A rice paddy in Bali with the Farmer's Shrine to ensure a good crop
Sunday morning, I was quite happy to potter around my little domain, making full use of the pool. At 1.30 p.m. I was picked up for a tour.
Bali was one of the first Far Eastern Idylls to be discovered by Westerners and over the last 40 years Bali has seen amazing growth in numbers of visitors. It claims four to five million people visit a year. It's population of 3.5 million Balinese is around 90% Hindu.
We headed north, skirting Denpasar and travelling past a series of tourist-related businesses, each sporting a gaudy illimunated sign, somewhat reminiscent of Las Vegas on a smaller scale. We stopped at a huge Batik showroom housed in a very grand-looking multi-storey building. At the rear of the showroom, next to the car park, the making of Batik printed fabrics and weaving was being demonstrated, but there was no 'serious' production being done here.
Our next stop was an Artists' Co-operative in Ubud, home to 200 painters in modern and traditional style. I was shown round by a young water colourist. Ubud is generally regarded as the cultural capital of Bali.
We carried on into rice growing country and stopped to walk through a terraced rice field. Pictures in the rice fields. Half the population of Bali work on the land which, like Java, is very fertile. Land is in private ownership but some holdings are as small as half an acre after larger farms have been successively divided between children, generation by generation. Crop rotation is practised these days and, for instance, rice crops are alternated with vegetables to minimise the need for fertilizer and the use of organic fertilizer is encouraged. Up to 3 rice crops a year can be produced because there's quite a sophisticated system of irrigation using gravity. Both hand- and chemical-weeding is in use.
Mengwi Temple - the 'Royal Temple', Bali
We moved on to one of the most important temples in Bali, the Mengwi Temple. The inner courtyards were closed because of the New Year but the low walls allowed quite good views from the outer courtyards. Pictures of Mengwi Temple.
Later, we visited the 'Monkey Forest' - a small forest which is home to around 600 Macaque monkeys and almost as many tourist shops. The tour didn't go quite to plan - whilst I was buying peanuts for the monkeys, a dominant male leapt onto my head, leaving me with cuts on the scalp and left cheek. The lady guide, in some distress, rushed me to her shop to treat the cuts with a disinfectant (most of the guides also run tourist shops). I was quite calm until she handed me a small mirror when I had to agree the blood was fairly spectacular. However, once we'd staunched the flow, we went ahead with the tour without further incident. I was particularly interested in the forest's population of bats. Pictures of the 'Monkey Forest'.
Sunset at Tanah Lot, Bali
The final call of the day was to the Temple at Tanah Lot which is supposed to enjoy beautiful sunsets. But there were hundreds of tourists there to observe the sunset and the temple itself is closed to visitors so it wasn't exactly my sort of place. However, I dutifully took pictures which are here.
