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| Tom and I dressed for a Hindu holiday in traditional Balinese attire. |
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| Fishing nearby the shore in these tiny plastic floating boats home. |
A couple of days ago, Gede suggested that we attend a Hindu religious celebration on Saturday (yesterday) in a temple just after the end of the paved road. He’d asked the two Ketuts to bring the traditional colorful clothing for us to wear which is required to enter a temple which includes sarongs, special shirts, lacy women’s tops, colorful silk sashes and for the men, a cloth hat called a udeng.
We were excited at the prospect of dressing in the beautiful clothing and taking photos of the special annual festival, Sharad Purnima, which includes offerings of food, incense and flowers, music, dancing and a prayer service.
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| Ketut, one. |
Sharad Purnima is described here:
Here is a description of Sharad Purnima: It marks the end of the monsoon. There is a traditional celebration of the moon and is also called the ‘Kaumudi celebration,” Kaumudi meaning moonlight.
At night, goddess Lakshmi is worshiped and night vigil is observed. According to a folk-tale, once a king fell on evil days, and was in great financial straits, but then his queen observed this fast and night vigil, and worshiped the goddess of wealth, Laxmi. Consequently, they were blessed by the goddess and they regained their prosperity.
It is also believed that on this day as the moon and the earth are very close to each other, the moon rays have certain healing properties of nourishing the body and the soul.”
Regardless of one’s personal faith and spirituality, its difficult to find fault with the teachings and philosophies of the Hindu way of life. Hinduism, when practiced and fully embraced results in the astoundingly truthful, gentle, loving and thoughtful nature of these special people as shown below:
“Truth, kindliness, austerity, purity, forbearance, discrimination (not in a negative manner against discrimination of others), control of mind and senses, ahimsa, compassion, contentment, detachment, and devotion to the Supreme Lord are some of the virtues that Narada talks about. Among the basic virtues that testify to one’s integrity, being truthful and honest tops the list.”
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| Ketut, two. |
As we were about to embark on the long walk to the temple, it began raining in buckets. (With no parking available at the temple, we’d have no choice but to walk). Only recently have I started to recover from my June 1 injury. Tom suggested we not go out into the rain. The muddy road is slippery when wet and I would run the risk of slipping or falling.
After a recent rain storm we’d attempted our usual walk on the only road from the villa, but had to turn back when it was simply too slippery for me at this time. We just couldn’t take any chances after over four months of pain and discomfort which finally began to abate in these past two weeks.
Usually I’m not that sensitive, but we’ve had to make some hard decisions about what I can and can’t do at the moment. We decided that while we waited for the rain to dissipate, the road would remain slippery. It just didn’t make sense.
We’ve never minded getting wet as evidenced in this and many posts of our past adventures. In Paris in 2014, we visited Versailles (see photo below) after spending no less than 90 minutes in the pouring rain at the exquisite Gardens of Versailles, a venue not to be missed.
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| Here are our favorite views in the Gardens of Versailles.All of our photos shown on this post were taken during a torrential downpour. By the time we entered the Palace of Versailles we were soaked through to our underwear. It was worth every moment. |
Getting soaked on the promenade here in Bali was not our preoccupation, other than to prefer not to ruin the beautiful clothes. This special dress is required to enter a Hindu temple, especially wearing a sarong.
There are umbrellas in the villa, but the use of one would barely have had an impact on the reduction in the probability of falling. Sadly, we stayed behind. Instead, the two Ketuts created a special celebration with us as they “dressed us” in the layers of traditional clothing and took today’s included photos including a lovely offering bouquet with incense and flowers they’d picked for the occasion.
In our travels around the world, we have been limited in participating in some activities that other tourists can participate in such as bungee jumping, zipline, scuba diving and snorkeling.
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| Tom, dressed and ready for the Hindu celebration in proper attire. |
As much as we’d enjoy some of these activities, we accept my limitations as a result of my precarious spinal condition. Not an excuse. Just a reality. A single injury worse than the most recent could put a quick end to our travels. This possibility became especially relevant over these past months.
I’d rather be a joyful world traveler continuing with our plans and dreams for the future than one who is required to abruptly discontinue traveling due to a single incident. We’ve hardly spent these past four years avoiding many activities as illustrated in our over 1500 posts, nor will we in the future.
Today is Sunday, our staff-free day. It’s sunny, hot and humid. Yesterday’s temps rose into the 90’s F, 32’s C which is expected to continue through the week with humidity averaging in the 80% range creating hot and relatively uncomfortable days. Today, at 11:00 am, it was 88F, 31C, feels like 102F, 39C.
But, folks, we’re in gorgeous Bali for 11 more nights and pay little attention to the weather as long as we stay safe. Hot? Dripping in sweat? No matter! Be happy!
May you be happy as well!
Photo from one year ago today, October 16, 2016:
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| Coincidentally, one year ago today it was raining so hard in Fiji, we couldn’t see the ocean. For more photos, please click here. |