Ambient Bali

Canggu Dawn

2006-11-06T14:26:00.000+08:00

Our first morning in Bali, we arise before the sun and walk the beach.

John's house is an old Javanese teak house, transplanted to Canggu "chang-gu", a small village northwest of Kuta.

Mountain Temple

2006-11-05T21:19:00.000+08:00

We visit remote Batukau Temple, high up the side of a volcano in central Bali.

The is the sacred spring, supplying holy water to the temple and pilgrims.

Farmer's Market

2006-11-04T20:02:00.000+08:00

The Balinese farmer's market is a colorful (spicy!) and virbrant place.

The market in Ubud is huge. Down these stairs is the actual produce market, the rest is for tourists.

Bali Cockfight

2006-11-03T16:02:00.000+08:00

Cockfights are sometimes associated with Hindu ceremonies on Bali. We came across this one while visiting Pura Kehen, well off the tourist track.

The chanting is the run-up to the contest. Each bird is raised in turn, and the crowd responds, generating enthusiasm for their champion.

Bird Scares

2006-11-02T04:13:00.000+08:00

Rice is grown everywhere on Bali. Harvested by hand and locally consumed, rice is part of every meal. To keep the birds off the ripening grain, the farmers use various scares including ingenious little wind-powered noisemekers featured in this recording. Rice fields typically have a little shelter for the farmer to guard the field. Strings radiate out from the shelter to noisemakers, which the farmer shakes when birds land. Often, the farmer has to resort to yelling and waving his hands.

There are lovely terraced fields everywhere. We walked through these fields on our way from the villa where we stayed in to the town of Ubud. The mountains in the distance are the peaks of Batukau, one of Bali's three major volcanoes.

Bali Motos

2006-11-01T17:11:00.000+08:00

Lot of motos here on Bali. Zooming everywhere, efficient, convenient—hair-raising at times! But everything fits in at the last possible moment.

This is the little roadside restaurant in Bangli where this recording was made. Also the site of a delicious vernacular Balinese meal.

We saw a lot of remarkable sights but many unfortunately too quick for zee camera. Yet—I looked up while cleaning a lens and saw this!

Ceremony, Offerings and Gamelan

2006-10-30T04:52:00.000+08:00

Everything here on Bali is infused with ceremony and the sacred. Naturally, this is centered in the temples, but each village has three! It is part of daily life and not a separate category of activity. The gamelan you are hearing is the Ubud Women's Gamelan, well-known for playing daily in the center of town. Inexplicably, I took no pictures of gamelan: other images will have to do. Gamelan is now often presented as an entertainment, but it's function for the Balinese is ceremonial. Each village has it's own gamelan, just as they have their own priests and temples.

Every day, somewhere in Bali, this happens. The man at the head of the procession is the priest.

Balinese temples very often have a sacred tree. This banyan at Pura Kehen has an altar built way up in it's multiple trunks.