Who Will Run the Frog Temple?

"Selamat Datang"


 to readers from Kenya, Venezuela and New Caledonia



"Freedom"

sung by Anthony Hamilton and Eleyna Boynton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bdOTUocn5w







Indonesia

KLM are a solid airline. When the aircraft landed at Denpasar airport in Bali they put this over the public address system.

'Happy' by Pharell Williams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_75VGPxUPI

A Dutch guy, in his late middle years started dancing and who was I to leave him alone in this noble endeavour? Pretty cool from KLM and the other passengers seemed to enjoy the spectacle.

*

When I pointed out to the groundsman of the property where we stayed the animal mess on the doormat he said, matter-of-factly,

'Civet cat.'

The false feline probably getting her own back for its domestic cousins being ​​force-fed coffee cherries while incarcerated in a cramped cage on a farm somewhere in appalling conditions. Kopi lewak, the coffee partially processed in a Civet cats gut, can cost up to $100 dollars a cup

The view from the doormat in Pancasari.

And so here we were on a mountain plateau in north central Bali. There were very few non-Balinese in evidence and so you got an excellent view of Balinese life in the markets, the coffee plantations, the temples, allotments and the warungs. Every day Kadek would arrive with burning incense, dried grass and flower petals and bless the entrance to the house, offer prayers to the shrine at the villa. This is a much softer version of Hinduism than the Indian version. Every house in Bali has its own family temple. Each house is its own family compound with shrines and the mini thatched roof temples. Even restaurants and offices were the recipients of the same daily blessings. The day of the Balinese is composed of these interesting minor rituals. 

The Balinese are extremely interesting people. They need to know where you are going, where you have been, what you do, if you are married. They require structure in order that they can feel comfortable about you and your place in the world. If you are a 'rolling stone' they are discomfited.

The last post on Bali's more remote Eastern coast is below.

http://guerillaction.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-volcanoes-above-us.html

These little fellows scrounged by the roadside.

Blogger with fruit bat.

If you like tea with your travel visit GuerillaZ's sister site Singing Bird Tea at:

http://singingbirdsingingbird.blogspot.com/

By Lake Tamblingan

By the roadside

Daft Punk's "Doing It Right" Bird Petersen Remix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNq3XC1s-O0

The villa at Pancasari. 


The moment you close the bedroom door for the night a family of jungle rodents enters and runs around until daybreak.

Conservation Temple Worker and Child

Temple Mountain Chorus frog.

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan: the Frog Temple on Lake Bratan in the volcanic mountain complex at Bedegul.

This part of northern Bali is quiet

Afternoon rains viewed from a cafe beside a coffee plantation



Packing coffee at the plantation

Farming basil in Bedegul.

A student of English helps her family in the fields. 

This nice lady spent time cutting guavas from the trees and giving them to us.

Here is a slow-moving bucolic life - an arcadia rather like that of my childhood where people are simple and extremely kind. Childhood and middle-aged life fuse here in this Indonesian trip.

Finding out who runs the frog temple.

The World is Yours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VUKUTDLv8M

Happy Travelling!