Places To Visit In Bali (continued)

There are other dance shows in other parts of Bali apart from that I mentioned in my earlier posting. They are performed either in the mornings or in the evenings. A popular show is at the Uluwatu Temple, where there is a high vertical cliff overlooking the open sea with a view that’s breathtaking. Never mind the dance. The view in itself is mesmerizing. However, a visit to the Uluwatu grounds has its own pitfall. I am referring to the monkeys that populate the area. They are very mischievous and daring. If you bring food with you, they will be after the food and if you are not careful they may even snatch your camera, or spectacles etc. I have been warned and have always kept a lookout for them, not only at Uluwatu, but also all other spots I visited that has monkeys as the side-show!!

For the arts, there are many places to see craftsmen at work. We visited a batik factory and saw the production line from the weaving of threads into cloth, the design and transferring of patterns onto the cloth, painting the colours and so on. Some are hand painted while others are block painted. The hand painted ones will of course attract higher premium. Ram was ‘lost’ here picking up piece after piece meant for our daughters and daughter –in-law, our grandchildren and others in the family. I was very worried when she started picking up piece after piece and I began to add on the prices and calculated in my head how much all these will come to. (It was quite mind boggling to convert as one USD is equivalent to about 10,000 IndRuppiah). Finally, as she had bought more than ‘quite a few’ pieces, they gave additional discounts to the standard discounts they normally give, and also deducted the commission they normally give to guides since we came without a guide plus a further reduction on bargaining. Phewww! that was a relief.

Another crafts outlet we visited was the gold and silversmith workshop. They had quite a wide display of the finished product, fine artwork not only for adornment but also for static display in homes. We saw the artisans at work, mostly young girls working on the precious metals, fascinating.

We also stopped at a wood work display outlet and saw the wood craftsmen at work. There was this elderly man, in his seventies I guess, busy working on a piece of wood with a chisel and mallet. It was a long piece of wood and by the looks of it he was converting it into some sort of interlocking patterned lamp stand. He had no template to work with, no pre-markings on the wood to guide him and no design anywhere to refer to. I guess it was coming straight out from the head!! Another much younger craftsman was also busy at work, on a stool leg I was told, and he had markings on the wood to guide him. That’s the difference in working style between the experienced and the one trying to gather experience! We viewed the display they had for sale and were captivated with the intricate designs and carvings, some with minute and detailed carvings, majority of which has Hindu depiction. There were also quite a few display of objects that were quite indiscreet and vulgarized, like a phallus designed door handle, bottle opener or a man and a woman in compromising, copulating position in a garden. We did not buy any of the wood stuff as they were bulky to carry and we do not need more display items for our house. We were just interested to see the artwork. Before we left for Bali Tessa reminded us that things are cheap in Bali but not to get so engrossed and bring container loads of wood-stuff and furniture home!! Tempted, yes we were, especially when they were so cheap, practical we had to be……

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Petaling Jaya