Bali, Indonesia
After leaving the rainforest, take off
your shoes, and it’s easy to get rid of the
leeches crawling on your socks. In
the photo on the left, you can see one of
the many places of offerings in the
middle of an intersection, with the offerings
in the middle between the figures of
the demons. The offerings, by the way,
lose their sacrificial meaning after
the joss stick that was ignited when they
were
laid down has burnt
away, with the offering
having been transmitted
to the god viathe smoke.
Now it doesn’t matter any
more what happens to the
things lying there. It’s good
to know that because very
often, smaller offerings are
laid down in the middle of
the footpath or in front of
an entrance to a house. If
you step on them
accidentally, it doesn’t
really matter, but you should be careful
all the same. Only Bali’s south has been
developed for tourism; if you want
to stay in the north or in the interior, you have
to make do with what’s available.
Thus even in the island’s northwest
with its diving places around Tulamben and
Amed, there are no foreign exchange
bureaus (also refer to my diving pages).
If
you travel off the beaten
track, you shouldn’t be
surprised if for example
you order fish with rice
and then receive cold
food. Complaining to
the waiter won’t get
you anywhere because
he wouldn’t know what
you’re on about – the
fish and the rice are
good after all. You need
to know that people here
cook for the family, the guests
etc. in the morning, and then, not
having any set times for meals as we do,
people eat from that food twenty times
or more during the entire day until
nothing is left. In the tourist areas,
however, European habits are catered
for, and the prices are accordingly
very high. Therefore, you shouldn’t just
walk into any restaurant; instead,
you should study the menus outside. If
the waiter then approaches you with
a menu in order to convince you of
the merits of the restaurant, then
you’re one step further. If there isn’t much
going on there, you can haggle quite
unashamedly, and discounts on the
food – without the drinks – of 50 %
appear to be normal.
more page 3
© Copyright Dieter Klinkhammer
webmaster: Dieter Klinkhammer
Last Date Modified of german page: March 30th 2002 ,
english translation published: June 28th 2003
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