Yesterday we rented a scooter to go to Tirta Gangga, a water palace built by a Balinese rajah in 1948. Although Ross had driven a scooter in college, we decided that I should be the one to drive, at least initially, because Ross doesn't have a license. I was slightly nervous at the idea of doing this because not only is the traffic completely insane here, but it also comes from the left. I've also never driven a scooter before, and I don't have an international license. Other than that, we were all set.
We rented the scooter from the ladies at our hotel. They took us out and showed us where the turn signal and headlights were, how to open the gas tank, and how to turn on the scooter, and that was it. Then I freaked out all of us by asking, "So, uh, how do I go faster and slower?" They got a slightly panicked look on their faces when they realized it was my first time driving a scooter, their BRAND NEW SCOOTER no less, but for some reason they let us take it anyway. They sat and watched us as we got on the scooter and I tried to gather the nerve to start it. Then we set off, wobbling down the street and screaming. The ladies looked on in complete terror.
However, after a couple minutes I had things figured out and we were basically okay after that. Driving on the left is not as hard as it seems! From now on maybe I will stop calling it the "wrong direction." The only hard part was resisting the urge to scream "Oh my god!" every time a car coming from the opposite direction would veer manically into oncoming traffic (i.e., MY LANE) in order to pass a car or a scooter. But even that wasn't as bad as when we passed by a school that had just gotten out for the day, and we were swarmed by children driving scooters home. There is nothing more terrifying than a child in a school uniform and pigtails driving a motorbike, with a smaller child on the backseat. I stopped worrying about not having an international license right around then. Clearly there aren't really "rules" as such down here.
The ride to Tirta Gangga was gorgeous. When we finally got there, as I was trying to pull over into the parking lot, I tried to signal that I was turning left, and suddenly heard a "BEEP!" behind me. I had a mild panic attack, thinking I had cut someone off, but it turned out I had just mixed up the horn and the turn signal and scared the crap out of myself. Ross nearly bust a gut laughing at me. Then I almost fell off the goddamn bike while trying to park it, and a little old lady selling fruit nearly bust a gut laughing at me. Good times. After that I asked Ross if he wanted to drive us home. It turns out that he was way better at it than I was!... Which was probably not that hard to do.
Tirta Gangga was beautiful:
With strange carvings:
Since talking to people here a bit more, I've learned a lot more about Balinese religion. The "shrines" that I mentioned earlier are actually offerings to their gods to ward off black magic. They put out offerings at least twice a day, usually containing flowers, food, and incense. Once in the morning, to ask for a good day at work, and once in the evening, to thank the gods for having a good day and to ask for protection throughout the evening. I think it's lovely that they do this every day, even if it wasn't necessarily a good day at work. Just having work means it was a good day. Although it's ironic, really, since one man told us that one of the reasons people here are so poor is because they have to spend so much money on these offerings.
They put them everywhere - on doorsteps, countertops, sidewalks, even on the hood of our scooter (which I appreciated). They also put one outside the door of our room every morning on our behalf. It's really interesting - I've always read about people making offerings to gods in textbooks and whatnot, but I think this is the first time I've witnessed it firsthand.
When we got back, I found out that there was going to be a Barong ceremony right by our hotel that night. This ceremony is performed every 15 days to ward off evil spirits and protect from black magic. I was pretty excited, because how often do you get to see evil spirits being warded off? When I got there, I found hundreds of people dressed up, sitting on the ground in prayer. There was a muezzin praying loudly, drums, bells, and lots of anticipation. A table full of hundreds of offerings stood in front of all the people. I stood and waited for the warding to begin.
Then shit got real, yo (as I'm sure they would attest). Several men dressed in all white came out and began to give people blessings. Each one carried a bowl full of some sort of holy liquid and a brush. He went from person to person, dipping the brush in the bowl and flicking some of the liquid onto each person's head. He would do this three times. Then he would flick some water into their hands, and they would drink it. They also did this several times. After a person finished receiving their blessing, they would stand up and accept some rice, which they would put on their foreheads.
Unfortunately that's as much as I saw. After that, I was handed a flyer which explained that if tourists wanted to stay to see the rest, they had to be dressed properly and be sitting on the ground for the performance. "Dressed properly" was described as:
-Wearing a sarong to cover the lower part of the body
-Wearing a belt to express the firm intention to separate the lower and upper parts of the body
-Wearing the undong (turban) for men and flowers in their hair for women to show the value of the head which represents the spirit
Damnit. I didn't have a sarong, belt, or any flowers, nor did I feel like sitting on the ground, so I just came home. But I'm happy that I got to see the beginning of the ceremony, at least, and now I know what each part of their outfit represents, so that's pretty cool. And maybe no evil spirits will fuck with me for a while.
And can I just mention one more time before I wear out the welcome of this post: the food here is SO consistently and mind-blowingly good that I never want to leave. Asians have perfected the art of cooking. I can't wait to just eat and eat and eat in the next few months. There, now I'll stop mentioning it in every single post.
More pics here.
More pics here.
We were told that since dogs eat the offerings they are considered very bad indeed.
ReplyDeleteAnd on the food thing... It's all downhill from Bali, I am afraid (well, Singapore is good too, but 10 times more expansive). So eat good there ;)