deck 6 to see the vocalist Don Winsor in the Aurora Theater early show, then
decided to find Bob and Maureen. They
were just exiting the dining room. They had only returned to the ship and their
stateroom barely in time to get ready for dinner. We all went to the Lattetude café for
cappuccinos or café mochas to catch up on the day.
We returned to the stateroom to find the
Cruise Compass for tomorrow advising the passengers that they needed to
complete another Australian Immigration form since the ship will be returning
to Australia after having been in Indonesia.
Customs officers will be onboard all day tomorrow to process the ship’s
crew and passengers forms.
Claire set to work to write the blog while
Larry went to see how lucky he would be at the Casino.
Steps
today 10,271
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