Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving to all

travelin' woman

dear friends and family,
as day breaks for me here.... you are all probably trying to push yourselves away from the groaning table.....
ummmmm pumpkin pie!

Last night signaled the real beginning of "rainy season".
What a Huge Storm.  The rice paddies are all glistening and I am sure the river that bisects Ubud will be rushing.  
I like to go the back way into town because of the
throngs of people ,motorcycles and cars that besiege
the main roads.
Bali is a very small island, but has a huge population
of 4 million.  Ubud is a "city" which means there is center and a collection of towns.  I walk everywhere.
Usually4-8 miles daily.  I live on Jalan Bisma.  A small
lane off the main thoroughfare..... it is so quiet ( i sleep so well in Bali).  I am at Ina's Inn.  It is a "family compound" with the addition of 5 thatched bungalows that face rice paddies.  I chose it because when I visited the family temple was alive and wafting with incense and offerings.  The mother sews and prepares for celebrations each day,every day.  Beautiful bold textiles are laid out, cut and sewn to swathe the many
sculpture of gods that surround all temples.  Hanoman the monkey, Ganesh the elephant and the
borongs (demons) are my favorites.  Flowers, hibiscus and frangipani and many I cannot decipher are in the ears of the gods or just scattered around for decoration. It's very baroque but it all works.  They definitely do not subscribe to the less is more theory...... and for me......... well....... there can never be too many flowers!

A friend and I went to the beach, Candiadasa (pronounced Chan....) the "virgin Beach"  (as Lelong 
dancing details this story).  It was exquisite.  Very isolated, a beautiful cove ....perfect for swimming
gorgeous breezes, turquoise water......... perfection (on the surface)...... but as i dove with my goggles to visit the reef.........the bottom was littered really littered with so much PLASTIC.
We've all heard of the "sea" of garbage/plastic littering a swath of the Pacific Ocean....well folks it is here and so many other places.  Bali is attempting to become
"plastic bag "free.  A very worthy goal...... for us all.
We must acknowledge that we are just dumping on this magnificent planet.  When will we  evolve to a basic level of respect??????? 

well, i will leave you with something a little absurd and uplifting.
Two days ago an ATM machine "ate" my Mastercard.
After locating the bank, and the supervisor coming up from Den Pasar (1.5 hours away)....they kept telling me it was not in the machine.  I had been monitoring my bank account and there were no unauthorized debits so I knew it had to be in the machine.
Finally, we communicated!!!!!! I showed them which slot "ate" it.    40 hours later...... we opened it..... and found the card.  I promptly went out to EAT!!!!!
To further this comedy of errors.  I was to meet some friends for a shadow puppet show at theatre.
It was dark..... and i kept walking and walking and walking.  I could not find the place, nor were there the usual people hawking tickets.  I had to go past the "monkey sanctuary"  (very dark, no lights) twice because i had to back track (Kids..... to not model this behavior)..... it is safe.... but it's totally dark and you never know when a macaque monkey will attack you like a banana!
So, I finally found the venue.  Hardly anyone was there, i was late..... none of my friends were there.
It was SOOOOOOO bad, (the story was changed from traditional to some made up english crap that I HAD TO LEAVE after 25 minutes.)  So abysmal .why why why?  o well..... we all know performances we wished we had not let enter our brains..... I will try again.
The puppetteering was great.   


I am learning Indonesian.  And my work for "Threads for Life" is what I want to do.
More another time.


Sumpta Joompa!
(see you later alligators)
hugs to you all,
phyllis






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