Bali : Non-diving visits Part 1

I spent quite a bit of time trying to fit in things to do after our dives during the day much to the chagrin of the boy. One of the things that I had definitely wanted to see was the famous local performance - the Legong Dance.

It was quite hard trying to find one online but our hotel's tourist desk were really good - they had a whole list of shows with places and times all in a piece of paper so we only had to pick and choose which ones we want to go to. I settled for the Legong Dance in Ubud.

Entrance of Ubud Palace

Our show was presented by Sadha Budaya Troupe and tickets were Rp 80,000 each. It had a total of 7 performances plus 2 instrumental shows.

Waiting patiently for the show to start

And the show begins!

The first performance was the Gabor dance, otherwise known as the Welcome dance. "Panyembrahma is the presentation of an offering in the form of a ritual dance. The dance symbolizes the joyful reception of the Gods who attend a temple festival". The dance is mainly performed by young girls which usually ends with them throwing flowers to the guests and praying gestures as a welcome and blessing.

Welcome dance

The second dance is the one that I enjoy the most!

Baris/Warrior Dance

The Baris dance is a traditional dance where they glorify the manhood of the Balinese warrior. It is named baris which means line, to represent the lines of soldiers in war and was also the name of warriors who fought for the King of Bali. It may be performed by either a boy or a girl.

What fascinated (and also freaked me out :P) me the most was the eye movements the guy/girl was able to make. His pupils and iris literally dances! It was quite scary in the beginning but after a while, it catches your eye and attention so much that it became the main highlight in the show - for me anyway. You really have to see one to understand what I mean. (But only from a good one - coz one other that we saw, the guy was no where as good).

The next dance was the Legong Kraton Dance which is a classical piece used to entertain the king and is performed by young girls in colourful costumes. In our performance, the story tells of King Lasem which was an arrogant king who desired the unwilling Princess Langke Sari.

Legong Kraton Dance

The rest of the show were a little bit of a blur... but I still have a few pictures :D

The Bumblebee dance

Just before the Bumblebee dance was the Taruna Jaya Dance which was just so-so, hence no pictures. The Bumblebee dance is also known as Oleg Tambulilingan which tells a traditional Balinese love story.

The courtship of he-bee and she-bee

The last dance was quite amusing - Topeng Tua Mask Dance. Topeng Tua is an old man who has rather rough and brutish matter but was all funny anyway. A little scary to begin with as he was trying to be serious but cracked funny postures/movements towards the end.

Closer look at the man or rather - the mask

After the show, we moved to have dinner at a close by restaurant recommended by our driver. Unfortunately, the food was only mediocre so I wouldn't really recommend the place but it did have a pretty colourful souvenir store which kept me entertained.

Coloursss....

On the other hand, I would highly recommend where we had babi guling! It was absolutely awesome! Not that I had much elsewhere, I only had it at one other place than this. But SY did have babi guling on his last visit and he too, finds this one awesome!!!

The awesome meal

Man, this shop should really give me free meals for the advertisement I providing.

2nd time :D

On a random note, we also decided to try out some massage/spas in Bali and had our driver recommend us one in Kuta. He took us to Ratu Bali (I think), which is on the higher end of the scale. It didn't look modern and in fact, I was worried that it looked a little dodgy.

Ratu Bali Spa

Massive place

It was actually pretty good and the massage too. And the place is massive! I would recommend it to people except that it was actually pretty pricey and it may require bookings for weekends or during the day despite it being huge as it is apparently really popular.

Happy Holidaysssss

A month ago I was feeling depressed about not knowing when I'll be going away again.
And this week, I'm over the moon!
I'm going away in Feb, March AND April! Not to an exotic land or fascinating cultures, but to a warm and loving environment - HOME! :)

Feb's a pleasant surprise thanks to you.
March's a friend's wedding
April's just part of my annual leave.

No visiting foreign lands but I'm just as happy, if not happier! :)
And another 2 or 3 weeks in Oct/Nov - maybe a getaway then
But for now - Yippie!! *does a happy dance*

Bali Diving

There isn't that much to say about Bali Diving - It was good and fun eventhough we didn't get to see any mola-molas or manta rays. That was disappointing but oh well, what could we do? We still had a fantastic four days diving in the East and Scuba Seraya is the best in my opinion, eventhough it was 3-4 hours away. We booked in to dive with Bali International Diving Professionals in Sanur.

Our pick up

BIDP

So this post is mainly just pictures and pictures and more pictures. The boy has a much better camera than me - so the different standards in pictures. But he got me the newer version of his recently, so next time maybe my pictures will be just as good!! :)

My first clear look of an octopus :D
*a little overexposed picture*

Banded snake
*My first encounter and frankly, it kinda freaked me out*

His signature shot :)

@ Manta Point
*or Batu Belumbong (I think) if you don't see any Mantas.. :P*

Fire Goby

Giant Puffy

Christmas came early..

I love this shot

And now for some of Scuba Seraya!

We only had 3 dives there I think, but it was all fabulous! I love searching and pleasantly surprised by what I find at the bottom. The hide and seek games with the marines life that attempts to camouflage. It's so rewarding. Eventhough I almost died there. Okay, maybe not die - but perhaps on the way to a pneumothorax.

I was happily diving along with the rest, staying at the back as I was taking some pictures. The dive master, I suppose, was pretty happy with our skills and hence was happy to sort of let us go at our own pace without hovering over us. But at one point, my weight belt fell off and I was starting to float to the surface (we were probably at about 15-20m?). I was kicking so furiously to get to SY and luckily he turned back to look for me (probably his every 2-3 minute check on me) and saw me in distress. Looking back, as we couldn't reach for my weight belt he handed me a piece of rock. It's quite funny now, but at that time, I honestly thought this might be the end of my diving adventures (As people with history of penumothoraces are not recommended to continue diving). And so we were, trying to stay at the bottom and trying to replace my weight belt after. Lucky for me again, the divemaster turned back this time and quickly came to help me. I was so relieved when I saw him!!

And well after that, we just continued our dives as usual. LOL. Typical!

Shrimps galore

Jacks

Swimming with the Jacks

Peek-a-boo

The colours are always brilliant on his camera!

And we spent the last day of our dive in East Bali trying to spot for mola mola (although I knew it was impossible to sight them at that temperature) and perhaps for some manta. But to my dismay, neither of the two. Sigh... Will have to come back in the future!

Nurse shark

2011

It's the New Year! Hopefully it'll be a much better year as 2010 hasn't exactly been kindest to me. It wasn't bad, just wasn't my greatest. But that should mean that things should only improve! :)

Haven't got any leaves approved for this year yet and it's starting to feel a little depressing. I haven't travelled that much for 2010 and I can foresee that it'll be even less for 2011. *sigh*

I need a holiday STAT!

*or at least know when will my next one be*