Talk fest

This is just a brief report to say "I'm still here!"  Actually I'm not in my usual "here" (Bali) but far away. On Sunday 25/8/13 I travelled from Bali to Palembang in southern Sumatra with the University debating team and accompanying staff. 

It was a long and tiring day. We left campus at 4:30 am, had a 2hr flight then a 4 hour transit stop in Jakarta, a 1 hr flight then a long delay at the airport. We had just missed a delegates bus to the hosting university and had to wait for the next one. 

I had my photo taken with the traditional dancers and met some of the officials as we waited for the Opening Ceremony to begin. It was a long day with "waiting" being the main activity. We were all exhausted by the time we got to our small hotel at about 10 pm. 

Paul in Bali

At 7th National University Debating Championship

Palembang

Politeknik Negari Sriwijaya

Sumatra Selatan

Indonesia

(Sent from iPhone)

Visiting Ubud Again

The student-free week culminating in the public holidays for "Idul Fitri", the celebratory days marking the end of Ramadan, was a quiet time on campus.  Laurel and I decided to go to Ubud. Vivi, a "Tourism Management" student and enthusiastic member of the campus Camera Club, came with us. 

 

Our first stop was in Jalan Suweta, in the heart of Ubud, beside the Puri Salen Palace.  This street is home to the "Ibu Oka" Warung, famous for Bali's signature dish of Babi Guling (spit roasted spiced suckling pig).  The former location of the warung is now a building site but Ibu Oka is still serving her famous offering about 100 meters further along the road.  We admired the fine inner and outer gateways at a temple which is about 100 metres from Jalan Raya Ubud, facing the rear section of Puri Salen Palace.  Unfortunately I can't recall its name!

 

Paul in fashionable travel garb, Vivi and Laurel in Ubud

Inner and outer gateways of temple, Ubud



Gate guardian, Ubud

From that fine gateway we walked west along the main road which was very crowded, both with cars and pedestrians.  Ubud has a much higher car to motorcycle ratio than other places because of the influx of tourists and day-trippers who usually come by car.  After getting used to seeing roads dominated by motorcycle traffic it was strange to see so many cars and vans.

I always enjoy being at Café Lotus from where I can gaze across the lotus pond to the Pura Taman Saraswati.  The pond is a delight even when the lotus flowers are not in bloom (as on this trip when just one good bloom was evident).  The temple is one of the most recently built significant sacred buildings in Ubud.  The "water temple" in honour of Dewi Saraswati (goddess of wisdom, learning and the arts) was commissioned in the 1950's to celebrate the release of the "cokorda" (or royal head of Ubud) from political detention.
 

The lotus pond in front of the Pura Taman Saraswati, Ubud

 

Dressed in saroongs with correctly tied
knots at Pura Taman Saraswati, Ubud

For  small donation we were supplied with "saroongs" (correctly tied) to comply with the temple's dress code for visitors.  At a pavilion just inside the entrance a group of men were making or repairing and repainting ceremonial masks.  One of the men was the current "cokorda" or head of Ubud's extended royal family, Prince Tjokorda Raka Kerthyasa.  I recognised him from the documentary screened on ABC-TV (Australia) about the royal wedding we witnessed in 2010.

Prince Tjokorda Raka Kerthyasa (head of Ubudbranch of the Royal Family) paints a ceremonial mask.

Inner courtyard of Pura Taman Saraswati. 
Gold statue of Dewi Saraswati, regarded as
goddess of wisdom, learning and the arts. 

On the walk back from the Pura and the Café Lotus we stopped in at "Threads of Life", a gallery and exhibition centre founded to preserve traditional Indonesian weaving and textile crafts.  After driving in a large loop around the outskirts of Ubud, which are much more "traditional" and calmer than central Ubud, we returned to the main street for a delicious but simple lunch at Casa Luna and then went to the nearby Museum Puri Lakisan.  This museum of the fine arts displays examples of all the significant styles of Balinese art, from the very traditional to recent works with an element of modern "pop art" about them.

 

The elaborate front wall and entrances at Museum Puri Lakisan

 




Modern carving capturing traditional style.
This work makes fine use of the wood form.

 


The museum wall and doorways from the inside



A recent painting on display - one of the few not to
 fill the canvas with intertwined themes and figures.

The museum admission price included a coffee and this
sampler plate of 3 types of cake.  They were just delicious!

From the museum we moved on to the recently rebuilt Ubud traditional craft market.  The front section of the old market was being demolished at the time of my last visit (Sept 2012) and new buildings are now in use.  Two buildings with roadway and parking between them have replaced the somewhat shambolic rabbit warren of little alleys which existed for years.  Those may have been chaotic, but they had much more character than the new buildings.  The rear section is largely unaltered.


The two new buildings at the Ubud market

In the evening we joined a "full house" at Pura Taman Sari on Jalan Hanoman to experience the Kecak Dance.  This is probably the most popular dance staged for visitors but it isn't really a traditional Balinese dance.  It was created in the 30's by Walter Spies by joining several existing dance elements to tell a traditional story.  It was a great hit and has remained so.  The Kecak (or "monkey" dance) tells one of the many stories of the eternal struggle between good and evil contained in the epic Ramayana.  The word "kecak" comes from the sound made by the chorus of participants who imitate the sound of the monkeys which are central to the story.

The chorus represents a troupe of monkeys

The monkeys shelter the heroine

The story is complex, but I think that the archer is the "bad
 guy" Meganda who is eventually defeated in a great battle.

A lamp shop on Jalan Hanoman

After the dance performance we walked down Jalan Hanoman (Hanoman is the big white Monkey King, one of the heroes of many of the dances) to our car for the late night drive back to campus.  Some of the "night lights" caught my eye.

One of the many small restaurants in Ubud



"Bebit bengil" - one of the famous restaurants which
serve delicious Balinese style spiced crispy duck.

I hope time permits another visit to Ubud.  Although the town is expanding rapidly and is always bursting with visitors, it's still an attractive, interesting and pleasant place to visit. 

Paul in Bali



 

Mangroves and More

Even though the past week has been very quiet on campus because of the holidays to celebrate the end of Ramadan I've had some busy days away from campus.  On Saturday 3rd August Jaya and Purwi Pramono arrived at 6:30am to take Laurel (my colleague and fellow volunteer) and me to the mangroves area at Benoa Bay.  The early start was necessary to catch the high tide. 

 

Benoa Bay is the large estuary on the south eastern coast of Bali where the land narrows into the neck which connects the main part of Bali to the Bukit Peninsula.  On the western side across this narrow strip of land is the Ngurah Rai International Airport.  The runway starts out in the sea on the west and extends almost across the isthmus.  The main commercial and fishing ports for southern Bali are found in Benoa Bay.

 

Although the hustle and bustle of city, tourist centres, docks and airport is not far away, the mangrove area in the bay was peaceful and relaxing. 

 

Local fishing boats moored in the inlet



Fishing boats, pleasure craft and passenger boats at the small pier

This is Bali - there's a small shrine everywhere

At a small pier we read the displayed material about Pokmaswas, a local marine environment monitoring group before boarding a small boat and setting off along the channels through the mangroves.

 

The mangroves provide a breeding ground for many types of marine life, and above the water the bushes are home to many kinds of birds, including the large white heron.

 

Yes, that's a large white heron

  

Cruising quietly along the channel between mangroves

 

Jaya and Purwi Pramono.  The new bridge and
 tollgate can just be seen in the background.

A section of walkway through the mangroves

We prepare to go below the new bridge across the bay

On the bridge's carriageway even the
light poles have a local Balinese touch

The new bridge carrying a toll road will open soon to link the airport, Sanur Bypass and Nusa Dua areas, thus reducing travel time between those places.  It will also reduce congestion in the Jimbaran area by removing a great deal of through traffic.

Fisherman and bridge with tollgate

Our cruise and walk through the mangrove area was most enjoyable.  This area is a valuable natural resource and environmental safeguard for many animals in this area but its continued life is not guaranteed.  In the backwaters and trapped among the mangrove roots are huge amounts of mainly plastic waste.  The area serves as a kind of "litter trap" for water discharged from some of Bali's rivers which empty into the bay.

 

The "Bali Post" has recently carried several articles about local protests against the misuse of the area and the plans to reclaim an area for use as a luxury tourist and residential development.  There is even legal action by environmental NGOs against the Governor of Bali for permitting development (seen as "exploitation") of this area.

 

On June 23rd, the day after I arrived in Bali, soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo visited the area in his role as a special "Mangrove Ambassador" for the Mangrove Care Forum of Bali (MCFB).  Some information about the MCFB is included below.  The full article is available on Wikipedia (see reference below).

 

Paul in Bali

 

Footnote:

Mangrove Care Forum Bali (MCFB), also known as Forum Peduli Mangrove Bali (FPMB), is formed with the aim to protect, preserve, rehabilitate, replant and educate, as a concerted effort to save the mangroves. Supported by the Artha Graha Peduli Foundation, the team at the Mangrove Care Forum Bali draws from 16 years of experience the foundation has in caring for and operating the Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation Park, located at South Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, within 356,000 hectares of Tropical Rainforest and 21,600 hectares of Marine Nature Reserve.
 

The mangrove forest under the care of The Mangrove Care Forum Bali is located in the Ngurah Rai Grand Forest Park, a 1,373.5 hectare mangrove forest at the Benoa Bay Area in Bali. The mangrove forest suffers from severe pollution and misuse, and debris and rubbish from nearby villages. Deforestation of trees and littering its grounds are a common sight. The focus of the Mangrove Care Forum Bali is to involve the communities surrounding the mangrove and enlist regular help to clean up and create a safe environment for plants and marine life to thrive. A further goal is to prevent further abrasion of coastline and to regrow the affected areas to lush mangrove vegetation.

 

The full article is at:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangrove_Care_Forum_Bali

More Campus Happenings

The campus is still rather quiet.  Most students are still on vacation or undertaking work experience placements.  In general, only the new students and a few who come on campus for administrative matters are around.  It'll be very different at the end of the month when all classes get under way.  I'm kept busy most days with 2 classes (of 100 mins each) of  "Matriculation English" for the new students in the morning.  In the afternoons I prepare lessons and carry out my other role as "conversation coach" by speaking with staff and students in their own surrounds and out of the classroom.

Although it is a quiet time in general, you never quite know what will happen day by day.  As I can't read the notices which appear in the foyer I often get a surprise.  However there were a couple of recent events I did know of in advance.

Last Friday (July 26th) the Blood Donor Service of the Red Cross came to campus to collect blood.  I was unable to donate as I'm still in the "withholding period" after my whole blood donation in Adelaide just days before I left for Bali. 

Notice boards around the campus carried this sign for a week or more

The logo on an Indonesian Red Cross shirt

Throughout the morning there was a steady stream of students waiting to donate, and even a few of staff.

Pak Darma, one of University's 2 Vice Rektors shows
 that it doesn't hurt a bit.  But Pak, where's the needle?

Evan, a 3rd semester student, donates blood in the "mobile clinic"

All donors received a "thankyou" bag containing a few treats.

I mentioned to the Red Cross staff that I was a donor at home and had given more than 100 donations of whole blood or plasma.  Although at home many donors have given many more donations than I have, it seems that "high" numbers are not common here.  They were impressed at my tally and told me that on reaching 100 donations in Indonesia the donor gets a letter and special certificate from the President. 

Technicians and makeup crew wait as a segment is filmed

Yesterday morning (Thursday 1st of August) the small grassed area in front of the University's main administration and teaching building took was crowded.  TV camera crews, chefs, assistants and a small group of onlookers (including me) were crowded around an impromptu "outdoor kitchen".  Bali TV was there to record well know local chefs preparing "signature dishes" based on the 30 "iconic" Indonesian cuisines.  The Mayor of Denpasar (capital of Bali) and party came to participate in a buffet to recognise Undhira's support and promotion of the "Iconic 30" movement.

There's just enough time to touch up the makeup before the cameras roll

Another chef explains the subtleties of this dish

The cameras have stopped, so there's
 time for a joke and a casual pose.

A chef's assistant brings ingredients from the
campus training restaurant to the TV set.

I lost track of the number of chef's who explained and cooked various "iconic" dishes.  I did see the creation of the Ayam Betutu Liku (below).  It smelled delicious but was probably a little too hot for my chilli-sensitive taste buds.  Unfortunately the head and claws were left on the chicken and this somewhat reduced my visual appreciation of the resulting dish.

Ayam Betutu Liku (Balinese spiced chicken)

The "kitchen set" seen from the balcony.

The tray of ingredients (minus the salmon which was still
in the fridge) for the iconic "pepes ikan laut" dish.  Here we
have spiced salmon wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf.

A wonderful book for lovers of Balinese food

The "Pepes Salmon" dish was prepared by a young female chef from "Bumbu Bali" restaurant.  I have this excellent cooking book by the founder of that restaurant, Chef Heinz von Holzen, and have worked through several of the recipes it contains.  I can highly recommend it as both interesting and suitable for novice cooks of Balinese food.

One of 3 framed certificates presented to Undhira recognising
the university's commitment to traditional teaching and
promoting traditional and iconic Indonesian cuisines.

The recorded material will be edited and shown on Bali TV in the Sunday morning local affairs program.  I've already had a "cameo appearance" in one of these and in a news clip, and may squeeze into this show.  Autographs anyone?



Who argues when a man with a big knife says "come
 this way"?   Mr Eko, head chef in Undhira's hospitality
training centre escorts Bu Laurel up the front steps.

Eventually all the chefs had cooked, all the interviews had been recorded and the delicious food had been eaten.  The camerman decided he needed one final scene to complete the program so he convinced a few participants and bystanders to gather on the steps.  Mr Eko (our head chef with the big knife) coached us in our words "Jeg Jaen!!" (we were shouting "delicious" in the Balinese language - extra loud and forceful second word).  On cue we would shout our words, give a big smile, and then give a 2 thumb salute.  Got it?  Right, easy!  How can so many things go wrong?  After 8 or so attempts the camerman was satisfied and we could leave.  It had been an interesting experience.

Shouting our slogan "jeg jaen" ('delicious' in the Balinese language)
 for the Bali TV crew.  How many things can go wrong with so few words
to say? Well ... quite a lot as we soon found out.  This is about "Take 5".

Paul in Bali