Overview: Bali

As you’ve probably gathered, we arrived in Bali on October 29th (or rather the 30th at 1:00 a.m.), and we spent the first full day on the beach in Sanur, staying at Hotel Sanur Beach. The next day we moved to the Ubud area (15 miles or so inland) — the cultural center of the island – for our remaining four nights. We’re not really beach bunnies, so I figured we’d rather spend most of our time in an area that has lots to do rather than lots of sand. And in the end, as you saw with the Mansion Hotel, we really lucked out.

Our time here has been fantastic; we both like Bali better than Maui, which is a very high compliment. It has such a rich history and culture, and it’s been fascinating to learn more about their customs and see their beautiful handicrafts including furniture, batik and silver jewelry.

Last summer I read Eat, Pray, Love (after avoiding it for a while because of all the hype), and it turned out to a great briefing for our stay. In the book the author spends a year abroad, divided among Italy, India and Bali. At the beginning of the Bali part, she explains several important cultural things:

1. Why everyone is named Wayan

Bali has a caste society with four different groups: priests, royalty, landowners/merchants, and working class. 60 percent of people fall into the “commoner” category, and within that category, children are named with a very simple scheme. If you’re the first born, your name is Wayan, second is Made, third is Nyoman and fourth is Ketut. Then it starts over for child five. So it’s entirely possible for a Wayan to marry a Wayan and have a child named Wayan, as the name is not different for males or females. And as an example of the ubiquity of the names, two of our taxi drivers were named Wayan, one Ketut, and both the guide and the owner of the bike tour company we used were named Wayan. (The driver was Nyoman.) So if you call someone Wayan, you have a pretty good chance of getting it right.

2. Women spend like a third of their lives preparing for religious ceremonies

Bali is over 75 percent Hindu, unlike most all the other Indonesian islands, which are predominantly Muslim (with Buddhist undertones). You can read more Hinduism here, but in general “Hindu” is a general term that covers many different beliefs. It varies by region – India’s Hindus are different from Bali’s Hindus, for example. In Bali, they believe in a Supreme Being, but it’s also a Trinity situation like in Christianity. But, their Trinity’s elements include the creator, protector and destroyer. They believe in both good and evil, and they believe that they have to make offerings to both. So they make these beautiful little origami-like boxes out of palm(?) leaves, then put a banana leaf in the bottom, then put four different colors of flowers in the box in order of deepening color, then fruit and cake and such. They put these out every morning in front of their houses, shops, in the temples, etc. Then there are the ceremonies, where the women prepare these beautiful baskets of fruits and other stuff and carry them atop their heads to the temple. Religion is definitely central to everyone’s daily life.

3. Balinese are the friendliest people in the world
Indeed, every Balinese person we spoke with for more than 20 seconds introduced him/herself by name and asked our names. We got a lot of Mr. (first name) and Mrs. (first name) when they were addressing us, which made us giggle. Unfortunately all the friendly exchanges usually ended in some sort of pitch, which was annoying – but occasionally (as in the case of our main driver Ketut) they were genuinely interested in where we were going and what we were up to.

4. Zen is the word

The Balinese strive for balance in their lives, and the group is more important than the individual. They have an acute awareness of space, and there are little reflecting pools and lush gardens everywhere. Unless you’re in nutty Kuta, it’s a very calming place to be. No one seems to get too upset about anything, and they believe in trying to work out their problems.

Balinese culture is of course far more complex than I’ve just described. Read Eat, Pray, Love to get a much better description than I just gave.

Speaking of that book, did I mention that Julia Roberts was in Ubud while we were there shooting that movie?