Bali - Island of the Gods

October 30, 2011
Hi there folks and happy end of October....what a crazy month this has been, especially this past week....first there was the international food festival (what an array of amazing dishes from around the world provided by members of our school community), then we had parent-teacher conferences (they went fine), UN Day (one of my favorites of the year - will send along pics in the next update so you know what i mean),  my shipment from croatia arrived (WOOT!!! and only one thing broke just a little bit, but its already fixed) and last night was a halloween party with work folks and others at a fun bar close by my place.....and that's only this past week....the up-coming week looks to be just as busy......


yes, it is definitely a change from croatia....there never seems to be enough time to do everything i want to...like today was a beautiful day, but i needed to grade....i would have much rather been out wandering the streets of shanghai....maybe next weekend.....keep your fingers crossed....but what i really wanted to accomplish this weekend was writing this update about bali.....wowowowowowow... what a place.....nicknamed the island of the gods.....and hopefully the attached pictures will do it some justice....i had no idea bali was so big and had so many different things to see....i thought you went there to hang by the pool or on the beach....which i did, but i also got an amazing tour from a friend of friends....the guy is balinese and amazing.....anyway....let's go to the tape (okay, really the pictures)....enjoy :)

the shot below is what i entered when i went into my room upon arrival...how cool were those mosquito nets....and they worked...no bites....the room was huge and the bathroom was even bigger...way too much for one...but i enjoyed the space...i had my own bungalow....
 

as i stepped out of my bungalow, this is what i saw....a plunge pool....this was not the main pool, just one i could jump in and out of...and that little bungalow thingy is for getting massages by the pool...pretty swank....the place was owned and run by balinese....they shared a beachfront with a resort next door and served tasty breakfasts that were included with the room...plus they were just off the main street in sanur....one the small towns not too over crowded with tourists.....

i also had no idea how religious bali is....the main belief is hinduism....90% of the population....which is quite strange for indonesia....most of which is muslim....on bali 5% of people are muslim and 5% are buddhist.....so hinduism is everywhere and VERY present in every day life....these are the offerings to the gods you will find in front of every house and business.....they are put out at the beginning of the day to help ensure a safe and protected day.....and at the end of the day they are thrown away....things you will see in the offerings - flowers, food, money, tobacco....all in a palm leaf holder.....very cool....
 

as i wandering the town of sanur i came across one of the community temples (pura - this what a temple is called)...as i learned from my guide gusti - every house must have three shrines, every community must have at least three main shrines/temples and then there are the most important temples where everyone is required to go twice a year on a specific day to them...anyway, i came across one of the community temples in sanur and the doors were open and no one was there....so i went in....the top most portion was really cool....as you can see from the carving below, these are where the shrines to gods are located and on those shrines are these type of stone carvings...not really sure why look like this, but i really liked them....they're on every corner of the shrine and up and down it as well....when they are carved....
 

This was one of the guys guarding the entrance to where the main shrine was....he is a protector and you can see they have an offering to him as well...notice the relly big knife...you definitely would not want to mess with this guy....
 

And along the street was this shrine to ganesha, the elephant god....you can see a local woman putting out her offering for the day and it's in the middle of the street....they put the offerings out there three times a day....bali is one of those places where they drive on the left side of the road....so you always have to watch when you cross the street....the cars are fine, but the amount of motor scooters is INSANE....almost as bad as shanghai....
 

this was the beach at sanur and these are the main fishing/snorkeling/tourist boats run by locals...i love that they look like spiders on the beach...albeit very colorful spiders....they have a sail and seem to balance quite well on the water...they are a type of sampan....
 

this boat caught my eye as it was peaking around the tree i was walking next to...i love the way it looks like it is smiling....the balinese seem to be pretty happy and laid back people....their island had a huge set back with the bombings there nine years ago...but they have rebounded and gusti told me that the revenue was almost back to the same amount it was before the bombing....the week after i was there was the ninth year anniversary of the bombing....security was beefed up many places because of that....

along the beach was this boat...i wasn't sure if they meant to be beached and were waiting for the tide to come in and take them out and i never made it back to the beach to see if they were gone...but i thought this was a cool shot of this beached boat and the clouds behind it....the weather was very warm while i was there - shorts and tshirts every day, plus flip flops....but it did rain a bit....i guess it was just starting to be the rainy season....i did see the sun....and made sure to be outside then....
 

the next shot is from one of the main large temples in the center section of bali - Taman Ayun Temple in the town of Mengwi....all large balinese temples have these amazing gates to enter them...all hand carved...if you are not a worshipper, you are not allowed in....but they do allow you to walk around the outside and observe and take pictures....the grandiose-ness of the doors reminded me a lot of the carvings on the temples of angkor wat in cambodia...just incredible and so much amazing work!!!!
 

the roofs you see are called merus and they always have to be an odd number...the more roofs a shrine has within the temple, the more important it is...i think the maximum was 11 roofs....very cool and they are soooooooo thick with woven fiber...plus you can see many more carvings on these shrines...and an offering for the day on the outside wall, which is what we were walking along...

from the temple we were off to have very special balinese coffee....can you guess what it comes from??? i bet you can't (unless you have been there of course)...in the picture below is a woman who is 87 (yes i asked) and she has been roasting coffee ever since this style of coffee became famous...it is called kopi luwak and is produced from an animal....yep....an animal - a relative of the mongoose....actually the animal eats the coffee beans and then excretes them out...undigested, but cleaned of the unwanted "shell" of the bean....these beans are picked from the droppings and then are roasted....yes, you really are reading this correctly...this prized coffee comes from the droppings of a civet cat....crazy....it was not my favorite coffee of the bunch they served me....but of course i had to drink it because its a great story and one of those things you have to try....just once....

so this is me....having the coffee...it just cracked me up where it came from and that this is considered prized coffee....great for the tourists and definitely worth a joke or too....especially for middle school science teachers...they really did have some great lemon tea and balinese coffee...not from a mongoose like animal and its droppings...

i had no idea bali was such a big island or had so many different regions....plus it has volcano...who knew...not me...in the center of the island the main food produced is rice...there were tons and tons of rice paddies...and they were beautiful and went on for miles....i guess they grow two main kinds of rice....jasmine and balinese....the balinese rice is brown...i never did see how it was different, but it was the wrong growing season for it....here you see some of the beautiful terraces of the rice
 

after visiting the rice paddies we were off to another temple...this one is called the ulun danu bratan temple and is located on bratan lake...so water surrounds the edge of this one....they had just had a festival the previous week and these were the faded and withering flower pieces that were made for the temple as an offering....this is another large community pura (temple)....and every one in the community has two specific days they must go and pray and give thanks....
 

on our way away from this temple we went through an area where you can feed monkeys....i didn't feed them but we did stop by and say hi...i loved this one with his mohawk...they came right up and asked for food...in monkey language of course, and i had to let them know i didn't buy them any....they got bored and went off to ask another tourist for something....they were cute...in a monkey kind of way :)

after leaving the monkeys we walked down to a nice waterfall....paved all the way with stalls where you could buy stuff...not a very brisk business was going because i guess tourist season really starts in earnest in november....lots of aussies go to bali for their holidays...as you can see there was a temple at the waterfall....i love all of the white and yellow of the temples...they are the purity and luck colors for bali....
 

and then i got really lucky....as we were driving to hot springs we went past a funeral procession...i did not see the body and that could mean it had already been cremated or had already been buried to wait for when cremations were done for free...that happens on the island every five years....having a funeral pyre is very expensive and some families cannot afford it....so they bury their family members until the "free burning" month comes...i know that sounds weird....but for hindus, the body must be cremated so they can be reincarnated, if necessary....i love that the women in the picture below, are carrying everything on their heads....and all of them can do this effectively (reminded me a bit of ghana!)....and don't you love all of the colors....so amazing....
 

the picture below is of my favorite temple....tanah lot....it is located right on the water and can only be entered when the tide is low enough....it is one of the seven sea temples of bali....and crazily there is a fresh water spring coming out of the bottom of this temple....i visited it and gave a donation and because of that they gave me a prayer and some rice on my forehead....they feel the gods and goddesses are in everything, and rice is their main staple and gods are definitely found in rice....this temple, as well as the other sea temples, is where ashes of people who have been cremated are thrown into the ocean...watching the processions to this temple from all over the island were amazing...we were hoping to be there at sun set, but the day we saved for that was rainy....so when i go back i want to see this amazing temple at sunset along the beach....

this is gusti at the sea temple....this is after we went to the freshwater spring at the base of the temple, hence why he has rice on his forehead....such a nice guy and what a tour guide...he knows all of the best places....we had some amazing meals and saw some amazing things.....rockstar gusti!!!!
 

of course i had to end with my traditional shot.... me with bintang...the local beer....this is when gusti and i went out for traditional balinese food...lots of seafood and rather spicy...it rocked...
 

so there you have the island of the gods...i was definitely there for too short of a time and i really hope i get to go back....i had such a blast and there is still so much to see...the volcano, the artisan town of ubud, the elephant sanctuary, the west coast temples and the main beautiful white and black sand beaches....so much to do, so little time....hopefully you enjoyed this little explanation of this amazing island and all of its rich traditions....and again...another place you should think about visiting because it is incredible.....


okay....i hope you enjoyed this update...i certainly enjoyed this trip, if you couldn't tell.....the next trip i am taking is to japan with the watts for xmas...my third xmas with them...we are going to osaka and kyoto together and then i am headed to tokyo to see our mutual friend randy....i will be there for new years.....so exciting...i hope all of you are well and happy....i hope those of you on the east coast of the states who got the freak storm are okay and dealing with the insane weather....it has gotten chilly here, but is still really rather nice...although i have been told the weather should become frigid soon...but then again, what's cold after antarctica....lots of folks says it gets cold here....we'll see....

get in touch if you have any questions or want to make comments....
thanks for reading....happy halloween and all soul's day.....
have a fab day :)
dani 

China #2 - Wandering the streets & tastes of Shanghai

October 2nd, 2011 - Happy Day After China's 62nd National Day!!!!!

Hi there folks...sorry it has been a while....but the beginning of this school year has been super crazy....i am not sure if i ever will feel in the groove here...the technology just keeps working against me....but the kids are great and we have been having fun playing in the lab.....i am just about to head out to bali, indonesia for my october break and when i return 8th graders and i will be embarking on a exploration in chemistry and 6th graders and i will be playing with things that fly....should be fun....

life here in shanghai is going quite well...i have started taking mandarin lessons, we have them twice a week....should be interesting...just from one lesson i can tell the hard selling chinese folks i am just looking and am not really interested in buying something (bu yao or kankan)....a great thing to know for the markets.....in the past few weeks i have wandered down along the Bund, had some amazing dishes from lots of different types of foods, danced the night away to a band composed of fellow teachers, taken a bamboo raft down a river & had a massive water fight the whole way, celebrated the moon festival, celebrated my birthday and yesterday was China's national day - 62nd year of celebration....which means fireworks were everywhere and all of the chinese people who normally live in this town have left to go to hometowns, and all of the chinese people that don't live here are here as tourists....its really mellow out where i live...but pretty busy in the downtown area, museums and tourist attractions....hence why i am getting out of town....so to bali i go....woot!!!

this round of pictures has some of the shots i took from some of the adventures i have been on since you last read....and i have more coming.....on with the pictures....the first one below is from my walk along the bund....the bund is the main waterway through town and it separates puxi (pronounced pushheeeeee) from pudong (sounds like its spelled)....i live on the puxi side....one day i hopped the metro and went to visit the bund and take some pictures and i was so lucky because it was rather clear that day....not much pollution, as you can see from the shots....i love this first shot, because it is taken through the monument to People's Heroes and is focused on the pearl tv tower...one of the most recognizable buildings here in shanghai....last time i was in china i was up in that tower and i will get there one of these days again....  

this next shot is of the pudong side of the bund....so you get to see many of the sky scrapers here in shanghai...but that's only on one side of the river...there are plenty from the side i am taking the shot from....also, behind me on the puxi side are the very art deco buildings...so one day i will get over to the pudong side and take a shot toward puxi so you can see the craziness of the combination of buildings...and then there's the french concession....but that will take an entire update to show photos from that section...old villas, ivy covered and mansion-like....its way cool....
 

along the bund are monuments to everything that is china....and of course chairman mao is there...and here he is with the pearl tower behind him....i wonder what he would say about this building and everything that has come about in china since that day 62 years ago when he declared china its own republic for the people.....i just wonder.....

from the bund i wandered up nanjing road...which is a crazy busy shopping street...and i was there at 5pm on a saturday....it was packed out with tourists and chinese folks....had to push may way through for part of the time....but this shot below can give you an idea of what it looks like....anything and everything you could want...and two enormous malls to boot....just insane...i do like this shot because the lights were all just starting to come on....
 

and here is another one of the many buildings of shanghai....i think i could take a picture of everyone of them and never be able to post all of the pictures i would take...the architecture here is simply incredible and one day i will get to walk around and take them all...i hope....and we have a building down the street that has been being built since we got here, and i can't believe how fast it is going up....they have added so many floors in the 2 months i have been here...its now about 56 floors high....crazy!!!! however, if you heard about the line 10 metro crash this week....things that happen fast (like the building of the metro lines) are starting to be questioned quietly....and not many folks were on the metro this week after wednesday....makes a girl wonder....but i do like the building in the shot below

on the walk i took i finally made it to my favorite building in the entire city....the marriott downtown...and as luck would have it it was way close to 1st quarter of the moon and all was visible for this shot...LOVE IT!!!!  i love the pyramid + the sphere of this building....
 

as promised last time, i said i would send some funny shots....so here i am out with some of my favorite people, in one of my favorite restaurants....an italian place, run by a japanese family....and yes...it rocks and i am eating my penne pasta with chopsticks....they have forks for those who cannot use them, as chopsticks are not used in japan...and many japanese go to this restaurant....but i aim for using the chopsticks whenever given the chance....mangia!!!!!
 

i thought you also might want to see one of my favorite breakfast foods here in shangahi...its a dai bin...i think :)  its a crepe, made on a very hot pan, filled with potato chunks, cilantro, spicy sauce, a type of black bean sauce, an egg scrambled & blended in and this crunchy thing, fried bread sort of....this is the lady who makes me these twice a week....yummy!!!!
 

these are the ingredients that get mixed and and blended with the crepe....at the bottom of the shot you can see the money box....these cost 3 kwai = 50 cents....not bad for a breakfast that fills you up until lunch....if you look closely at the money, there you can see chairman mao again....he isn't everywhere, but yet, he is.....

for the funny sign this update, i promised to show you the saying on my favorite brand of cashews....and here you go....they tease you and capitrate you....whatever that means....they sure capitrated me....i love them :)
 

the shot below is the name of the street where i live and where the school is...it is a major street in puxi leading out of the city....hongqiao - pronounced hong chow....in mandarin it is looking like i will only be speaking this language...i am finding i do not recognize any characters....except for the numbers one, two and three...one horizontal line, 2 horizontal lines and three horizontal lines...but maybe you can figure it out....

another funny shot comes from a stop in the pearl market...where you can find anything for sale...even a lighter that is a huge match and a huge cigarette that is a lighter too...di was making her mom face about me not smoking....love it! but no...i did not buy it....you can see the bugs in plastic behind me...they literally sell everything....even "real looking" NFL football jerseys...might have to pick one of those up though, as they are super cheap...but of course they aren't real-real....
 

the first weekend in september was the moon festival...and in honor of that moon cakes were everywhere....now you can get these filled with sweet or savory things....and some people swear that the meat ones are the best....i say the ice cream ones from haagen daaz are the best, but i didn't have any of the meat ones....i did have this one though, filled with red bean paste....not my favorite...but i felt i needed to try a traditional one to say i had done it...no more in the future though...i put it on my living room table top, just because i have some really cool furniture and this is a way you can see it :)

this is the obama club...i haven't been inside...but i thought it would be cool for you to see this....that's his name in chinese....its a bit too much for me...and i am not sure if it's even open, as i have only gone past it on the way to a breakfast place we go to often...because they have the "big american" breakfast and unlimited coffee....today when i was there i got blueberry pancakes...yummy...the big american has way too much meat and food overall for me...but it is a good breakfast spot none-the-less....
 

the last shot is of me in a convenience store again....this time for your viewing pleasure i have some chicken feet in my possession....yummy....the ones i am holding are barbequed, but the ones to the left of me are plain....i am not sure how one chooses which one they want....eat them up...yum!!!!
 

and there you have it....update #2 from shanghai....yes, i am still really having fun exploring this place...but i am also very glad i am getting out of here tomorrow....i need some time away with a massage or two thrown in...i am hoping to get to the monkey temple and maybe see a celebration or dance of some type....but mostly i am excited to relax...it has been a crazy seven weeks of school and i know things will be better for me when rested and relaxed....it will be good for my kids too...

so happy national day (china style) and fall for everyone too, as we have now had the autumnal equinox....i am on my way tomorrow and i hope you are each happy and healthy....peace out.....