Marty Mellway Photography

One of the best parts of Bali has to be the amazing traditional arts. They have amazing carvers and painters, a unique orchestra(the Gamelan), and a thriving culture of dances and theatre. Last night we attended a dance and musical performance that was by far the best I have seen yet in Bali. This dance school toured in the west in the 1950's and had a huge impact. The dance style is flawless and the musical theory mystifying. The tuning of the Gamelan orchestra is quite different from music in the west.  The Gamelan  features a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, kendang (drums), gongs, bamboo flutes, and bowed strings. My descriptions of the these dances don't do them any justice so I will let the photos speak for me. Also I took a lot of video of both the orchestra and the dances, so when I have a chance to work on it and make something than you will really see how incredible and unique these art forms are. 

Last week was the annual festival of Galungan. The Balinese believe that Galungan is the time when their ancestral spirits visit the earth. We went to one of the many village temples to see the ceremonies and rituals. Kuningan is the last day of the Galungan Festival which celebrates the victory of good over evil. During the festival we also went to Pura Tirtha Empul, a holy water temple which is of great imprtance during this festival. The temple was built around a fresh water spring in 926 A.D. It is said that Indra, a god, Stabbed the ground to create this spring to cure his army of the poison left by the evil king Mayadenawa. After we left Tirtha Empul we went to Gunung Kawi, A beautiful temple down in a ravine full of terraced rice patties. Gunung Kawi is where the Kacak dance in the film Baraka took place. The complex comprises 10 rock-cut candi (shrines) carved into the cliff face. Gunung Kawi really feels ancient. Something almost primal about the way the rock is car

Our first week back in Bali has been great. It took us only two days to fully adjust to the 12 hour time change. After arriving in Denpasar and staying near the bus station for a couple nights we took a local minibus up into the mountains of central Bali. The minibuses are large vans that take specific routes and will pick people up anywhere along the way. Much cheaper and more fun the the tourist mini buses. We arrived in the town of Candi Kuning after a quick two hour ride which took us first through the flat agricultural region of central Bali and then up into the mountains. From Candi Kuning (pronounced Chandi Kuning) we did a day hike into the Jungle towards a temple on a ridge on the far side of the Volcanic lake(Danau Bratan). The Jungle was pretty dense and the trail got smaller and more grown in the further we went. We saw many different species of tropical birds and insects as well as some kind of squirrel and a few macaks. The macaks in the high mountain regions of Bali