Some Images of Bali

Bali is famous for it's unique brand of Hinduism, rich artisan culture and dancing. I did not delve deeply into the culture and hardly did almost any shopping to look at crafts and such, so I will not pretend to know anything. Maybe next time around we'll have more time to inspect the fine details. Regardless, I will share some images anyway.

Practicing a traditional Balinese dance for an upcoming ceremony:

Dancers backstage at a free festival performance in a park:


In Ubud there are performances of traditional dances at several venues every night. This is a Kecak performance chanted only by men:

Editor's note: I tried uploading a video so that you could hear the "cak," but was having problems with blogger. Sorry.

At the end of the performance a trance dancer walks through fire in a bird costume:

Offerings are placed daily all over the place - on shrines, in entrance ways, etc. These are sold in the market, but many people make there own. The girl working/living at one of our homestays made 25 every night to use the next day:

A stone carving made-to-order for a home in Bali:

An entrance to a small temple:

And then there is the tourist culture...

There are many markets and stores for Bali crafts. With a little time and effort time you can start seeing the difference between good quality items and tourist shlock:

Foreigners notice board with ads for housing, spas, and all the yoga, tarot, healing and other "spiritual" endeavors one could ask for:

*We are leaving Bali today but will be back in September or October (especially since we are leaving Mika's suitcase here with all of our non-essential items). Our Indonesian visa is running out, and it is a costly, bureaucratic pain to extend it. So it is not "goodbye Bali", just "see you later." And "hello Java."