Moving to Ubud for the Ogoh Ogoh and Nyepi

Ubud

The Garden view cottages in Ubud look as though they had their time about 20 years ago. But the grounds are very nice and there’s a pool. Again, we’re one of two lots of guests which is a little strange. All those tourists must be staying somewhere?

Ubud itself is crazy busy and the excitement is mounting for the Ogoh Ogoh parade at about 6pm.

Before Jasper had his bad monkey experience in Uluwatu, staying on Monkey forest road seemed like a great idea. Now that we have to skirt around the edges of it to get into town, it doesn’t seem so cool. However we pass by without incident and later, coming back in the dark, all the monkeys are, thankfully, asleep.

The lovely thing about Tampaksiring was that we were totally outnumbered by Balinese. Here in Ubud, tourists totally dominate and it is hard to remember that this is a Balinese festival, until the Ogoh Ogoh start their procession down the street.

Each one sits on a Bamboo frame and is carried by about 20 people. The best part, as with all the craziness that we’ve witnessed in Bali, is the music which is loud and really hypnotic.

I was expecting a few more people to fly into trances but I think, according to Wayan, that is more in the out- lying villages.

All of the Ogoh Ogoh end up in the main sports field where hundreds are gathered to watch them.

As Roger helpfully points out, “what a great place for a terrorist attack”. These little paranoid tid bits are quite frequent and I’m learning to ignore them.

The dancing and parading goes on for a couple of hours. What we really want to see is the Ogoh Ogoh go up in flames, which is the end process where the evil spirits are banished from the Island of Bali.

Frankly, getting to the burning part takes too long and we go from sitting in the front row with a great view, to being about 10 people back, with everyone standing in front of us.

We set off home, only to find another separate parade of Ogoh Ogoh being burnt just on the outskirts of the monkey forest.

It seems strange to have put so much time into creating these totally elaborate pieces of art, to burn them straight afterwards but I suppose some of them are so grotesque, they need to be burnt straight away, especially the titty ones!

The next day, Nyepi, is also a partial Solar eclipse. Not only is there an eerie silence but the light is all weird when we wake up. Even the Bali roosters seem to be quieter than usual. On Nyepi day, everything in Bali shuts down, even the airport. People need to stay home with their curtains drawn and no one is allowed on the street. Even electronics are banned although apparently, the sale of pirated movies sky-rockets the day before Nyepi.

We have a secret plan that this can be a catch up on communication day but even the Wi-Fi seems to have been turned off.

Luckily, we still get breakfast and an early set dinner as we have no cooking facilities and there are only so many MSG potato chips one family can eat.

The potential “quiet day for reflection” becomes a little torturous as every time someone gets out their kobo or computer, Jasper shouts “you’ll be cursed”.

Wayan explained that if the evil spirits had a look at Bali on Nyepi day, they would shrug and say, “nothing’s happening here” and head off to a more turbulent place like the middle East!

We are pleased to be allowed out the next day for a bit of a tour with Wayan. We’ve found an amazing drum shop and the plan is to buy quite a few to make up a “class set” for my teaching, now that we’re sending quite a few things home. Of course, there happens to be a wood carving shop nearby full of the most beautiful things and before you know it, we have another life size standing Buddha. We visit some art galleries and some kite places and it starts to seem that maybe we should just open a shop at home. I’m sure a lot of people have had this same idea and perhaps it is not as easy as it seems.

On our last morning we drop everything at the shipping company, including our original box of excess clothes. We’ve managed to amass 4 cubic meters! We’ll look at the issue of who’s going to pick it up from the port in Auckland a bit later!

The Monkey Forest

Goodbye Bali

On route between Bali and Thailand.

12th March

Just when one country starts to feel familiar and even a little like home, I suppose we will be on to the next one.

We will all miss Bali but perhaps in part because it is hard to venture into the unknown.

I think the kids are worried because every week brings us closer to India! They must have heard quite a few conversations now that go a little like this “Oh wow, India, it’s so full on, quite a culture shock for the kids, don’t eat the meat and take antibiotics as soon as you have diarrhoea”

Quietly I think they’re a little terrified.

Bali was easy and fun and everyone so friendly, even if they did always laugh when we walked past.

We ate a lot of Banana pancakes and drank a lot of beer.

We have seen the end of the rainy season and the beginning of endless hot, hot dry days.

Without realising when we first arrived, our stay extended over the time of Nyepi, the Balinese new year of 1938 (the traditional Balinese year is a little longer than ours)

We played our first overseas gig and we bought enough Buddhas to open a shop.