Cock Fights & Sun Tans

The ride from Anturan in north Bali to Sanur in southeast Bali was beautiful. Throughout the drive, I saw vibrant green rice terraces, villages with family temples and huge mountains. If Bali itself is paradise, then I’m at a loss for words with how nice the Bali Hyatt is! They sounded a welcome gong when I arrived, placed a necklace of fresh flowers around my neck and looked at me strangely because I was carrying my luggage on my back when I checked in! Apparently the Bali Hyatt does not get too many backpackers!

I met Michael on the beach, along with his parents, his aunt and uncle, and his father’s best friend and his wife. We met in his aunt and uncle’s room overlooking a beautiful garden and one of the pools for gin & tonics in the evening. We ate at a wonderful Indonesian restaurant and then listened to some live Irish music at a local pub. Around midnight, Michael and I hired a taxi to Kuta where we did our own pub crawl until 5 in the morning!

On Sunday, Michael and I recovered by the beach and pool working on our tans for most of the day. That night, everyone came to our room to celebrate Michael’s father’s birthday. I bought a cake and birthday hats, along with birthday balloons and a banner to decorate. I don’t think they celebrate birthdays in Denmark with that much “stuff” so they were all very happy to see how an American likes to celebrate birthdays! We had a wonderful dinner on the sand…all 8 of us ordered snapper ginger which is an amazing dish I’m going to try to make again someday!

We rented bikes on Monday and explored the coast in Sanur. Along the way, we saw the locals watching a cock fight on the beach. Here, they strap a small knife to the leg of each chicken. Then, they chant and play music (drums and bells) to get the chickens aggravated enough to fight. Luckily, I didn’t see much of the fight – only enough to see which chicken did not win. I do not want to see that again. Much like the bull fighting I saw in Barcelona, it is way too violent and cruel. However, in Bali, it’s more of a religious practice as they sacrifice the chickens in the name of one of their Gods.

Along the way, we also saw a much more positive ceremony taking place on the beach in honor of the first full moon in the new Balinese year. Here, every family celebrates the anniversary of their family temple (all families have a temple in/near their home). They also celebrate full moons, the anniversary of community temples and the new year with ceremonies. Additionally, families celebrate birth, marriage, death and birthdays together with the whole community/village. I think their ceremonies are such a beautiful expression of gratitude to their Gods. And, they have such a strong sense of community…we should learn from their example!

Michael left on Tuesday, and I checked into Gina’s Homestay near the beach (from $160/night to $9/night…quite a change!). I spend Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday taking care of ‘errands’. It has been nice to have a room to myself for a few nights…haven’t had but one night alone since Mom left Shanghai! Tomorrow, I’ll take a 5 hour ferry to the Gili Islands, near the island of Lombok to the east of Bali. It’s supposed to be even more beautiful than Bali…not sure how that’s going to be possible, but I’m looking forward to finding out for myself!