Bali Classes and Walks

Ryan and Helen took a music class at the hotel. Here they are learning to play a gamelons, a traditional Balinese metallic xylophone. They don't use written music, so learning a long game Simon where you have to repeat long patterns of sounds.

I got to learn how to make batik, which is a method of dying fabric using wax and then dipping the fabric in the dye or painting the dye on. Then the wax is then ironed off the fabric. The batik in Indonesia is supurb. I have a long way to go before I would call my work "okay", but Helen and Jane thought my fabric was "awesome" and worthy to "put outside the bathroom for us to look at while we wait."

 Here is a real Balinese artist working on her batik.

 We got to see how they do weaving in Bali too. We've visited a lot of weaving factories and this one shown here was the best. We saw how they prepare the thread, the different ways they dye the threads, hand weaving and machine weaving.

 Here we are at an Elephant cave - a old shrine.  It is perhaps ancient, but definitely small, hot and stinky.

 We got to take a couple of great hikes through rice fields. Thankfully the Balinese plant coconut trees along the paths in their fields which provide great shade.

 In fact, during our hike we got to see the rice harvesting process. Can you see the cutting, threshing and winnowing all in this picture? It sure makes that 20 minutes to cook rice seem even easier.