05 August to 14 August 2023, Indonesia
Bali, Ubud
Homestay
When we arrived in Bali, we first travelled inland to Ubud. Bali always looks so small on the map. It's actually quite a lot bigger. And due to the constant traffic jams on the roads, it can sometimes take 3-4 hours to get from one town to another. The first thing we noticed when we arrived in Bali was that it has completely different vegetation to Lombok. Much greener with more plants, lots of rice fields and palm trees.
The people on Lombok, just like in the rest of Indonesia, are predominantly Muslim. Bali, on the other hand, is very much characterised by Hinduism. And Ubud, where we are now, is always referred to as the cultural centre of Bali. The charm of Ubud is special: there are picturesque rice terraces, enchanting dances and temples, colourful offerings, yoga, Balinese massages, the best craftsmanship, delicious food from cookshops to fancy-looking smoothie bowls and gourmet food. Everything exudes this flair of alternative, colourful, hippie and spiritual.
We booked our accommodation in Ubud via AirBnB and found a little gem by chance. We felt super comfortable as soon as we arrived. It's just a small accommodation with 4 rooms, which are practically semi-detached bungalows. We have our own bathroom and even a small terrace. The whole thing is located in a so-called family compound. Family compound literally means family complex. A single plot of land is home to several houses in which the (extended) family lives. For example, the grandparents live in one house and the children and their families live in the house next door. In our case, Desy lived with her husband and two children and her parents-in-law in the rear part of the property. Her father-in-law's sister and her family - probably 5 to 8 people - lived in the front part of the property. Even the gate entrance to the family compound is incredibly beautiful. The whole property is not large, but it is planted with lots of plants and somehow cosy. Just so small and cosy. You can find a short video of our family compound in the photo album.
Karli and I are still a bit flat from our last cold and there's still far too much work to do on the computer. We still have a lot of videos to sort out and blog posts to write. So we spend a lot of time in our accommodation for the first few days. I watch as our landlady, whose name is Desy, prepares lots of flower offerings every day. You see these offerings everywhere - on the street, in front of the house entrances, on small shrines, everywhere. After one or two days, when I needed a break, I went over to Desy and asked her if I could help her prepare the offerings. From then on, I sat with Desy in the front garden for an hour every morning and put flowers in little baskets. The baskets are made from banana leaves or something and are held together with staples. You can make them yourself or simply buy them at the local market. Each of these baskets contains different flowers in different colours: white, red, blue, purple, pink petals and finally a kind of green grass. Then the basket is ready. Desy makes three to four plastic bags of these every day. Mhhhh that's about 70 to 100 pieces. The offerings are then distributed throughout the house and in front of the house and in the family temple. But I'm not quite sure if this amount of offerings is a bit more than usual. Saturday is a special holiday: "Kuningan".
Balinese public holiday
The Balinese celebrate the victory of Dharma (good) over Adharma (evil). The "Galungan" festival marks the beginning and celebrates the descent of the deities to earth. 10 days later is "Kuningan", which symbolises the renewed ascent of the deities to heaven. The dates change every year as they are defined by the 210-day Pawukon calendar. The days, but especially "Galungan", are very important for Hindus and are mainly celebrated with family and close friends. During this time, the temples and houses are decorated with colourful elements and tall bamboo poles called "penjor".
We had missed the start of Galungan. But we would be in Ubud for Kuningan. There is also a parade in Ubud for Kuningan, which runs right through the town. One day Desy asked me if we wanted to watch the parade. She says that if we wear traditional Balinese clothing, we could even join in. In Hinduism, people here wear a traditional garment on special occasions such as weddings, public holidays or the daily presentation of offerings. For women, it consists of a sarong, a skirt wrapped around the hips, a kind of chic blouse, the kabaya, and a scarf around the waist. The top is very figure-hugging and usually slightly transparent or has a pattern with holes, so you should definitely wear something underneath.
For the men, there are two sarongs that are wrapped around the waist - a large one for underneath and a shorter one on top. The top can be any T-shirt, although white is the preferred colour for kuningan. And then there is a headscarf for men, the udeng.
Karli and I don't have a traditional Balinese outfit. Karli had bought a sarong in Lombok, but we don't have the rest. Desy then said that it wouldn't be a problem, she could lend us everything. And so Karli and I end up wearing traditional clothes to Kuningan. We walk down the streets with lots of Indonesians to celebrate Kuningan. The procession ends at a temple. We feel very honoured that we were allowed to join the procession. Especially because here in Bali, non-believers are somehow not allowed to enter the inside of the temples. At least we didn't make it inside a temple during our entire stay in Bali. It often says somewhere that the temple is only for believers, or the temple is surrounded by a fence with a locked gate.
In addition to the parade to the temple followed by a ceremony at the temple, there are several other customs and rituals that are performed at Kuningan. As we are only onlookers ourselves, it is difficult for me to recount everything. In any case, other special offerings are made at the temple. Desy, for example, has prepared 7 large bast baskets with lots of things inside, which are offered at 7 different temples. And then there are towers built from fruit and other foodstuffs that were brought to the family temple the day before and are then eaten at Kuningan. Each of the Hindu family plots has its own family temple.
What else we see
I quickly made friends with our hostess Desy, she is really very, very sweet. We chat a lot while we prepare the flower offerings. I learn that she and her husband also run a second-hand shop in addition to the AirBnB. Yes logo, I have to go there! So one evening I grab Karli and we walk to her shop. The second-hand goods come from Japan or South Korea or Taiwan. The quality is not as good as we are used to in our second-hand shops, many of the clothes have small defects such as a stain or you can see that they have been worn with pleasure. The shop's target group is not travellers but locals. Karli and I had a lot of fun trying out the clothes and ended up taking four new tops with us.
At the end of our stay, Desy even gave me the kabaya (the traditional top). There was a misunderstanding. Until then, I thought kabaya only meant the traditional Balinese top. In fact, the word "kabaya" can also mean the whole outfit. In other words, Desy not only gave me the top, but also the sarong and the scarf. Mega mega cute. Unfortunately, we were able to clear up the misunderstanding too late. But I'm still super happy about my new top!
The remaining days we explore Ubud and its surroundings from time to time. The shops in the town centre have fine clothes with a great style. I don't buy anything as I've just been shopping at Desy's second-hand shop. But we let ourselves be spoilt by the delicious restaurants.
If you walk three or four streets further, you can marvel at the wonderful entrances to the houses of the family compounds. And if you walk another 10 to 15 minutes further, there is a small path through the rice fields. I walked along it today. It wasn't that far, maybe 15 kilometres. But it took me ages. Maybe it could have something to do with the fact that I took 4 (food) breaks along the way. The first one is for a cappuccino. On the next, I treat myself to an ice cream. On the third, a proper full meal and on the fourth, a kombucha. I feel like I'm getting fat. 🤣🤣
I have already mentioned above that Ubud is the cultural centre of Bali. Every visitor actually attends one of the cultural dances here. Unfortunately, we somehow missed that. However, we did witness the election of a new banjar board. A banjar is the smallest formal social unit in Balinese society. The centre of this social group is a bale, a meeting place where community gatherings and various activities such as sports, dance or gamelan music take place. If a banjar grows to over 500 members, a new one is formed. Each banjar is led by a chairman. This chairman is elected every few years and we were able to witness the official inauguration ceremony. First there were lots of speeches. The handover was then symbolised by the turning of a wheel. Afterwards, there was some lovely dancing and even a concert at the very end.
Silversmiths
A few weeks ago, we met another traveller who told us about the jewellery workshops in Ubud. In the courses you can forge your own silver jewellery. So one evening we walked to one of these workshops and forged our own rings from 925 silver. It was a bit of a shame that the two owners didn't feel like explaining much. But our rings turned out really nice.
📷 You can find more great pictures in the photo album
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