Tuesday 24th March – Sanur Beach
Breakfast at the hotel is a n impressive affair with a great selection of foods of various nationalities and eggs fried or made into omelettes on the spot in front of you by very deft ladies.
Snorkelled for most of morning, watching various fish, starfish etc. Was fascinated to find that the beach is oolitic. As well as coral and shell sand are spherules of calcium carbonate about 2mm diameter caused by precipitation from saturated solution in this evaporation enriched lagoon behind the barrier reef.
The tide was low in the afternoon and after lunch when we did get into the sea it was too turbid and the sun was too low.
Walked to Lumut restaurant almost opposite the Bali Hyatt as recommended in guide book, more competent cuisine than seems normal on Bali. Tried Arak, their rice wine, which is very smooth, dry and goes down well after a few Bintang lagers.
Wednesday 25th March
Snorkelling in the morning we saw what looked like a black ball about half a metre in diameter in the shallows. It turned out to be a shoal of thousands of tightly packed small black catfish. The fish at the leading edge of the shoal burrowed their mouths into the sandy sea bed, then the next wave of fish swam over them to repeat the activity and so the shoal progressed parallel to the beach. I assume this behaviour had evolved as it gave the appearance of a single very large creature to any prospective predator. Above them swam a number of yellow-tails presumably feeding off fragments of food disturbed from the sand by the catfish below.
We have been warned that tomorrow is Nyepi day, Hindu New Year. The whole island closes down. No traffic, no flights, no work, no lights and no entertainment. The Hindus are supposed to spend the day contemplating God. I wonder if God spends the day contemplating Hindus.
Thursday 26th March – Nyepi
I can't believe it. Not only can't we leave the hotel but they have cordoned off the beach too. Apparently it is OK to swim in the pool, but disrespectful to swim in the sea.
I don't mind being trapped in a hotel by storms or floods, but it is extremely galling to be confined by superstition. The Lonely Planet guide mentions on page 856 that businesses shut for the day, but had we realised the extent of the disruption, I think we would have brought forward our travel to Hong Kong to miss it.
It is an insidious entrapment, we don't want to cause offence to these very nice people, but we are effectively being held prisoner by their quaint beliefs.
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Oh dear, sorry about that. I think the sea is a sort of God. Their hinduism is very very annimist.
ReplyDeleteWe had a great conversation with a taxi driver there who, once he had found out we didn't believe in God, mulled on this thought and then asked "but if you do not believe in God, who do you pray to?"
Hope the trip to Hong Kong goes well.
emsxxx