I thought about writing this blog for a long time. Shall I, shan’t I? For reasons I will come to, it is a good idea but for some reason it prevented me from doing it for a time. Anyhow, I will come to that in more detail shortly.
After leaving the delights of the Menjangan Islands and the crystal clear warm waters around the reef, it was back to the challenges once again. The afternoon was still really hot and with some time to relax before another day’s traveling on the morrow, the pool and beach were calling along with a couple of chapters from my accompanying novel. The beach had volcanic sand and didn’t seem as appealing as the traditional yellow and white kind. That was out. The pool was made off limits by the pool cleaning guy who had accidentally added a few zero’s or missed the decimal point when measuring the amount of chlorine to add to the swimming pool. It was one of those moments that I was poised to lead into the cool water when out come a chap shouting and waving his hands saying, “no no, pool not good”. It was surely have wiped off my developing suntan and replaced with a nice all over read and bleached white skin. Mmm, nice!
The next day was time to head off back to the center of the Island and the lush green that I was starting to miss already. This is when my memory of the travel takes a different turn. Casually driving in a van along the main road when a woman on a bike suddenly decides to take a sharp right in front of us…then bang! We ploughed straight into her. I’ve never been in an car accident before and I sincerely hope that I will never again.
To cut out the sobering details the lady was fine, or as fine as you could be when getting hit head on by a minibus. What happened around this was something quite special. Out of nowhere, lots of people appeared all dressed in traditional Balinese dress. I found out later that it was a funeral parade for a local man. Throughout the island we had seen lots of preparation for funerals but never really got to appreciate the spectacle that it is…until today. Check out the video below…
In a nutshell: after death the body is burried for a short period and then exumed for the burial ceremony. A large tower like frame is built out of bamboo for the body to rest in and is then taken through the streets. The large dog like creature is supposed to accompany the body to the afterlife for protection.
It was quite an amazing sight and one which I was so lucky to witness. Despite this, I have to think that if it wasn’t for the accident, I would never have had a chance to see this. Quite a blessing in disguise but I would not have been writing this post if the woman was badly injured. Amazing how things work out sometimes…
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