Up To Speed part 1

Iwas going to try to walk you slowly through the experience of our first two weeks here through many posts, but I don't have the time or patience to make that really worthwhile. So instead I'm going to try my best to talk about some highlights so far and bring everyone up to speed on our life out here. I was also going to try to organize all of the pictures throughout the blog next to the segments that directly correlate. In this case I had more pictures than that would allow, and it's a really huge pain in the ass to arrange them in the right place...so help me out and play the matching game as you go through the post. The final disclaimer has to do with the editing process of this post. After I published it I went back to realize that all of the text was scrambled together incoherently. I did my best to go back through the whole post and reconstruct it. So if there are segments and phrases that seem really out of place, they probably are.

We came here planning on taking our first two weeks to trek around the island to get a feel for the land and the culture. We visited some spectacular temples in the process. Uluwatu overlooking the cliffs lining the southern coast, with its' pain in the ass monkey's that will try to steal anything they can from you. We watched one guy have to do his best to negotiate his wallet back with a bag on bananas...he looked like he was about to cry. At Uluwatu we watched our first Kecak dance (pictures below, men in circle and ring of fire) which is an amazing introduction into Balinese culture, dance, music, and Hinduism. We went to Tanah Lot further north along the West coast of Bali, which looks like a sand castle perched amongst the crashing waves. We've played games with monkey's, snakes, and giant bats. When I say we I mean me as Dan's theory on animals is that they're 'wild, unpredictable, and dangerous.' My theory? Haven't thought that far. I just want to play with them, so if they're game so am I. He'll probably live longer than me.

One We spent a day driving with Eddie through the Balinese countryside (picture of lunch spot above). He was supposed to take us to Ubud and show us the sites around the town. Ubud is the spiritual and artistic center of Bali. Instead of taking us there Eddie decided to drive us all around the hills and rice paddies around the city, introduce us to his family and friends all the while saying we'll do this and that 'when we get to Ubud' and then at about 5 pm, at which point we realized we were never actually getting to Ubud, he told us it was time to head home. Eddie is a true 'Balinese friend." Why the quotes you ask? As you might imagine a lot of the locals see befriending westerners as an opportunity. When Eddie tells us he'll take us somewhere or show us something he's naturally looking for us to toss him a little money for his time, and pay for the car that he rented which he most likely got from a friend. The two of them almost definitely hiked up the price on us a little to pad their pockets as well. I'd been forewarned that unfortunately things like this happen. The worst part about it that I think Eddie really likes us he just doesn't know any better. The fortunate side of this story however is that Dan and I are so green to the ways of Indonesia that we were perfectly content simply driving through beautiful landscapes and meeting real village people throughout the hills. In this situation I guess it was win-win.

The next day we went to Denpasar, the capitol city of Bali, to explore the alleys and markets. One of my favorite things to do in a new country, especially a third world country, is to walk through the markets and explore all of the absolutely insane crap that they sell. Denpasar was no exception. After eating a meal of god knows what, we thought it was a local delicacy called Beef Knuckle, we walked over to Pasar Burung to find the best deals on this side of the equator. To all of you that always dreamed of buying a monkey when you were young and playing with it, and having the little guy climb all over you and slap you five, and steal people's wallets and glasses and bring them to you so that you can take the cash and pawn the rest off, poop in their hands and throw it everywhere, I got news for you...$30!!! Excuse me but $30 for a fucking monkey! Are you kidding me! I'll take ten please. Seeing some of them in cages was actually pretty depressing. I told Dan I was going to go back once we got a villa and get one, play with it for a couple weeks, then let it go in the jungle...diseases be damned. Some of the other animals they had there I couldn't recognize but I'm sure they're involved in some delicious native dishes (pictures of monkey's and other animals for sale above).

After we were here for about a week and a half we went with Eddie up to his village at the base of the mountains. He invited us to a cremation ceremony for his wife's grandfather. the way these ceremonies work is they will bury their relative after they die and save up money for a year or two until they can afford a ceremony. Then they'll gather with the rest of the people in the village for a symbolic cremation during certain holy times of year. We drove with Eddie up into the hills until we got to the real back roads of Bali, where it felt like the car turned into a vibrating chair from sharper image that would occasionally thrust your head into the ceiling. The ride was about an hour and a half to two hours and then it took us maybe another hour to park the car and turn it around in their tiny oddly shaped driveway. We spent two full days up in the village, getting to know Eddie's family, helping them cook, and helping them with the ceremony preparations...which for the most part meant walking around aimlessly for hours on end while everyone else seemingly did the same...however, somehow by the afternoon of the second day the ceremony was up and running.

Over the two days it was the smaller everyday things that . On the way up to the ceremony we bought four live chickens strung together by their feet, they were for the ceremony. Eddie threw them on the floor by his wife's feet. When we got the his place we noticed there were chickens running wild. Why buy more if you already have a bunch we asked. Apparently the ones that run around their property are for their eggs...how stupid are we. They apparently are also for waking you up 45 minutes before the sun comes up, and cock-a-doodle-dooing until you just want to punt them into the next rice paddy. I think they were broken. One morning while brushing my teeth I heard grunting, and walked around the corner to find the families pig pen's (above) and let me just say that if they are all kept that way pigs definitely are filthy animals. During our stay we also realized there's no avoiding the regular calls of nature, and when the place you are staying doesn't have TP then you have to be creative. To make a long story short we each left with two less socks than we came with. All in all to be able to see that side of life, that niche in the world, is a once in a lifetime experience. It's pretty crazy to see this perspective on life. It makes me feel guilty in so many ways knowing what I was raised with, knowing the opportunity that I had and still have. Understanding the jealousy that the locals often have of westerners. Respecting them for their lives being based on necessity and not corrupted by what seems like the innate material desires of your average American suburbanite. It makes me love them more. It makes me like myself less. It makes me love and respect my parents more, and thank them again for all of their hard work and everything they've given me.