Further Adventures

Monday started with one of those classes that makes me want to give up everything and devote myself to Balinese mask work. Professor Dibia is in his late 60s early 70s but is one of the most entrancing performers I have ever seen. He performed a dance in the topeng old man mask and I swear he did next to nothing, but I couldn't keep my eyes off him. His dance was intoxicating, you could not look away. We learned a warrior dance he had choreographed in 1979 named Wirayuda. He made the dance in order to preserve a sacred dance that was not allowed to be taught out side of a ritual setting. Dibia was afraid the dance would be lost forever, so, he used similar steps, rearranged the order and taught his dance as a secular performance in order to preserve the moves. This was a male dance and in my opinion much easier than the female dances. You have to be big and strong as opposed to twisting your body into impossible curves, much easier on the hips. Still, after a couple hours of dance we all looked as if we had jumped in a swimming pool... sooo easy... not. In true Balinese fashion, when we were finished there were treats, sticky rice with coconut and a type of bean. We all ate happily as we talked to Dibia about how his culture has changed during his lifetime. His father was a dancer and his father before him. Dibia's grandson (who they believe is the reincarnation of Dibia's father) is also a talented dancer, but he fears the art is dying and becoming too commercialized. As someone who has lost the religion of their grandparents, it is easy for me to relate to the younger Balinese generation, and yet it is always hard to see the sadness when someone of an older generation talks about the loss of faith he sees now. He said he was worried corruption has become the new culture, and having walked around Kuta only 2 days before, it was hard to disagree with him.

We met Sedana on our way out of Dibia's house and we requested he take us to a place to buy masks or puppets. He led us down a dirt road filled with pot holes that could never be located on any GPS and then suddenly we were at a shop. The quality of the puppets and masks ranged from broken to ornate. I bought a puppet within my price range, a bit on the shabbier side, but hey, I'm not performing any religious ceremonies with it. Most of us got something and we walked away pleased with our purchases. Then, something sadly predictable happened, on the way home we got a flat tire. I haven't talked much about our car 'Kari', but let me say some of the best stories of the trip are coming from her. On our first night, the car wouldn't start so we had to push start it. Stopping traffic in the middle of a busy street in Kuta... Things have fallen off of her, the window will only go down if you hit the car door in a certain place and don't try going over 80 unless you want the whole car to shake. So a flat tire happened in the middle of a busy street (they are all busy streets) but luckily we were able to make it to the side safely. We all got out and had an oh shit moment as we looked at our shredded tire. It was obvious the thing had been patched before and it was now beyond any kind of reparation. Thankfully when we looked in the trunk there was a spare and all the necessary tools in order to change the thing. There were 5 of us in the car at the time and with a little input from everyone about proper techniques we changed the thing in less than 15 minutes. We are basically ready for the Indie 500!

Wednesday was the Balinese Independence Day, so we had the entire day off and decided to spend it at the beach. We loaded into the car and drove off for a beach on the north east side of the island. After about an hour and a half, however, we found ourselves near an equally beautiful beach so just decided to stop there. The beach was called White Sand Beach in Candidasa and we had read about it in our guide book and heard great things about it from friends. We had a tough time finding it though! We kept asking for directions in our best Balinese. Us asking for directions goes a little like this: "Om Swasti Astu! [insert place we are trying to go] Durus? Bagus! Bagus! Suk Sumuh! Suk Sumuh! Santi Santi Santi!!" Translated this means: Good Afternoon! [place we are trying to go] Straight? Good! Good! Thank You! Thank you! Good Bye!" Our Balinese is very advanced. Now I say straight because basically any local you ask will just tell you to keep going down the road you are already going down. That or they will give you wrong directions for their own enjoyment. On this particular day we tried our best to ask for the beach to a family sitting outside their shop. But for some reason, our very presence was terrifying. We pulled up said hello and they immediately stood up and began to shuffle back into the shop. We yelled the name of the beach at them thinking perhaps they hadn't heard us. The mother picked up her young child and went into the back room out of sight of us. We repeated the name of the beach to her older daughter, who just smiled shyly and hid behind the counter of the shop. We didn't know what we had done exactly to offend them but it was bad... We eventually found the beach and it was a series of beach chairs and tourists. So much for our beach hide away. It was nice though, not over crowded and as long as you ordered some lunch or juice you could lay on a chair under an umbrella for free, not bad at all! I rented some snorkeling gear and went to explore the locals under the sea. They send their regards. I saw a school of fish and some nice coral and other brightly colored friends (obviously I am well on my way towards becoming a marine biologist). It was really nice but the currents were strong so it was tiring work. I surrendered to the power on the beach chair, took a nap, ate some rice vege concoction and hung around till it was time to go at 4:30pm. We left slightly early because we wanted to get to a temple that the book said was in a cave, and the cave entrance had been carved to look like an elephants mouth. It kind of sounded like someplace Indiana Jones might be, so I was thrilled. When we showed up it was already near sunset so we had to rush through the whole complex. It was beautiful. The temple in the cave looked extremely old and goes back to the 1500's I do believe. As soon as you entered it, the air got thicker and hotter and when you breathed in it tasted like moss. It was smaller inside than I thought it would be, but still a nice place to see. And if you walk around the site there is a path leading down into a jungle with a few more small temples. I was walking through the jungle paradise when a toothless man saw me and beckoned me towards a temple. He was asking if I wanted to pray with him and I felt so honored that he had singled me out, it probably had something to do with my open aura. He performed a weird slightly rushed ceremony where I drank water and poured it on my head and we bowed... and then he lifted a box on the table and pointed to some money. Ahh, of course... my aura said I have money, not that I am a pure and open soul. I actually had nothing on me though and sign languaged this to him much the same way you sign to a dog that you have no more food. He looked at me in the same disappointed way as a dog who believes you are no longer any good to him and he more or less shoved me out of the temple door saying swasti astu. There was another temple on the site that we wanted to visit that was actually a Buddhist temple (it would have been the first I've ever seen) but unfortunately it was getting dark and it was a walk away. We attempted to get their fast but were stopped in our tracks when the path went through a cave that we could not see the end of and, of yeah, there were bats in it. We decided to call it a day, we were late to rehearsal anyways.