Friendly septics

We saw this truck as we were driving to the airport through Kuta in Bali. Made us giggle!  Everything is friendly in Bali :)

Meditating with friends

While in Bali, we met up with our friend James and his family.  Simone, James' wife, is a fantastic bread baker and she made pizza for us that was just fabulous.  Pipit, James' sister, was there visiting and helping with the kids: Kadiz (aka, Dizzy, age 7), Nellie (age 4), Swahili (age 3), and 2-month-old Bitani had a great time playing with Jaffa and Eben. James and Pipi grew up in Indonesia and had some fantastic insights about the country and how it's changed over the last few decades.  Simone's dad was Jason Monet, a well-known painter who spent many of his last years in Bali.  Take a look at his web site http://www.jasonmonet.com. Simone and James and their kids are living in the Bamboo House (where we had pizza with them), and there are a number of pictures of Simone in the gallery. We love his art.. here's a fantastic one of Simone being painted when she was pregnant, probably 7 years ago or so

 

 

 

We had a great time hanging out with them, and for our last night in Bali, we had dinner at a warung (Indonesian restaurant) that they knew well.  Things got a little crazy with all of those kids while we were waiting for our food, so Zeric started a meditation class.

 

Swahili (aka Figgy), Jaffa, and Nellie concentrating

We are looking forward to seeing them again when we head back to Bali in February!

White Sand Beach

Before leaving Bali, we drove to White Sand Beach just near Pandang Bai on the southeast coast of the island.  It was lovely. And quiet.  We had to hike in (about 3 whole minutes), but it was enough to make it feel a little secret.

 

We had a great time playing on the beach and in the water..

..and then in the water in the rain!

Zeric and Eben snorkeled, and we all watched the boats.

I love Ganesha

I have a thing for Ganesha.

 

Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or "Vighnaharta"(marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha

So I take lots of pictures of him.

Agung Rai Museum of Art

Bali is known for art, and so we decided to go check out the Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) http://www.armabali.com/. It was one of the best museums we've ever visited, and certainly the best in Indonesia!  We saw works from artists from all over Indonesia, dating back to the 1800s. There were all styles and media, lots of Hindu influences.. and many, many great painting of all kinds of animals--some real, some really fantastic!.  (Wish I had pictures... but none allowed inside the galleries, of course.)  In addition to a number of great galleries, the museum holds all kinds of courses for adults and kids--dance and painting and woodcarving.   The grounds are terrific, and they even have beautiful villas where you can stay (if you can spend $700/night - eeeep!).  Would be a great place to get married.. or come on a honeymoon ;)

 

When we arrived at ARMA around 11, we were greeted by Agung Rai himself who told us all about the museum and grounds.  He is a very dynamic man who has traveled the world to find and bring back Indonesian art to Indonesia.

After visiting the galleries, we headed to the cafe to take a break and have a drink.. it was lovely with a view onto the gardens.

Then we took a walk around the grounds, and imagined what it would be like to live there.

 

 

We ended our visit with a stop to visit the woodcarver where Eben gave it try.

 

 

 It was a lovely morning!  We'll definitely take memere there next month..

Taco signs

The food was really good, better than the Mexican place near our house in Jakarta... we even saw the guy hand-cutting the nachos... but the bathroom signs were even better.  Here's the one on the outside of the bathroom door:

and here's the one on the inside!

Candikuning - The Yellow Temple

I am not exactly sure how this temple got its name.. but it wasn't exactly what we expected.  We read in the guide book that it was a beautiful temple on a big mountain lake, and that it was not one of the major tourist destinations. [Note: except on new year's day.]

 

I should have had a funny feeling when we reached the town square

 

but I was busy reading Ramona the Pest to the kids so it didn't register.

 

There were a ton of people there.  The good thing about having tons of people is that there are always performances when there are tons of people.  So, we listened to the gamelon.. for what seemed like an eternity to Eben and me.  Zeric was enjoying it, I think Jaffa was trying to nap, but by the time the very long song was over, we were about donged-out.

 

Besides, Eben and Jaffa both were super excited about seeing the girls do the welcome dance.. as we kept catching glimpses of them waiting to come out, and they were far more interesting,

...and pretty! That common perception that Balinese women are just stunning is not a myth.  I don't think we've seen one ugly Balinese woman yet.

So the girls did their dance, which included a lot of neck wiggling and eye movements and hand gestures and all kinds of other choreography.. and then they threw their flowers (ulitmate welcome gesture) and off the went.

 

 

And off we went to see the rest of the temple grounds.. it was beautiful and chilly (!) and hazy.  And I wont' tell you what kind of acrobatics I had to do to get a picture without three dozen of the gazillion people there in it.  Or one of the speedboats or paddle boats.  I am not even kidding.  The g-ds must be pissed.. people--lots of them--were even fishing in the lake.  It was kinda like Ocean City boardwalk... in a bad way.  I wanted to capture it they way I was hoping it would be.. you know, peaceful like it was presumabley about 200 years ago.

happy children, sorta

 Then we went off and found a Buddhist stupa.. and the kids prayed (Eben was praying for a speedboat ride, but that didn't work out for him).

 

Not sure what Zeric prayed for... possibly a decent lunch?  Or maybe that I wouldn't complain about lunch.

all of us enjoying candijuning

And finally, the requisite picture.. given the atmosphere, I likened it to having your picture taken with Mickey and Minnie at DisneyWorld, but better.