3371 These are the Balinese Dancers that were performing on the pier.
3407 This is the row of buildings on the third level of the Pura Kehen Temple Complex I tried so hard to describe to you.
3419 This guardian is standing near the tallest structure at the Pura Kehen Temple Complex.
3420 This is the stairway to the first level of the Pura Kehen Temple Complex. You can just make out the gold and blue paint of the doorway lintel.
3423 The view of the rice paddies from the terrace of the Puri Boga Restaurant. I was wrong. My camera did a pretty good job of duplicating the colors of the rice. You can see the dark shadow from a passing cloud in the center of the picture.
Feb 21 – At Sea. Another restful day and we need it. We're facing 5 days in port in a row in very hot and humid ports, Bali (2 days), Lembar Indonesia, Komodo Island, and Ujung Padang Indonesia. Long days in hot places take a lot of resting up. At least for me.
Feb 22 – Benoa, Bali, Indonesia. It's 8am and the heat and humidity are already at alarming levels. Hope the A/C in the bus works. The cultural dance team that greeted us on the pier didn't seem to be feeling the heat at all. By the time we disembarked they'd been dancing for over an hour. As we got off the ship they lined up for pictures.
We are headed out into the country side of east-central Bali. This is a really nice place with warm and happy people for the most part. Being 90% Hindu probably has something to do with that. Our drive is taking us up into the mountains that form and east to west spine 2/3 of the way to the north of us. Our port is about as far south as you can get. We drove past terraced rice paddies, across bridges, through small villages; in short we got a very good look at central Bali.
Our first stop is the Pura Kehen Temple Complex. It was constructed in the 1000s and has been in use ever since. A short comment about temples and Bali. Every home in Bali has its own family temple, many have more than one. Despite this fact there seems to be a large temple on every other block. I'm not complaining because they are interesting and beautiful. It's just that I wish the bus could stop at each one so I could look around.
Or arrival at the temple we were approached by some of the temple staff to make sure we were properly attired. Apparently none of us were. They had to tie a 4 inch wide yellow sash around our waists. Maybe they wanted to be sure no bellybuttons would accidently be exposed. You never know what strange rule you're going to encounter when you travel to exotic places.
The structures at Pura Kehen are built from gray/black lava rock and they use black volcanic sand to make the concrete that forms the parts that aren't rock. Almost everything is dark and it can make photography difficult in bright sunshine which we have in abundance today. The stairs up to the first level are guarded by flanking elephants and are the longest and steepest. I guess they want to make sure you sincerely want to visit the temple. When you get to the top you are greeted by the demonic face of Kala Makara staring down at you from over the gate's doors. The doors are wooden and painted blue with gold designs, a nice break from the gray. This blue door is only used on special occasions. Just like a cathedral there are flanking smaller doors. These doors are red and gold and are standing open for us to enter. Of course, no matter which door you choose you can't escape the glare of Kala Makara, he's over all of t hem.
The belief is that there are three worlds, lower, middle and upper and that's why the temple complex is built on three terraces. The lower terrace is fairly unremarkable. One unique thing they've done is imbed Chinese porcelain dinnerware in the wall supporting the second level. That must have been a later modification because the porcelain does not date from as early as 1000. Looks more like 1600s or later but then I'm no expert on that subject. There are a few small structures on the first level but nothing too interesting.
The stairs leading up to the second level have gates that are two-sided affairs that do not have doors or even a lintel. They're just two tapering uprights without a top. These stairs are about 1/5 as long as the stairs to the first floor and not nearly as steep. Here the structures start to get more interesting. There's a trio of covered elevated sitting places. These are common in the villages too. They have a sloping roof with a very short gable. About half way up the posts supporting the rood is a flat surface that you sit on lotus style. In the villages they are conversation places for informal meetings. I'm not sure what function they serve here or why there are three fairly small ones side by side.
On the other side of the second level is a similar structure except that this one has a chair built into the flat sitting surface at the back of the structure. There's still room on the surface for 2 or 3 people to sit. Could have some sort of administrative function. The chair might be for a monk to sit and hear grievances. Against the wall you passed through to get onto the level there's a large pavilion that certainly has enough space for dancing or group functions.
The stairs to the third level are even shorter than the stairs to the second. The third level is where the action is. There are large, ornate but open structures here. They have a roof like the sitting structures on level 1 but as larger and do not have the second raised level. These are completely open from floor to the roof. They have a wooden cabinet built in at the back that stands on 4 legs and is painted red and gold.
There are structures that have several roofs that decrease in size as you go up. One has 11 roofs forming a pagoda like structure. In front of that building there are two smaller structures with three roofs each and next to them two structures with only one roof. The latter four are the same size in area, the tall one is larger. Each of these four has an ornate cabinet built in the rear. The tall building has ornately carved granite walls forming a room on the bottom under the first roof. The room has ornately carved and is painted blue, red and gold. It's locked with a padlock. In front of these structures is a large pavilion with a raised seating level that has three chairs on it, a larger on in the center flanked by two smaller ones. To the right of this large pavilion is a smaller one that faces inward forming a small plaza in front of the large one. This smaller pavilion has two large highly decorated chairs on its raised seating surface. Ornately carved and painted red and gold with accents of black and white these chairs appear to be for the most important visitors to the temple. Like the hand rails in many Hindu temples the chair's arms are dragons, heads facing outward and tails at the top.
In another somewhat larger pavilion there's a large ornately carved stone altar of sorts. Right now there's nothing on it but a green and yellow cloth. Above the altar, suspended from the roof is a cloth canopy. I suspect that some of the pavilions with built in cabinets are for specific festivals or days and are only opened and used then.
We clambered down the very uneven temple stairs and, after turning in our sashes (apparently they don't care if other people are exposed to our navels), we hopped on our busses to head for lunch.
Lunch was served on a pleasant shaded patio overlooking rice paddies that were a wonderful shade of green. Pretty sure the luminescence of the color will not translate to prints. The restaurant's name is Puri Boga and the food was very nice. Indonesian food has got to be at least medium hot to get anywhere near the proper taste. HAL had obviously stressed the need to de-fang the food so while it was well preserved and made from good ingredients it fell short on the spice level and therefore cannot be rated as excellent.
I should mention that we spend quite a bit of time driving from place to place. Almost all the roads are only 2-lane and the traffic is heavy. It's not a chaotic as India but it's still a bit disorganized. Lines marking lanes are seen as mere suggestions to everyone including our bus driver. We spent quite a bit of time driving in the wrong lane. I don't think it qualified as passing because the roads were marked with a solid white line. The apparently means if you want to pass here, carry on and good luck!
The driving time is not really down time as we are passing through some small villages and agricultural land. Just observing the local people going about their daily business is great fun. We passed one rice paddy where the farmer was out plowing the field with a brace of water buffalo. Kids in their uniforms going to and from school, the village markets, people drinking coffee and chatting are all images I wish I'd been able to capture with my camera. No such luck, you can either enjoy the scenery or spend every moment, camera in hand looking for a picture and most of the interesting subjects are gone before you can get the camera up.
Our next stop was at the Klungkung City's Kertagosa. This building was designed and built in 1710 by the nation's best artisans. It's a compound that has three buildings 2 of which are also built from black lava rock and lava sand cement but has some elements of red/orange brick. This combination produces a less stark feeling, much more lively. These two buildings are the original buildings from 1710. The third building is a more western type building constructed of mainly cement painted yellow, that was probably for administration at some time but is now a museum. They have a nice display of kris, and a case of royal golden objects. The largest one has a cylindrical shape; about three feet tall that has almost the exact shape as a .223 round, much larger of course. It's ornately carved and about 300 years older than the oldest .223. A model of Klungkung from the 1700s shows a long open pavilion in this spot but it was then outside the walls enclosing the other two traditional buildings.
The most photogenic of the three is the Bale Kambang (Floating Pavilion). It's surrounded by a moat that has several species of water lilies growing in it. There are also fish, but they're not koi. There's a stone gate through which is a narrow 'bridge' that takes you out to the pavilion. The base is made of black lava stone but the perimeter fence is made from the brick. Each pillar of the fence has a 2-foot tall, carved Balinese figure each also from lava rock. There's a 4-foot wide walkway on the base surrounding the pavilion. The pavilion is built mainly from the brick with carved stone insets. The columns supporting the rood are very thin, creating a very airy feeling. It's the tallest building in the complex. There are five steps up from the bridge to the base and then 11 more steps up into the pavilion. When you enter the pavilion you get an unexpected treat. The ceiling of the pavilion is painted with colorful scenes from our favorite story, the Ramayana. No matter where you go in Indonesia, Muslim Java or Hindu Bali, the Ramayana is everywhere.
In the northeast corner of the complex is another raised pavilion, this time without a moat, the Royal Court of Justice. This is where the officials or the king, depending on the importance of the case, would sit in judgment on lawbreakers. The ceiling here is also nicely decorated but this time with scenes from stories of karmic justice. The Hindus believe in the concept of karma. In the west we call it, 'What goes around, comes around.' I know that's an oversimplification but you don't want to slog through a big dissertation on the concept of karma and I certainly don't want to write one.
Built into the south wall of the complex is a tall, mostly brick temple. The doors were all closed but there were fresh offerings on the table in front and on the threshold of the main door.
It's a very picturesque place. I wish I'd had more time to move around to get the good compositions.
We set off in our bus through the Village of Selat and up into the mountains. The road wound up mountains and down through valleys until we reached the city of Tenganan. Tenganan is home to the Bali Aga people. They are descendants of the original island people and maintain their pre-Hindu culture. They live in a walled city that is in essence two parallel lines of townhomes with a wide main cobbled main street between them. All the living compounds are the same. They have a gate that opens onto the street. Beyond that is a courtyard and behind that are the living quarters. I have no idea what they look like as I felt I was already taking too much liberty just looking in the gate.
Down the center of the wide street they have some public structures, a large meeting hall with a wooden bell. The bell is rung in certain patterns to notify the villagers of events like a death, a meeting, danger, fire and other circumstances of interest to the villagers. On either side of the road at intervals they have small raised structures for informal meetings and just plain hanging out with friends.
The method of construction makes it look like there's just a wall with gates on either side of the main street. If none of the doors in the gates were open you'd never know there were houses on the other side. The wall in front of some of the houses was more ornate than others. Some were downright fancy, others strictly plain. In the heat of the day there wasn't much activity, even the dogs were sleeping. The only sign of work was hard work indeed. Men and women were carrying woven wood squares on their heads that were piled with three high pyramids of very large coconuts. They were neither husked nor opened. I looked to me that most of them had a dozen or so of them on the carrier. An unhusked, milk filled coconut is fairly heavy, and these were large economy sized.
They had roosters that had been dyed red, yellow and orange in individual bell shaped woven wood carriers with handles on top. The weave was very loose and allowed a very clear view of the birds. I'm pretty sure they were for cock fighting; I don't know why else you would dye adult roosters and then keep them in individual cages.
The villagers had some handicrafts for sale but were very passive in their sales techniques. A welcome change from some of the street vendors we've encountered around the island. You really shouldn't have to tell a vendor 'No' more than once to have them leave you alone.
On the way back to the ship we stopped for pictures at the very oddly shaped island administration office. It looks like an elaborate trophy. Big base in to tiers, the upper one smaller, leading to small window lined circular level from which a tall column extends culminating in a very ornate top. No one was exactly sure what to make of it.
Tomorrow is another very long day in Bali, so we showered, had dinner, read and wrote a bit and then conked out.
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