the little travelers * travel blog

food and gods

I love societies that give living offerings to their gods. I find myself wondering why we only give money to ours? Why do we consider it wasteful to give living foods back to the maker of the food? We have no issues at all with filling landfills with packaging for our food- that does not seem wasteful to most, so why not give a little food to God? hmmm...

restaurants

I love the restaurants here! I know it's the tropics and it's warm so they can have all these lovely outdoor places, but Bali does it in a way that most other places do not. Why not build a platform around a huge living tree and throw pillows and a table on there? Again, it's living in a non-litigious society that allows for this. What if someone fell off?- and then the whole lack of dexterity that our society exhibits is a major issue that Asia cannot get over. When I was in my early 20's living in Japan there were some guys my own age who could not sit in 'seiza' or on their knees or 'indian style.' It was so funny to watch older Japanese women who would stare in bewilderment as some westerner would be trying to reel in their own legs unsuccessfully and end up with one outstretched and one bent, back in a semi-circle. It is strange how inflexible we've become as a society.
note: the black and white check in Bali is like the ying and yang symbol of China. It symbolizes good and evil. As one of the young dancers said to me, "good and bad- always together."

dance

Dance to the Balinese is what shopping is to Americans. Everywhere you go on this island people are doing it and doing it with passion. It is part of them. There is a performance stage near our bungalow where dance takes place 3 times a day. The performances are by a group of children ranging in age from about 9 to 16. They are all orphans that come via bus from the larger city and are studying hotel hospitality. So they dance 3 times a day and in between do their studies. When they return back to their orphanage at night usually around 9pm they have chores and studying to do before bed.
This reminds me of one of those accounts we would hear in the west about young orphans needing to work in 3rd world countries and how awful it all is. However, in actuality I would much rather my girls have an upbringing like this than most in the US. These children are among the most pleasant and truly happy children I've ever seen. They are friendly, confident, poised, very quick to laugh and just relaxed with who they are. This is in stark contrast to many of their counterparts in the US, who are very awkward at this stage and fidgety and often do not look adults in the eye when they speak. Of course there are exceptions and there are certainly confident pre-teens in the US. However, if a person were to randomly enter a Jr. High in the US and start talking with the kids there- the general disposition of the average student is not one of relaxed poise.

So, of course the big question is why? What causes this? Is it our obsession with media and outer appearance that has most pre-teens feeling insecure about themselves? Is it a lack of belonging in the greater society in our culture? I think anyone could agree that pre-teens have no real 'place' or role they play in our society, other than the somewhat recently discovered tween market targeted for consumerism.

All ages here actually have a meaningful role to play in the greater community. All ages perform their dances, which are accounts of their history and faith. In a way it's like learning bible stories at Sunday school. Of course many of these dances have been dumbed down for tourism since most last many hours- up to 8, and tourists usually come from the west, whose attention span typically does not exceed 45 mins.

So, I ponder at night while I ought to be sleeping - what is it that makes the people here so relaxed and so smily? I don't think it's utopia- they definitely have their issues, but what makes them smile so much?

Splash!

We were off to lunch today after the big sister sat through a multi-hour braiding session- i was impressed with her patience as I at no point in my life would've sat through that. She was definitely tired, hot and hungry when she was done so lunch was sounding good. She was feeling all of herself as we walked into the restaurant - swinging her hair to and fro - she was into it. Our table was on the other side of a lily pond that runs through the restaurant. This is one of the things I love most about 'less developed' countries and their lack of lawsuits- there are often open bodies of water in places like restaurants. The 3 yr old navigated the stepping stones first and the older one behind. When the little one stopped abruptly, it had the bigger one stepping back only she missed her step and SPLAT! Head landed right onto a lilypad and she went all the way under! Daddy fished her out and the bar staff came running with towels. So much for that swing in her step.

Arrive in Bali

It's hot,
It's hot,
Just like a boiling pot...
At least the humidity was climbing in Japan when we left so the girls had a little acclimating to mug. That's the curse of growin' up in Cali- no matter where we go it's either too hot, too cold, too dry, too humid. There's something about perpetual 72 and sunny that makes one weak to the extremes. Anyway, it's been 13 years since I've been to Bali last and it feels every bit as lovely as the last time. There is something that feels so naturally like home to me here. I wish I could stay...well, that's only half true, what I really wish is that I was a native myself. I wish I lived on a compound, had beautiful olive skin and a wide smile and knew no other place than here. Not really of course, but it is a fantasy I entertain. If I had to choose another place to be born to I would choose here.

In summer eat jelly

When the heat and humidity start rising -and they have- the Japanese eat cool, slimmy 'jelly.' Similar to jell-o but made from seaweed and a sturdier consistency. Anyway, neighbors are all bringing us jelly to cool off. It seems to be working.

Lily pads galore!

Check out these lily pads!! I have never seen a pond so loaded in all my life. The weather is really warming up here now. A huge surprise slithered up on us as we were hanging out at the edge of the water. The little one says, "look at the snake'- I of course say, 'oh, snail?' um, no- snake! but it was only about 15 feet- no worries. We talked to the garden keeper who says the snake has been here as long as she's worked here- 20 yrs. The bottom was still in the water while the head was clear up in the tree wrapped around a branch. It was an excellent show!

Real Kimono

The girls were dressed today by real, professional Kimono dressers. It's a bit of an ordeal that takes quite a long time. It was one of those hilarious days that will no doubt turn out to be great fun on video- lot's of goofy things happening. I won't give it away for those buying the dvd. Good fun was had. These Kimono are incredibly expensive so it was a bit of a stress having them wear a $10,000 garment and then be stepping on the long sleeves tripping about on their geta.

June is definitely upon us and the humidity is getting thicker by the day. By the time they took these off they were sweating something fierce and their moods were less than fresh. As for me my body seems to double in size from swell in humidity and I'm at it again. All my shorts are getting tight, my face and hands puffy. I used to think I imagined it or that I was gaining a lot of weight out of heat stress. But we caught it on video once. We were leaving Japan and I looked big and puffy and 12 hours later as we arrived in LA I looked like I had shrunk two sizes.