February 23rd, 2010 | 
Author: Sacred Waterworks – Bali Indonesia
Worldfamous Bali is celebrated for the artistry of its people as well as for its cultural intensity spectacularly sculpted scenery and welldeveloped infrastructure. It is arguably southeast Asias most stylish destination with some of the most understatedly opulent resorts in the world vying to outdo each other in the fine lines of their architecture and the often exquisite taste of their fittings and furnishings. These designer resorts usually perfectly complement their often stunningly beautiful settings either baking on white sandy beaches nestling on terraced hills or perching atop seacliffs.
5star resorts the world over are often beautifully designed but on Bali the 5star vacation experience is different. Here it is not necessary to insulate yourself in luxury establishments in order to avoid the outside world as is unfortunately necessary in the capital Jakarta. The beauty of Balis rice terraces can not be adequately described in words or art and must like those in the Philippines Banaue be seen with the eyes. These landscapes sculpted by human hands sometimes feel too manmade to be real and almost like journeys inside a painting in which a careful artist has skilfully enhanced the bounties bequeathed by nature to maximum effect and optimal proportion. The serried rice terraces compete for the eyes attention with burbling irrigation canals and with the jungleshrouded rivers which sometimes form a convenient pathway for Balinese women to sway gracefully beneath improbably precarious loads perched on the top of their heads. In a society where art is regarded as so fundamental a part of a persons life that the local language does not have a word for it the entertainment is also stylish. Balinese dance is justifiably worldfamous for its subtle sign language and beautiful costumes but not so wellknown are the comingofage dances in which one teenage girl at a time dances surrounded by a circle of up to a hundred boys. After she taps a boy with her fan he dances with her but in a very different style to hers. Whilst she is attempting to maintain grace and elegance his sole objective is to squeeze her bum. It sounds uncouth but is just hilarious as she vigorously defends herself often by jabbing her fan to painful effect into the most sensitive parts of the boys anatomies.
In a deeply religious Hindu society everybody pays great attention to the ceremonies that mark lifes major events with funerals in particular being very grandiose events full of colour and excitement: a Balineses last journey takes so long to organise that bodies must be temporarily buried while the myriad arrangements are made.
All Balinese bear one of only four given names Made Nyoman and Ketut. A familys first child is always christened Putu/Wayan with the second known as Made the third as Nyoman and the fourth as Ketut. From the fifth child on the naming cycle starts afresh with any fifth child that makes an appearance known as Putu/Wayan.
The latest threat to the lovely riceterraces after the solution of the pest problems caused by the Asian Development Banks Green Revolution project comes from an unlikely quarter: prosperity. Balinese farmers especially young ones are leaving the land in droves for betterpaid and physically less demanding jobs as caddies and waiters. It is hoped that some of the huge numbers of tourist dollars flowing into Bali can be spent subsidising rice farming in order to preserve this unique landscape and its aquatic traditions. The best time to see the rice paddies is during the hour before dawn the hour the Balinese call the silk time. But even for the chance to experience heaven that is a little too early for most visitors who prefer the twilight hours.
The night was balmy and after supper the moon rose yellow and huge. After a short walk along a treelined lane we came to a gap in the trees. Water chattered and laughed in the gullies all around us and spread out before us was a blue moonlit valley. The terraced paddy fields hugging the contours of the hills were filled with still water drained of colour by the night. Each patch of black water reflected its own little moon. A breeze crinkled the satinlike surface and scattered the golden moonbeams. Then the breeze died the gold reassembled and the moons settled back into their pools. Frogs croaked. Water gushed. Briefly we mourned the loss of all those moons until our eyes adjusted to the dark and the banks of the terraces came alive with more light. Sparkling sequins of white light flashed around as our minds reeled in the attempt to take in such beauty. Whether the moons or the fireflies were the most beautiful is impossible to say as both art and words are inadequate to the task of framing such serenity. If heaven exists then maybe it looks a little like Bali.
Water is sacred in Bali. Everywhere you go you hear it bubble and gurgle and giggle and splash. The ancient irrigation system consists of a network of gullies and channels dykes and runnels that carry the precious fluid from the river and through the sinuous ricepaddied terraces. Water is so vital to rice and so to life that in Bali the temples control its flow. The priests are the experts in how the waterways work. They know where each channel runs and when each sluice needs opening and its their duty to ensure that every terrace gets filled and that every farmer gets an adequate flow.
Every day in the late afternoon all over Bali youll see villagers in their sarongs sauntering down to the rivers to bathe. The women gather in one place dipping and laughing shampooing their long black tresses. The men gather in another splashing each other and playing with their children. They want to give us taps I heard one man exclaim they say it will make life easier. But we dont want water from taps. It contains chemicals. We have this beautiful river how can anybody improve on this?
Tirtaganga is a special place where in bygone days Balinese Kings built a great Water Palace. The kings are long gone but there is enough grandeur left to enable you to imagine attendants in vivid sarongs laying gold cloth on gleaming stone steps to aggrandize the journey of the king and his courtiers to the three jadecoloured swimming pools. These days the steps are mossy and the spirit statuary is mottled with lichen. Instead of gilded princesses rice farmers wallow and chat while their wives offer flowerfilled palmleaf baskets to the Gods.
It is unsurprising that Balinese love their island but it might surprise some readers to know of the lengths to which these gentle people have in the past gone to defend it. In the 1840s the Dutch established a presence by playing various distrustful Balinese realms against each other before mounting largescale naval and ground assaults first against the Sanur region and then against Denpasar. The Balinese were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned but rather than face the loss of their island 4000 of them marched to their deaths in a suicide attack on the invaders. Afterwards the Dutch governors were able to exercise little control over the island and the religion and culture remained intact.
When Japan occupied Bali during World War II a Balinese military officer Gusti Ngurah Rai formed a Balinese army of freedom fighters. When the Dutch returned to Bali to reinstate their prewar colonial administration they were opposed by the Balinese rebels. On 20 November 1946 the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai 29 years old rallied his depleted and nearly beaten forces in east Bali at Marga Rana where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.
The welldeveloped infrastructure for leisure activities including golf sailing diving dancing and partying complements the islands idyllic landscape and turns Bali into for many holidaymakers the best destination in southeast Asia if not the world.
If dancing is your way of reviving your energy and spirits after an aeon behind a desk then you will be pleased to hear that Bali has the clubs you need. Try the 15000 watt Double Six where DJs from across the world play eclectic and variable mixes that have only one thing in common: the ability to make you want to shake your bits till dawn. If you get bored of getting on down to the music then get on down in a more extreme way courtesy of the clubs bungee jump. KUDOS the hippest place on the island prides itself on a computerized colour mixer that synchronises the music with prearranged lighting sequences of the bar and interiors.
If visiting Thailand why not visit one of the countrys currently best three beach destinations:
Koh Lao Liang: http://www.andamanadventures.com/kohlaoliang.shtml
Ao Nang: http://www.andamanadventures.com/ao_nang.shtml
Railay/Tonsai: http://www.andamanadventures.com/railaytonsai.shtml
About the writer: The author runs Andaman Sky Co. Ltd specialising in climbing and diving trips to Thailands best beach destinations.
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