Around the world in ? days!: July 13 - Fire and Trance Dancing

July 13 Day 149

We had another nice breakfast and got packed for moving on. Ugur came back from his blue light trip and we got his contact information so that we could meet up in Bali.

Johan drove us to the bus stop and knew the driver we were looking for and had our tickets ready, a real host. We had a wait in the bus and many people were getting food together and vendors were walking up and down the aisle.

once we got going it was a short drive to the ferry to Bali, which was reasonably large. The channel was narrow and the other side looked close but it took a solid hour to get there. We sat outside to get air as the ride was rocky until we were able to turn parallel to the shore. There were many large places to sit and the ferry seemed to be at about 1/4 full so we had our choice of seats. It was a nice day so outside was the right decision.

It was about three more hours and an interesting drive to Ubud. Bali was very lush but all the land seemed to be developed, fields or towns. The towns all had an elaborate temple on almost every block, fitting the exotic stereotype of the island.

We got to Denpasar, the main city on the island and essentially a travel hub that tourists transited through rather than staying in. Our guidebook said we'd need a taxi as Obud was a village and not on main transit routes. The guy who got us on the bus said that there were minivans going there so those would be our first choice.

As soon as we got off the bus a large guy in a red shirt was asking if we needed a taxi. We were accustomed to ignoring touts and when I told him we were getting a minivan he said that he was a minivan driver so I left him. We went to an information desk that told us there was no minivan so we'd have to take a taxi. Meg went to see the lay of the land and found a fare chart to local places and a cab willing to follow the chart. Of course it was the guy in the red shirt.

Ubud wasn't that far away on a map but distances isn't mean much to travel time in Indonesia as it was all about congestion. We were told that the drive was going to be more than an hour and maybe closer to two but we got there in under one along quick moving roads.

Our driver had trouble finding our place but managed on the second passing. We entered beside a Hindu temple in a series of uniform buildings that appeared to be part of the temple complex. A guy there asked if we were looking for the hotel and guided us past them, down steep steps and through fanciful, almost Gaudi-like concrete buildings. Beyond that was another steep set of stairs and a lush garden with porched apartments were in front of us. Ours had a kitchenette outside on the porch and our caretakers lived next to us. The room was very nice, the only annoyance being that the sink was outside in the kitchen instead of being in the bathroom.

We got settled and I researched what was going on in town that night and managed to find the local arts website that showed two performances of the fire and trance dance that evening. This was a dance that Stephen had recommended to us, with large male chorus chanting and making rhythmic noises which a Hindu story is told.

We got walking towards the closest performance space and walked through the commercial heart of Ubud. We had to backtrack at one point as a side road was closed because of a Buddhist ceremony that outsiders were not welcome to traverse through. This detour out us on one of the main roads which was lined with restaurants, travel agencies ad shops selling tourist goods.

As we neared the performance space I noticed that the time in one of the shops was different from my watch and i asked someone on the street what time it was. We had crossed time zones and lost and hour, which meant we were 15 minutes late for a the close performance but had 15 minutes to get to the further one. We put our heads down and powered on.

At the start of the street the show was at a guy was selling flyers that he said were tickets to the show we wanted. We had no idea and weren't sure whether this was a scammer who would take our money and leave us with useless paper. It also could be the case that we would get there and be told to go back to the guy as he might be the only source of tickets. The classic tourist perspective of not knowing what the rules were and being forced to make a quick decision with not enough information. Since a traffic police guy was watching us and not intervening we figured the guy was on the level and hurried up the road to where another guy was holding a red flashlight to direct us in. Along the way other dance employees pointed us in the right direction ( on a straight street with no intersections) as people come cheap in Indonesia so over hiring and staffing isn't uncommon.

The tickets worked and we were ushered to a few seats in the back row of some bleachers just as the show started. About 50 shirtless guys came out into a space and encircled a flaming tree of burning coconut shells. They waved their arms and did a chickachicka chant that increased in volume until they all sat down and they started telling the story. It was one we had seen in our dance performance of the Ramayana so we knew the outline of the story but the performance was different. The actors came out in elaborate costumes and mainly struck poses with elaborate Balinese hand gestures while one of the choristers shouted out the story in Indonesian while choristers chants rose and fell. Some members of the chorus held sequences of notes that went with the chanting and reminded me of some minimalist compositions I'd heard and the effect was mesmerizing if not always comprehensible.

The story progressed with women playing the female parts and the two main heroes and the men playing the demons, who got to speak for themselves, and Hanuman the magic monkey. The chorus took the part of demons or a monkey army but mostly seemed like a Greek chorus framing the action. Sometimes they would fall over like dominoes in patterns and sometimes they would stand and out their arms waving in the air as the chants got louder. It was a unique and engaging show only slightly lessened by some of the audience members standing to get better view and camera shots regardless of those behind them.

The dance is based on old local exorcism rites but an German artist in the 20s liked the style and worked with locals to adapt it to performances of the Ramayana close to its current form. He tool the show around the world to great acclaim and it has been a staple ever since, with some variation of it happening at least once a night in Ubud and probably other places.

The performers left the stage and a few people left but it didn't feel like an ending. We were at the back so we saw the cast talking and eating but some stagehands were restaging the central area so we stayed put. They set a rectangular area in the stage and built a bonfire in it. Then a big guy came and kicked the bonfire and walked around in the embers. Two other guys in sandals would then sweep the embers back into a pile and he big barefoot guy would kick it again and walk around, staring defiantly at the audience. This happened several times and at one point some younger guys ran around he fire, showing bravery but lacking the poise of the big guy.

Once it was finished we applauded and a host thanked us for our time. The big guy sat on the stage showing his blackened but unblistered feet for a photo op. Our flyer said that the chanting put the guy in a trance that enabled him to do the fire walk and we struggled to explain how we was able to spend so much time treading on embers unharmed.

We were hungry and it was late and 5 minutes away was a guidebook recommended restaurant so we headed there. It was fancy but we didn't want to hunt around so we grabbed a seat and had a posh and excellent meal with the first good wine we had tasted in a long time. It was a splurge but a similar meal in Toronto would have cost 4 times as much and we figured we had had enough cheap street meals to allow ourselves the extravagance and the place really was amazing.

Walking back along the main street, this wasn't the drunken party hell that we imagined Bali to be. At 10:30 2/3 of the places were closed and those that were open had people talking rather than screaming and vomiting. There was obviously no shortage of good looking places to eat with local and western food available.

We found our way back to our temple hotel along the quiet, dark garden and had a good rest.