From Lovina with love

It has been a little while, and much has happened. After my last post we went to see a traditional Balinese Lengan dance at the Ubud palace. Dancers had amazing discipline - dancing with their eyes, their faces, their hands, and bodies. All simultaneously, and all dancers moving together as one to the gamelan music. The costumes and make-up were so elaborate. After the show the dancers made their way out to their motorbikes in front of the palace and sped off down Jalan Raya. We went to a Japanese restaurant. The next morning we left on bike, and rode out through the rice fields and villages, ending at Sangeh Monkey Temple, where we hand-fed sweet bread to the monkeys. They have very soft hands. Following this we drove into the hills, to the very rural village of Sideman. Next, another reasonable drive to  Lake Batur, and a village on the shore called Kedisan. It was cold up there, and the hotel staff - all young local boys - wore oversized grey dinner jackets, and parted their hair in the middle with greasy styling product. There were very few tourists. This town was obviously far poorer than other places we had been, and had an air of tragedy about it. Walking down to the edge of the lake I was followed by a guy with a backpack full of his paintings, and after being given the hard sell I bought one for 50,000rp - earlier last year he had been selling them for 350,000rp each (or so he told me). It's easy to believe. After dark, loud amplified chanting began at a local temple. I went with a Japanese girl from the group to see what was happening - wandering through the pich-black streets until we came to a brightly lit place surrounded by men, women and children in traditional dress. Piles of fresh fruit and flowers as offerings. I asked a man outside (also wearing a grey dinner-jacket over his traditionals) 'apa ini?' He made a prayer sign and ushered us inside. A full gamelan orchestra was playing as an old woman droned over the loudspeaker, and an audience sat watching. All eyes turned to us as we came in. We stayed for a few minutes before heading back to the guesthouse. What the people  lack in economic wealth they excede in cultural richness. The noise continued into the night, and the next morning at 3.30am we woke up to begin the climb up Mount Batur. It took around an hour and a half of steep climbing in the dark to reach the lookout, on the edge of the steaming crater, and then we waited to watch the sunrise over Mount Agung in the distance. By this stage it was raining, but the view was still amazing. The bodies of a cow and a bunch of ducks were at the bottom of the crater, where they had been recently tossed alive as part of a sacrifice ritual. Religion permeates everything for the Balinese. There were also a bunch of monkeys at the top who fought over our breakfast scraps with the resident dogs. We walked back down and had a soak in some hot springs, in the rain. But it was still nice. Then we had a long drive up to the north coast to Bunyapoh, where we stayed next to a flat black-sand beach dotted with oyster farms. Had very nice local tuna cooked in a banana leaf with Balinese sauce for around three dollars. This morning we donned snorkels and flippers and boated out to an island which is part of the East Bali national park. I have never seen so many fish. All colours and sizes. A puffer fish slinked away. A barracuda (?) darted around in front of me. A whole school of great big bright green and purple fish. All totally foreign to me. We spent 45 minutes exploring the reef before the rain came and we headed back to land. Which brings us to Lovina - the sleepy north-coast resort town where the internet connections are slow... Only a few more days until the end of this tour, and then I'm alone to tackle Java. Our leader - a Gold Coast boy - has taken groups through Java before, and his tips for my trip so far will be invaluable to me. I will continue to pick his brains...