Street Life in Ubud : Kuningan morning

How more beautiful can you be?

EEEEEEEK!    No Helmet!

Street life in Ubud is very alive and filled with the diversity of the ever present motor scooter, car, bicycle and pedestrian.  Very SE Asian.  There are no lights or stop signs. And when you go out of town and there is a traffic light; they just go right through it!  This is all contrasted by the humanity sitting around on the sidewalks, taking it easy, or the ever present shopkeeper sitting with the wares or the ever- haranguing 
taxi/scooter taxi men asking for "transport?"  "Later" "Tomorrow"  "where you going"  all very politely, but insistently. It's Mayhem!  But at least is is Pleasant Mayhem.
I just want to throw out there an anecdote, my own observation.

she makes offerings in my "neighborhood"

outside Ina Inn, I've watched it "grow"

Jalan Raya- main road in Ubud

outside Ina Inn

offering on main road; rice and food is for the animals

offering on bike for protection (and they need it!)

Jalan Kajeng- Kulingan morning

hangin' out on Kulingan morning

95% of the Balinese people smile with me and meet my gaze as I walk along the streets.  Greeting me with the appropriate saying (for the time of day).

30% of foreigners  smile or greet or have an exchange with their eyes.

Draw your own conclusion.
Mine is sadness.  But I hope to learn from this culture  that there is another way to be.

offerings in the mouth of the naga, Kuningan morning

Jalan Kajeng- penjors

outside Roda home and temple

Jean, Bill, Pung and Susan at Roda home

Roda family member who blessed me

Yes they do a lot of texting here in Ubud!

   

I will relay a story though.  I was having a capuccino at Casa Luna, during a typical monsoon deluge, and studying my Indonesian for class.  In walked a man I knew casually (gay) ; a long time ex-pat from Australia, former teacher who was living an openly gay life here with his Balinese young lover.  He came over to introduce the man to me and kissed me on both cheeks. Since then, one of the male relatives of the woman who owns Casa Luna, has begun to ignore me.   So even in this open culture, there is still ignorance and ill tolerance.  They feel that if you are gay ; you have "bad" karma! This saddens me too.  Pregnant girls without husbands can be spurned.  The child then doesn't have a family (the female traditionally lives with her husband's family.)  Anything that threatens the family unit is spurned or purged.  Their culture depends on  the family compound and the strength that come with this.  There is always a "shadow" side: one cannot experience any light without it's opposite, and reflector, darkness