we made it to bali

we were fortunate enough to find an internet place with air conditioning (air con, as the call it here) here in sanur, bali...because it...is...hotter than blazes here. we step outside and in seconds we're sweating. i really enjoyed being in ubud, an inland city, but it seemed to be even hotter there with all of the exhaust from the traffic. here in sanur, a coastal town, we seem to get an ocean breeze. any time we feel beaten down by the heat, we just remember how many times we said in australia "man, i can't wait for warmer weather." ha! :)

in ubud we stayed at a "homestay" run by a lovely couple named aji and ibu--i got connected with them through one of my former UVM instructors (one of the leaders of the trip i took to samoa). we toured around ubud a good deal on our own, but we also had some nice walks around the city with aji, who was able to show us parts of the city that we never would have seen otherwise. one evening we went to a traditional dance performance by the Legong Dancers (aji's father actually used to perform with this group--they have toured all over the world, including the US and parts of Europe). there is a very important cremation ceremony coming up on may 3rd in ubud--three people from the royal family died within a span of about a month and a half i believe--aji explained that in the past two people have died within a short time of each other, but never three and this was significant. the preparation for the ceremony is extensive to say the least--three huge bulls are constructed along with a very ornate tower for each of the deceased (i've included some pictures of these), among other things. because we are going to miss the ceremony, aji took us to see how the construction was progressing. in order to do this we got to visit the royal family's compound, which was very beautiful.

we stayed at aji's place for five days before heading here to sanur. we've decided to head onto lombok earlier than we had originally planned--to cut down on some of the traveling and staying places for only a couple of days at a time, as it takes a good deal of effort to find accomodations in each place and we're feeling ready to just be at one place for a good chunk of time. we'll definitely spend time in senggigi and the gili islands...and we'll see if we feel inspired to check out any other places on the island.

enjoy the photo link!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73117&id=520444603&l=7cb95be075