When I am President of the World
every town shall have a pool of beautiful bike riders on hand to rescue the local folk from their inner demons.
Needless to say the day on the back of a powerful machine was heaps of fun, although a tad hot in the heat with a helmet. My guide took me to the most holy of Bali's hindu temples, an amazingly spiritual place. It's the most holy as it has a cave full of bats which apparently are high up the Hindu pecking order. Hinduism is now officially my favourite religion as it has holy women on a par with holy men, and you get to come back, albeit maybe not as a dolphin.
We then headed to the elphant caves where the Balinese hid from the Japanese during their most recent invasion. Followed by more temples, this time with a spring of eternal life which naturally I washed in, then an evening of Balinese jazz which is a lot like ordinary jazz, only louder, less in tune and with a very strong accent I dicovered.
The following day I spent some time mooching round galleries and found a fabulous gallery opened by an English woman to encourage women and girls to paint. They had a whole room of stuff dedicated to the tsunami but unfortunately the pictures were horriffic so I settled for a donation and a drawing by a 13 year old girl instead. I discovered that Education is not free in Indonesia so basically the poor kids frequently fail to get any. The gallery was fabulous, half the money from the sale of the childrens paintings go to the kids family to help pay for school, half to the school to provide art material. Each child is then sponsored by an adult the money from which pays for an art teacher.
It's not unusual to be offered to buy something from children requesting "money for school". Naturally that gets me every time. As do the street kids begging, beautiful children, some as yound as 4 or five, roaming the streets asking for money. I am aware this is probably unethical tourism and to give encourages the adults to use the children to beg so I have recently changed tack and buy ice creams and hamburgers now instead of reaching for my purse.
Life is very hard here. As a tourist it's an eternal playground but as a native it's a bloody tough life trying to earn a days keep.
My friend Nur is lovely, albeit a little clingy having decided he loves me. He is polite about the fact that this is not reciprocated but is beginning a little to resemble a shadow. I am treading very carefully in order to safeguard his feelings and build a genuine freindship but do have to fight for five minutes on my own so may need to have a word in the next few days. That's hard, he's an orphan and seems pretty lonely so I am trying to find ways to create a little space for myself without hurting his feelings.
That's life from here, sorry I've been a slack blogger, internet is Ubud was a non existant concept but as I am now back in Kuta wthat should improve.
Much Love
Julie
Needless to say the day on the back of a powerful machine was heaps of fun, although a tad hot in the heat with a helmet. My guide took me to the most holy of Bali's hindu temples, an amazingly spiritual place. It's the most holy as it has a cave full of bats which apparently are high up the Hindu pecking order. Hinduism is now officially my favourite religion as it has holy women on a par with holy men, and you get to come back, albeit maybe not as a dolphin.
We then headed to the elphant caves where the Balinese hid from the Japanese during their most recent invasion. Followed by more temples, this time with a spring of eternal life which naturally I washed in, then an evening of Balinese jazz which is a lot like ordinary jazz, only louder, less in tune and with a very strong accent I dicovered.
The following day I spent some time mooching round galleries and found a fabulous gallery opened by an English woman to encourage women and girls to paint. They had a whole room of stuff dedicated to the tsunami but unfortunately the pictures were horriffic so I settled for a donation and a drawing by a 13 year old girl instead. I discovered that Education is not free in Indonesia so basically the poor kids frequently fail to get any. The gallery was fabulous, half the money from the sale of the childrens paintings go to the kids family to help pay for school, half to the school to provide art material. Each child is then sponsored by an adult the money from which pays for an art teacher.
It's not unusual to be offered to buy something from children requesting "money for school". Naturally that gets me every time. As do the street kids begging, beautiful children, some as yound as 4 or five, roaming the streets asking for money. I am aware this is probably unethical tourism and to give encourages the adults to use the children to beg so I have recently changed tack and buy ice creams and hamburgers now instead of reaching for my purse.
Life is very hard here. As a tourist it's an eternal playground but as a native it's a bloody tough life trying to earn a days keep.
My friend Nur is lovely, albeit a little clingy having decided he loves me. He is polite about the fact that this is not reciprocated but is beginning a little to resemble a shadow. I am treading very carefully in order to safeguard his feelings and build a genuine freindship but do have to fight for five minutes on my own so may need to have a word in the next few days. That's hard, he's an orphan and seems pretty lonely so I am trying to find ways to create a little space for myself without hurting his feelings.
That's life from here, sorry I've been a slack blogger, internet is Ubud was a non existant concept but as I am now back in Kuta wthat should improve.
Much Love
Julie
posted by The Gypsy @ 8:52 PM
1 Comments:
At 11:43 AM,
Gavvybear said…
Joo you sound like you are having a ball. I laughed so hard at your sarong and bum combos! Take care my darling, keep the blogs coming they are wonderful.
much love, gav x
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