Loading tons of pics on blogspot is a lot of hardwork man! Why is it so hard for blog companies to be progressive and adopt the technology of picasa, photobucket or facebook photo uploader?? Grr. It really puts the user off, and reconsider producing precious travel blog entries (like for a lot of my previous travels, couldn't be bothered telling my story because of the tons of pics on my hands. Haven't you blogspot peeps ever heard the saying, 'a pic tells a thousand words'?) *rant over*
Moving on, here's a little hint of what the highlight of the day was and what the bulk of the pictures consists of a little later down the post...heh...note the symmetrical nature of the things in the pic below, pretty cool
Anyway, first thing in the morning, we were brought to a batik demonstration and this really huge souvenir and crafts shop adjacent. I was excited by the work-in-progess the lady beside me was undergoing. I mean, who wouldn't be blown away by all those colours she was handling right? And if you notice, I'm wearing a Batik-themed shirt as well. I don't think it's authentically designed. One of the ladies kept staring at my chest and trying to figure out whether I got that shirt from Bali or something. lol. But if you read the words at the bottom closely, the 'disclaimer' puts forward: Malaysian Art. Mystery solved.
Inside the shop with bathing goodies galore. Lucky I wasn't given the choice to actually pick and choose and purchase something. Clearly, my family are not fanatics of bath products.
Upstairs, they had a ginormous art gallery! I was so happy I managed to convince my dad especially to go up with me to check it out. The batik pictures are eye-poppingly visually colourful and lively. There were a lot of fish, farm and god(des)-themed art. There were even some Avatar-themed ones where the gods were frolicking in huge jungles filled with animals.
Here I was trying to act cool (but failing massively) when one of the sales rep was gesturing and warning us not to take pictures.
Take 2. Trying to be sneaky cuz this picture is just too cute! I was telling my dad to take both pictures on either side of me in one shot. but as usual, once you hand the camera over to my dad, anything goes.
Take 3, success! You can't really see in the photo, but the butterfly pic was stunning, because the artist used a lot of glittery thread to accentuate the outlines of the objects in the picture. My dad nearly wanted to get my mum that one. But it costs like what, around $200? and she didn't like what looked to her like carnations in the pic. But both my dad and I insisted they were roses. We know we're more likely to be right because my mum can't even identify cartoon characters' true form. I always get a kick out of asking her say, in pointing to a cartoonish animal , to identify what animal Donald Duck is for example and she'll probably say like, he's a rabbit or hamster. Go figure.
Anyway, I DID get to take away with me an artwork! You can only check out what I got (and which is now hanging high in my room) at the end of my Bali post where I reveal my Bali shopping stash :) If you're impatient to see what picture I got, you can view it in one of my Twitpics on Twitter.
Then, we made our way to a Barong dance performance, just 5 minutes away. It is more an acting play, because this dance is focused on the story-telling aspect, with a running theme of the fight between good and evil (i'll try to post up soon little video clips i took. UPDATE:
Vid 1,
Vid 2,
Vid 3) . What's cool about the stage set-up was that they used what probably was an old temple ruin as their backdrop and backstage premise. The two ladies below were the first act. They were adorable.
Check out the very cool musicians for the show situated at the side
^ The lion-like creature behind is one of Bali's major Gods (the name has slipped my mind)
As I was walking out the venue, came across this pasture. The cows are mostly a rich brown in Bali. :)
There was also this xylophone-like instrument displayed outside the venue. My bro couldn't resist its Bali charm.
At the entrance. The statues are ALWAYS wrapped with sarongs.
We made a stopover to a silver jewelry-selling shop. Didn't purchase anything because my mum was skeptical about the authenticity of the material as she had bad experiences in other countries before (hint: CHINA). Anyway, the service of the Balinese sales staff is such that they will always walk you back to your transport when you're done. It's like they're sending this message, 'God be with you till we meet again.' Their dedicated service is fab man. I mean, being told by the tour guide that 85% of Bali income is from tourists, I guess we can't really expect anything less. Me posing outside the shop. I'll emphasise again, Bali art is hands-down fab. The female statues are another depiction of the same female goddess in our hotel room. Again, the name eludes me.
While traveling along the roads to our next destination, I noted how proud everyone is of their local costumes! And motorcycle is the choice of transport for the people. The other is mini-vans like ours, but only then they're rented for tourists. Very few people own cars, you can barely spot them on the congested roads.
These pics were taken outside yet another souvenir shop. On the way, I saw tons of shophouses displaying these, and even hanging them on trees. So when I saw these at the shop, I HAD to pose with them. I don't know if these locally-made kites are actually for sale though. My dad cracked me up when he said the first thing that came to his mind when he saw the kite behind me was, 'batman!'
Next, we made our way to the mildly active Batur volcano, to get some shots of the scenic view. the clouds so look like smoke emitting from the volcano. The tour guide said he used to lead trekking expeditions up that same volcano, but has since ceased operations because the trails has been closed off by the authorities.
The experience of viewing an actual volcano for the first time, even from afar, was a pretty cool notion to me. I had actually wanted to drop by a volcano or two while holidaying in the US last year, but it was located too far-out from towns. So now I finally got my chance here :D
After lunch, we made our way to a coffee plantation because we were told one of the thing we HAD to try in Bali was the coffee.
Mocha, Ginger tea and Cocoa. All were yum. Truly. I don't know how exactly they brewed it. But they claimed they just added hot water.
Apparently, male and female coffee beans taste different.
Precious cocoas just out of my reach at the plantation, boo for being short. The cultivators don't use pesticides on them, so it's like 100% organic?? And I didn't know so many of them were up there till we used flash and I viewed the pic afterwards. lol.
Then we went down to this famous hot spring temple at Tampak Siring. This huge statue was near the entrance of the garden grounds leading to the temple. Note his attire of choice.
Also saw this epic tree wrapped in the IT attire of choice.My bro and I both thought AVATAR!
^I admire the artwork of their structures, but they scare me a little honestly. Could only give a weak smile. haha
^Shy school-girls reluctant to post pics with me even when I went 'pretty pleeease'.
My mum couldn't enter the temple grounds that day. Cuz from the first day, she made sure to let the tour guide know how disappointed she was that she couldn't patron the spa services of Bali.
^Offerings of choice.
^Loving your beautiful top, lady! Don't blame me for going all papparazzi on you.
I felt like the odd kid out who refused to have fun and get herself dirty with the other kids. lol
My lovely models. Me crashing their zen party. Pic taken before I plunged into the frenzy of the market-like place seen below. :S
^Look at all the flowers congealing together!! PRETTY.Me loves.
^You see the white buildings on the extreme back of the picture? they are the former residence of past presidents of the country, like Sukarno I think I was told.
^Last shot before we left the spiritual warzone. On the way to seek refuge at drier temple grounds, we came across these ladies:
And procession:
Before we could go any further, we had to dress-up a little. Don't *someone* look like a Shaolin monk here? Shall not name any names.
^the patch of grass growing mightly healthily on top is believed to be a guage of a country's situation by temple-goers. If instead it was all dried up, it would reflect of things to befall the country.
God be with you. :)
^my two bodyguards. *grins*
Couldn't resist this shot of classic tourists!! Check out their hats man and eager demeanours man.
The rest of my day shall be continued in my next post. We (or more specifically, my bros) finished off the day with a big bang (hint: of the only-in-bali-for-daredevils kind)! I have too much to share, so I'll save it for the next entry. Details to come...soon.
