hello!

this is sooo cool! www.astercity.net/~tobik/pingpong.html

yesterday we went to walk the 2kms(we were actuly going to take a bemo(bus) as we were feeling a bit weak) to the musium, when we came across a massive parade sort of thing in the center of town.hordes of balinese possibly 100/200 of them all dressed in finary. flowered dresses for the women and sarongs and the habitual balinese hat for the men. there were two bands one in the front and and one at the back both playing completly different music with gongs and odd instruments. in the middle of the convoy in the center od four people holding massive umrella devices, was a large “ronda” (a evil creture from balinese mythology) head suspended on a pole with thick hair flowing down from it. behind came the “barong”(a nice creture from balinese mythology) this is a bit like a pontomime horse, as it has a bloke holding up the front end complete with a goggle-eyed face and beard, and another bloke holding up the back end. and lo’ you have a suprisingly realistic fuor legged animal. as i watch it amble by i noticed that the “stomac” of the barong, the conecting bit twix the head and bottom, was more realistic than the one on the creture i saw at the dance with tan. more rounded and with a distinkt sag, sugesting heavyness. annika explaned that it contained a dead person and that this was a funerul procession! the seemed more interesting than the musium so we fell into step along side of the horde as it slithered snake like up the road and out of town. i don’t know how long we walked for but it passed quite quickly. we descoved later that it was 4km or so. eventully the procession ground to a halt at a temple in some random village. it had got progressivlysmaller as people peeled of and into the homes along the way. we wondeered around in the milling crowd outside the temple, not quite sure what to do. a chap(he was french and called allan) walked up to us and fixed us with a spectakled eye. i had seen him on and off as we walked the only one af the five or so tourist who had walked from ubud with us. he inquired how we planned to get back, sugesting a shared bemo. we were keen to wait around for the cremation we felt sure was going to accur at any momant. it seemed that he could speak a passible balinese and had descoved that there would be a dance/ceromony from 8 till 10 and possibly the cremation wouild be tomorrow sometime. as it was 4.00 we walked back slowly with him keeping our eyes peeled for some transport. this felt a little strange! were ever you walk in bali you will be continualy acosted by minions saying “hey! transport! yes!” then when you have declined they demand “tomorrow?! yes?!” after this they might ask if possible you want transport next week, or not as as the case may be. on the way we saw a flight of white cranse which was nice. we did get transport in the end and we were made glad as it trully was a long way.

right i will continure later as i have to pick up annika from the health and beauty spa as she is having a jolly milk bath. also i will tell you about the fire dance and the shadow puppets.

julio