The Sun Doesn't Always Shine

So far we had experienced great weather on our trip to Bali. It had rained pretty consistently in Jakarta before we left for Bali, so when we had been met with several days of sunny skies there, I was ready to go back to Jakarta and boast of our good fortune. However on our last full day in Bali, we learned that the sun doesn't always shine in paradise. This day brought lots of rain. Thankfully we had planned to spend the majority of our day at the hotel and then leave in the late afternoon to head to Ubud, the arts center of Bali, and see a Balinese dance.

After spending the morning at the hotel playing games in our room and making a brief trip to the pool during a break in the rain, we ventured out to Ubud in the late afternoon. Ubud was about an hour or so drive from our hotel. Supposedly, Ubud is a great place to shop for locally produced artwork of all kinds, but due to the rain we didn't get out of the car much. There are 3 main kinds of art sold in the Ubud area, woodworking, silver and painting. We stop at one shop from each of these catagories and relied on the knowledge of our driver to take us to the good places. I only ended up purchasing 2 small pieces of woodworking. I wish I had more of an eye for the arts because I think we saw some pretty neat stuff.

Upon concluding our short shopping adventure, we went to eat at a local Indonesian restaurant. It was a nice open air place with nice views of the planting fields around it. The best food they had there were these peanuts that were cooked in some way that made the outside of the peanut crunchy and the inside smooth. They were delicious and addicting. I saw that they were selling these large bags of peanuts when we walked in. Now I know why.

Next we were off to a Balinese dance show at the Ubud Palace. We arrived thinking the show started at 7 but it didn't begin until 7:30 so we got good seats. The show ended up being so much better than I was expecting. There are lots of different danes that the Balinese do. This one was a combination of a sampling of 3 of them. I have heard that each dance alone can tend to be long and drag on at times, so it was good just to get a shorter version of three of them. And the costumes were amazing. My pictures don't do them justice (one reason why I am in the hunt for a new camera). The dances were also interesting enough to the kids to keep their attention for the entire 1.5 hour show. Here is a little about what we saw from the program they gave us at the show...

1) Legong Keraton
This classical dance is based on a historical romance of the 13th century. The first character is Condong, a court lady. She is followed by the 2 legongs, who represent Prince Lasem and Princess Rangkesari. Lasem has abducted Rangkesari. Despite his efforts, she refuses to yield to him. Meanwhile she learns that the crown prince of Kahuripan, to whom she is betrothed, is coming to her rescue. Rangkesari urges Lasem to set her free, but he would sooner meet and confront the crown prince than return Rangkesari to him. On his way to battle, Lasem meets a raven, symbol of a bad omen. He ignores the omen and chases the bird away. He continues on to meet his death in battle with the crown prince: the battle is not seen on stage.

2) Barong
A character study of the powerful and benevolent Barong Character. This magical creature, danced by 2 people in one costume, is often accompanied by a monkey.

3) Dance drama "Sunda Upasunda" for Mahabharata
About 2 brothers who were kings, Sunda and Upasunda. They were the mightiest of giants with the power to rule the universe. The brothers planned to conquer the paradise Swarga-lokha ("heaven"), home of the gods and goddesses. There is a meeting in heaven among the gods where it is decided to send the beautiful goddess Niatama and her Bidadaris (heavenly nymphs) down to earth to seduce the giants while they practice their meditation. The Bidadaris are successful in seducing the giants' people but Niatama must take on the giants herself. She is successful in making the giants fall in love with her and out of their desire for her, the giants battle one another. The giant kings use their magical powers to turn themselves into monsters. But since they have equal powers, they wear off all their strength and the battle ends in exhaustion. In this condition, they are released from the spell of Niatama and in their disappointment, cancel their plan to conquer heaven.

I wish I could describe better what we saw. If we had not had these explanations of the dances in our hands while we were watching, I don't know that we would have been able to figure out the plot because they had an interesting way of portraying what was going on. Despite what you might think from reading the story line, it was not at all violent, scary or distasteful. Probably the most distinctive feature of the dancing and what I noticed right away was the dancers eyes. They seem to have their eyes as wide open as possible the entire dance and made very deliberate and dramatic movements with them. I would kind of relate it to what you might expect a caricature of a Eygptian pharoah to look like.

Well, that about wraps up all the excitement from our Bali trip. We are definitely looking forward to a trip back one day. Maybe when Cami and Phillip come visit in June :)! Yea! We are definitely looking forward to having them come see us.