Stepping Off the Road

I want to say hi to all the folks connected to the dear women on this trip, who might now be reading this blog.  It's Thursday afternoon, sticky hot here, flowers hanging from the ceiling, kindness on every face.  After talking to Kate, our fearless leader, I realize I should mention that this isn't an Official Threshold Choir tour--we're all members of various T. Choirs but the trip isn't sponsored by the TC non-profit organization, we're out here on our wild and lucky own.  I'd adjust the name of the blog but can't figure out how!  I also want to thank Anne Mansfield for the photos. She emails them to me from her iPhone and I somehow stick them in. It's amazing to live in the future.

Here is her picture of Monkey God Hanuman, looking pleased with himself.

Anne and Kate Schuyler and I went for a walk about six this morning, just after it got light, along the road toward town.  Everyone was up.  We chatted with Made, a local guy who is proud of his neighborhood, and saw the kids in uniforms headed for school (early!). At the intersection with the busy street we crossed and spontaneously took a little secret path that led down into a temple complex.  It was like some kind of dream--giant banyan trees, an old bamboo bell, pools with koi, moss on all the old statues--it was the kind of place you might make up if you were a child and wanted to time-travel into a hidden, delicate, jungly past.

We kept walking down a path, away from the road, and wound up being invited to have tea and pressed rice cakes with a woman construction worker, back in her family compound, where she lives with her grandmother, father, and three children.  Divorced--maybe rare in Bali.  Scraggly chickens running everywhere, grandmother cutting up potatoes on the porch. I think she was hoping for some money but we had none with us. She has a little house on stilts that she rents to foreigners. Thought-provoking little adventure.

While half of our group went to see a local healer with Made Surya this morning (the rest of us go tomorrow), a few of us went to the catacomb market again and then I had a crazy massage. Luleur, I think it is called.  It involved yogurt, a rice scrub, a bath with rose petals, lasted two hours. It cost 190,000 rupiah--about twenty dollars.  Holy cow!  The market is a feast for the eyes and all night I keep dreaming of the colors.

We meet to sing in half an hour and will see a shadow puppet performance tonight, followed by dinner at Oka Wati's, the hotel where Kate's earlier choir tours stayed. We're not staying there this time because it's right in town, hard for our mini-buses to park, loud, as more and more tourists come to Bali and Ubud gets busier. Motorbikes everywhere!  But Kate loves the hotel people and they love her and we'll get to meet them tonight.
Update: Amazing dinner there. Spooky and spiritual puppet show.  One more picture, now: of the shadow puppeteer.