Batik and Campuhan Ridge Walk

May 13, 2018

Bali is known for it's batik fabric, which are colorful repeating prints that have a tye-dye feel to them. I was excited to take a batik making class and learn how the fabric was made. It turned out to be more like silk painting where we made a picture rather than a print, but was fun anyway.

We started with our fabric stretched on a frame, and drew our design in pencil.

Then using special tools, we drew the outline in hot wax on the fabric. Where the wax was, the fabric dye wouldn't be able to get to, and the fabric would stay white.

Once our outlines were done, we filled in the areas with fabric paint using a brush. It was kind of like using water colors. The dyes would spread and combine when they were wet, but show distinct edges if they dried.

The guys used a hairdryer to fully dry the paint before the next step

This is what mine looked like after painting, it's a blue crowned mot-mot, one of my favorite birds from South America.

This is what Shay's looked like after painting was finished. (it's a nudibranch, a sea slug)

The next step was to fully cover some of the painted parts in wax. It was going to be dipped in a really dark blue as the final step, so anything we wanted to keep the painted color instead of the dark blue, we had to wax over. There were two kinds of wax, one that would stay solid, and one that we would crinkle up so crackles of the dark blue would show through onto the color.

Not realizing exactly how the process worked, I had lots of little leaves to cover in wax which took forever.

And finally it was all dipped in the dark blue. Once the extra dye was rinsed out, the fabric was dipped in boiling water to melt the wax out of the fabric.

Then the full colors were visible. It wasn't exactly what I expected, but we had a fun time making a batik work of art for an afternoon.

Later in the day we got a massage (which was somewhat unremarkable) and had dinner.

On our final day, Shay and I decided to get up early and go do the Campuhan Ridge Walk, which is a well known loop outside of town that takes you through rice paddies and little villages. We set off through a light mist up the street and out of town.

Since so many tourists go on the walk, it was well signed and easy to find.

We headed along the cobblestone path up the hill, which would open up onto the ridge.

It did, and it was a lovely view. Tall grasses and rice fields on either side.

And there was a fun view down into the canyon off the side. We were outside of one of a not small town, but there were no buildings visible through the trees.

Further on we found a rice paddy with rice closer to harvest time. Where mostly they had been a bright green and full of what looked like grass leaves, these ones had a more yellow hue due to the rice grains growing. I may or may not have stolen a rice strand to take home.

We stopped at a little cafe in the little town halfway through, and it had a wonderful view out the back over one of the fields.

There was also a lily pond

rice paddy selfie!

Very cool shapes and colors, which are not something you find in the States

We looped around and walked back into town through a more urban town, kind of the suburbs of Ubud.

As far as I can tell, this is telling you it's okay to be a squid...

And I finally figured out what the racks of yellow and blue bottles along the side of the road were. Gasoline. People would sell gas outside of their houses, the yellow and blue were just two different gas types. I don't know where they get so many Absolut bottles from, but that was the most common container for the gas.

We saw a couple cute pumps too. You'd hand crank the gas up into the upper chamber which measured it, and then gravity would take it through the hose to your vehicle. I guess when everyone has scooters to get around, and there's a distinct lack of big gas stations out in the rural areas, you have to get gas somehow.

For our last night in Ubud, and in Bali, we decided to have a nice dinner to celebrate. We chose a mid-range restaurant since we were getting close to running out of money. We planned to spend it all that evening, and then pull out just a little more from the ATM to get us back to the airport the next day.

Our table was on the top floor terrace, overlooking the street below. Shay got a mango smoothie, and I had the most wonderful ginger lemonade. Plus they looked classy.

After dinner Keith walked back to the hotel, and Shay and I went off into the thick of the nightlife area to find a drink for our last night. Counting up our cash, we discovered we couldn't afford a cocktail. All the 2x1 drink specials were about 15 IDR more than we had in our pockets. We thought it was pretty funny.

Beers were cheaper, so we found a low-key place with a live band playing and ordered a couple (after asking the tax rate and making sure we'd actually have enough...) The guys playing on stage looked exactly like teenagers that had just come from practice in their garage, but they were great musicians and we enjoyed ourselves.

The product of the last dollars to our name

One final selfie to sum it up.

Bali was a fun experience and a new experience. We got to experience a radically different culture from our past trips, and logged some more great diving!

Balinese Legong and Kecak dances

May 11-12, 2018

One of our plans for the couple days we had in Ubud was to find dance performances to watch. We were not disappointed.

On our first afternoon we walked around town to try to find if there were any shows happening, and almost immediately found a lady selling tickets for a legong show that night. We bought our tickets, and after dinner that night showed up to the temple theater.

This was the backdrop for it.

From previous research, and the pamphlet they gave you when you walked in, we knew that legong is the style of dance, and the music is played by a gamelan orchestra. They're kind of like xylophones or marimbas, played with mallets. There were drums also to accompany it.

The dance told a story of royalty and love and demons, as so many do. The legong dance is so different from any western style dances. Lots of teeny movements with the head and eyes, and hands that would have just one finger moving while the rest of the hand stayed still. A skill I definitely don't posses.

They all had amazingly elaborate costumes. I really enjoyed the butterflies on some of the headdresses that had wings on springs so they flapped with the movement of the lady's head.

This dancer was a magical golden swan that everyone seemed to want to catch.

This guy is a barong, the leader of all the good spirits. He is similar in construction to the Chinese lion dancer costumes, and was fun to watch. He had a bell on the end of his tail which made me happy.

A monkey came out to hang out with the barong. He did mischievous very well, and I was so sure that he was going to go walk around in the crowd, or pull someone up onto stage.

I did find the mask a little creepy though

This guy was an evil prince, consorting with witches and trying to take things over.

The group dances from the ladies were fun, not only because they were dancing beautifully, but also because their faces had slightly different expressions. Some seemed a bit more playful, while others looked a bit startled. I enjoyed the subtlety, intentional or not.

And this was the witch, who had a posse of girls as followers.

I thought it was kind of fun that the evil demon worshipping girls had their hair down and no big headdresses like the other girls had. The change in costume was a very effective way to emphasize their differences in the story.

The royal princes came back.

And they weren't happy that the witch was there. They wanted to get rid of her.

The witch turned into a big ol' demon, who kind of reminded me of a vintage fur coat.

And then got chased away by the barong, defender of good.

The men came back out as warriors to help fight off the evil witch demon.

And then the barong got a celebratory dance. It was a good thing they gave us a pretty comprehensive story at the beginning, otherwise I think I would have been pretty lost as far as the story goes, but it was great fun and wonderful to watch.

The second night we saw a kecak (keh-chak) fire dance. It was unlike anything I've seen before, and wonderfully amazing.

About 50 guys sat in a circle around a fire candelabra centerpiece, and they were the music for the legong dancers. No instruments, just their chanting.

The story that night was of the Ramayana (which I had actually performed in a class in middle school, which was fun) It tells the story of a princess, a prince, and his jealous brother that wants to steal the princess away. He tries to lure her with a golden deer, but it ends up backfiring.

The legong dancers came out to portray the various princess roles.

Then one of them dressed as the golden deer. Her dancing was a little more prancy than the other two.

Good and bad princes came and went during the story.

And all the while the men are chanting away. Mostly they would all be following the pattern, but occasionally one or more of them would deviate and have a different part to add in, then go back to the normal pattern. Sometimes they would all change patterns at once, and I have no idea how they knew when to. It was hard to tell exactly who was doing what part, or doing the single yells in the middle. There were also some sections of slower, more melodic sing chanting.

A couple times they all laid down backwards into the lap behind them, and kept chanting until they all sat up again.

This guy was a good king, and came out to do his part in the dance.

A monkey prince appeared in one part of the story too.

At the end of the first section they cleared the candelabra, and a group of women came out to help with the chanting and two young girls dancing the legong part.

Then the fire dance portion of the kecak fire dance happened. This guy came out with a sack full of dried coconut husks, dumped them in the middle of the stage area, doused them with lighter fluid, and set them on fire.

The kecak singers came back to stand around the edge and chant

And this guy dressed as a horse came out to dance around the fire.

Then while the fire was still burning away pretty good, what does he do but kick it over.

I think my face would have been priceless to take a photo of at that moment.

The coals were raked back into a neat pile again, and then after more dancing around it, he kicked through them again.

It didn't seem to hurt, but his feet were rather black at the end of it.

Again, a super successful cultural experience, and really fun to watch. We were rubbish at it, but Shay and I had fun trying to imitate the chanting for the next couple days too. 5/5, would watch again.