What I did on my holidays
Day 6 - 27 April
I just noticed that the timestamps on our photos are out by a day. One for future biographers to puzzle over, no doubt.
We set out a little late, and ended up at a beach on Bali's southern peninsula. This was after some to and fro wherein I said I'd like to go sailing if possible. I was offered jet-skiing or being dragged around on something inflatable. I said jet-skiing would be OK but I wasn't interested in the others.
We ended up at some beach where the latter two options only were available. I pointed out that "water sports" generally involved doing something, e.g. sailing, windsurfing - not holding on to an inflatable sausage while someone else does something. Neither, in my opinion, did sitting on a jet ski while someone else sits behind you and leans over your shoulders to steer constitute "jet skiing". apparently they'd had too many accidents with idiots to hire them out like normal.
I muttered something about Malaysia being way better than Indo, and we left.
The beach was down a long set of steps carved into a cliff, and through a cleft in the rock - very Famous Five - and something of a surf beach, like most seem to be on Bali. Quite nice though, and decent for swimming.
From there we went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana, a "cultural park" noted for having a massive statue of Vishnu - and one of Garuda, though we didn't see that. According to Wikipedia, "Currently, the statue of Vishnu is 23 m high, although the original plan was for a 146 meter gold plated Vishnu riding Garuda on top of an 11 storey entertainment complex." Tasteful.
Sadly we got there too late to have a go on the quad bikes or Segways offered at the park. Both vital elements of Balinese culture.
What we did do was watch a kecak performance. I was keen to do this because a) it's more or less mandatory if you go to Bali and b) it had turned up a lot in my ethnomusicology classes at uni, particularly as an example of hocketting. Well, that and spurious tradition.
CK reckoned it wasn't 'traditional' because it had pantomime elements, but given that kecak was invented by a Dutchman in the 1920s on the basis that the Balinese should be able to make some tourist cash out of their traditional music and dance, I don't know how important tradition is on this one.
Below: kecak, and massive statue of Vishnu.
Day 6 - 27 April
I just noticed that the timestamps on our photos are out by a day. One for future biographers to puzzle over, no doubt.
We set out a little late, and ended up at a beach on Bali's southern peninsula. This was after some to and fro wherein I said I'd like to go sailing if possible. I was offered jet-skiing or being dragged around on something inflatable. I said jet-skiing would be OK but I wasn't interested in the others.
We ended up at some beach where the latter two options only were available. I pointed out that "water sports" generally involved doing something, e.g. sailing, windsurfing - not holding on to an inflatable sausage while someone else does something. Neither, in my opinion, did sitting on a jet ski while someone else sits behind you and leans over your shoulders to steer constitute "jet skiing". apparently they'd had too many accidents with idiots to hire them out like normal.
I muttered something about Malaysia being way better than Indo, and we left.
The beach was down a long set of steps carved into a cliff, and through a cleft in the rock - very Famous Five - and something of a surf beach, like most seem to be on Bali. Quite nice though, and decent for swimming.
From there we went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana, a "cultural park" noted for having a massive statue of Vishnu - and one of Garuda, though we didn't see that. According to Wikipedia, "Currently, the statue of Vishnu is 23 m high, although the original plan was for a 146 meter gold plated Vishnu riding Garuda on top of an 11 storey entertainment complex." Tasteful.
Sadly we got there too late to have a go on the quad bikes or Segways offered at the park. Both vital elements of Balinese culture.
What we did do was watch a kecak performance. I was keen to do this because a) it's more or less mandatory if you go to Bali and b) it had turned up a lot in my ethnomusicology classes at uni, particularly as an example of hocketting. Well, that and spurious tradition.
CK reckoned it wasn't 'traditional' because it had pantomime elements, but given that kecak was invented by a Dutchman in the 1920s on the basis that the Balinese should be able to make some tourist cash out of their traditional music and dance, I don't know how important tradition is on this one.
Below: kecak, and massive statue of Vishnu.
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