Gili Air

Our final theme was the beach. To immerse ourselves fully in this theme, we ventured to Gili Air, which is the easternmost of three small islands off Lombok - the next major island east of Bali. A two-hour fast boat ride from Denpasar brought us to the island. No gas-powered vehicles are allowed on the island, so transportation is by foot, bicycle, electric scooter, or horse-drawn wagon. The roads are mostly dirt paths. The island is quite flat and just barely above sea level. Ringed around the shore are nice, white, coral-sand beaches with restaurants, shops, and resorts of all kinds. The island's interior is mostly grazing land or areas with private homes. Cows, goats, and chickens can be found around the interior. 

There seems to be lots of construction going on, but only a few places have No Vacancy signs out. Nothing we've encountered comes anywhere close to being called crowded, although we did need to scout around for a front row seat to last night's sunset. 

The water here is incredible - clear, calm, and warm. The depth fluctuates by a couple feet - what looked like a good place to swim last night was exposed coral this morning. By noon it was swimmable again. 

Our room is an A-frame constructed almost entirely of bamboo. Only the doors and window frames are made of another type of wood. Our bathroom is completely outside, separated from the neighbors by a high cement wall. There are more conventional rooms here too, but they look boring. We've been served breakfast of either banana pancakes of nasi goreng (fried rice) each morning. 

The Christmas tree at our guesthouse

Most of the menus have similar dishes, so we've picked restaurants based on scenic views. Christmas Eve we were on the west side of the island, watching fireworks from Gili Meno - the next island over - or fireworks of a larger type from Bali. The Bali fireworks were lightning strikes that backlit Mt. Anung, the volcano. Most of the time Bali has been shrouded in clouds. As we know, it rains there a bit during this time of year. We've had only occasional sprinkles here on Gili Air. Our location for Christmas dinner was on the south side of the island with a view of Lombok and a spectacular sunset show. We've been eating lots of curry - nice and spicy. 

Tomorrow, we start our journey home with a boat ride to Denpasar, a single night near the airport, and then an afternoon flight to Taipei, and then from Taipei back to San Francisco. It's been quite an adventure. 

Borobudur Temple

The trendy tourist thing to do in Jogya is to go out to the site of Borobudur Temple early enough to see the sunrise and the mist burn off. We chose not to be so trendy. Instead, we arrived around 11am after a two-hour bus ride and climbed the steps up the several tiers of this largest Buddhist temple in the world. Both Borobudur and Prambanan are UNESCO world heritage sites. Both have had extensive reconstruction to fix damage caused by earthquakes and humans. Borobudur is an extremely popular tourist destination. Very few of the tourists looked like Westerners. Similar to our experience in Konya, Turkey, we often found ourselves to be immersed in the Muslim culture , but of course, here, we were surrounded by friendly and helpful Indonesians. Both temple sites were amazing but the crowds and surrounding commercialism detracted from the holiness of the sites and the religious devotion that caused them to be built over a thousand years ago. 

Prambanan Temple

The next day, we explored more of Jogya, including the Sultan's Water Palace. Here are a few pictures of the pools there. 

Eventually, we worked our way back to the Prambanan Temple, which is the largest Hindu temple in southeast Asia. The temple is actually a temple complex of several separate temples. The largest is dedicated to Shiva and includes an inner chamber for Ganesh. The two other large temples are for Brahma and Vishnu. We climbed the steps up into the inner chambers and took some pictures of the statues inside. This is the rainy season on Java, so we were reminded of that fact. 

Yogyakarta on Java

With the first theme of our trip, biking, thoroughly played out, we were ready for theme 2 - a visit to ancient temples on the island of Java. Our destination was the city of Yogyakarta in the south central part of the island. "Jogya" is a rapidly growing, bustling university city. The main evidence of these two characteristics is the prevalence of young people, who seem to be mostly on scooters, and the snarled traffic, especially around the airport. Interesting forms of transport included pedi-cabs, motor bike cabs, and horse-drawn carriages. We rode all three forms as well as city buses. 

A human-powered kiddy ride

Our first cultural event on Java was a performance of the Ramayana Ballet. During the summer, the performance is held in front of the floodlit Prambanan Temple, but during the rainy season the show is moved inside. The story involves the adventures of Prince Rama, who is an incarnation of Vishnu, as he hunts a golden deer and then rescues his fiance, Sita, who was abducted by an evil king. The performance involved dancing to the accompaniment of a gamelan orchestra. All of the actors and dancers were in very colorful costumes. Here are a few scenes. 

Kecek Fire Dance

Almost 30 years ago, a student of mine gave me a book about her homeland - Bali - and wrote an inscription inviting me to visit some day. One of the centerpieces in that book was a two-page image of a kecek fire dance. The picture is an accurate portrayal of the dance, but it can't do the dance justice. On the last evening of our bike ride, we gathered on the hotel's back lawn overlooked the Indian Ocean to experience a presentation of kecek. About 50 men and boys assembled into three concentric circles around a central fire. There were no instruments. The men and boys chanted for the next hour or so while actors in costumes reenacted a scene from the Ramayana in which Rama saves his fiance, Sita, from capture. Monkeys and monsters were involved in the plot as well. As the story unfolded, the men and boys chanted in a way that was very staccato and percussive, but also included a melodic, lyrical solo line rising above the chanting. 

The traditional form of kecek involves entering into trances and performing super-human feats, such as walking on hot coals. The effect of the chanting does have a hypnotic quality to it. 

My picture-taking skills for night-time events are quite limited. As you'll see in the pictures. Just close your eyes and try to imagine 50 men and boys chanting in a rhythmic and percussive way. 

A Typical Hindu Village and Family Compound

In contrast to the older, pre-Hindu village, today's modern Hindu villages contain elements that place Hinduism within the context of the community and the larger context of Indonesia. On our last day of biking, we stopped in a typical Balinese Hindu village on the southern slopes of Agung. Our Balinese guide explained the various elements. 

In the center of the village is a community structure - a covered meeting place/town hall. The villagers gather here for celebrations, but it also serves as a homeless shelter during times of disaster - house fires, earthquakes, flooding. The affected families live in the shelter while the villagers rebuild their houses. 

Across the street was a community bank. Large banks aren't interested in supporting small villages, so each villager contributes to a small bank/credit union from which they can borrow when the need arises. The concept is very similar to micro-financing. 

Very close by was another shared structure - the storage building for the gamelan instruments and a place for them to practice. Also, this structure had a tower with a wooden bell that was used to notify the village of important events. Today, there are loud speakers that serve the same purpose. 

Painted on a wall in the middle of the village were the 10 rules/guidelines for Indonesian life. These rules fit quite well with the Hindu Balinese way of life, even though Indonesians are almost entirely Muslim. The rules also align with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which is interesting due to Maslow's mostly Western orientation. 

Down the road a little way, we were invited in to a typical family compound. Balinese compounds include a family temple area and approximately three other buildings: a kitchen, which is located away from the temple area; a living room, and a bedroom. Each building had a covered porch area, because much of Balinese life occurs outdoors. 

The temple area was the most interesting part. There is a shrine to the highest god, named Acintya, which is an empty, uncovered chair only. Acintya is never depicted. The Balinese Hindus added Acintya to the Indian Hindu religious trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Another shrine housed the spirits of the ancestors. This shrine has central meaning in daily life as well as during Galungan, the week when the ancestors' spirits visit Earth. Balinese people pray to their ancestors for guidance about daily life. If they need further direction, the local priest gives spiritual guidance. Other shrines are dedicated to other gods - Ganesh, the human/elephant son of Shiva, called the Lord of Success; and Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music, and creative arts - the Hindu equivalent of the patron saint of teachers. Our Balinese guide explained the roles of these shrines and gods in the daily lives of the Balinese people.