On Saturday, Bob and I drove up to Kintamani, a town in northern Bali on the edge of a huge volcanic crater. As we drove from the southern climat of coconut palms, frangipani, and rice fields to the northern climes of orange trees, cloves and pines, we noticed a large crowd of men carrying oval-shaped covered baskets. Anthropologists reading this…hold onto your hats.
You guessed it. It was a cockfight. Now, I didn’t get to see the fight itself, but all the men were gathered around to participate in this Balinese cockfight. I have to admit, I am a bigger anthropological geek than I expected – the hairs on my arms actually rose at the sight. For those who have not been subjected to many piles of articles, books and other needlessly complicated anthropological jargon, there is a famous and influential article, written by a man by the name of Barth, about this very ritual.
After watching all the men leaving this now illegal cockfight, we continued our journey, and I witnessed my first volcanic activitiy – as we crested the rim of the crater, we caught sight of Batur Jr. (Batur Sr. erupted with great violence to create the crater, sometime around a million years ago), and it was venting steam. Lava might have been a bit more exciting, but I was satisfied with this more tame display of volcanic rage boiling away under the surface. We drove down a very steep, then very bumpy road (I’ll definitely need to see my chiropractor when I get home) to the edge of the last major eruption of Batur Jr. at the turn of the century. Lava fields are desolate places, tinged with the promise of life, as lichen and small plants work their way back into the unforgiving landscape.
The drive back from Batur and Kintamani took us through some of the most beautiful rice terraces I have seen, and we stopped on the side of the road to buy small, sweet bananas, prickly rambutan, and another tangy fruit that I can’t pronounce and have never seen before – all for about $2.50. Fruit is SO cheap here. A papaya the size of a football for Shaquille O’Neal costs less than a dollar. My avocado I bought today was 20 cents. And it was one of those big green ones. I took a picture.
Later that afternoon, I got to meet some monkeys in the sacred monkey forest that lies in the heart of Ubud. Monkeys have a reputation for being grabby, aggressive and a general pain in the ass, but they were partcularly well-behaved on my visit. The only thing that a monkey tried to do was use me as target practice for his urine (he missed – might need to work on his aim). The cutest thing I have seen, maybe ever, is a tiny baby monkey. I will definitely post pictures of that one. Besides the monkeys, the forest itself is a place of magic, banyan trees and carved komodo dragons that look like they might move at any second.
The slight hitch refered to in the title is Colleen’s health. She has been having trouble breathing, and had fluid in her lung. They had to admit her to the hospital to have it drained, and are still unsure about the cause. This has meant that I have had to set out on my own a few times, which is a bit more of an adventure!
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