Another great lesson... (Part 2)

*** Warning! Very long post. Read at your own risk ***

Part 2 of my experience in Bali

Skipped breakfast next morning and waited for Wayan to arrive. Took us almost an hour to reach XL Vision Villas. There were so many XL members there. It was like a reunion. And there'll be an even bigger reunion at Le Meridien later.

Our day started with discovering that Bu Oka is closed for Hari Nyepi and will reopen on 31st March. Darn! There goes our brunch plans. Back up plan? Head up to Kintamani for brunch with a view. Food is not so great but the view more than compensates. Plus it was a very cooling day. Perfect weather to be up in the mountains.

While we were there, a guy offered to take us to Trunyan for a cost of Rp 1 million. We all agreed uninamously that it's way too expensive. So we got Wayan to drive us down to the lake side to find out more. We were greeted with freelance 'tour guides' when we arrived at the lake side. They offered to bring us across the lake for a cost of Rp 350k. But then we were concerned with insurance and all. So we decided to get on the official ferry and that only cost us Rp 375k.

In hindsight, when I caught up with Concepcion at Le Meridien, I found out that the freelance 'tour guides' always offer lower prices than the official ferry. And when the boat is right in the middle of the lake, they'll turn to you and say that the actual price is higher. Kinda like blackmail I would say. There you are, stuck in the middle of the largest lake in Bali and you're told that the price you paid is not the actual price. Pure extortion!

It was a 25 minute speed boat ride across the lake. No life jackets in the boat though :)

Just as our boat was approaching the shore, we saw another boat filled with locals arrive seconds before us. As it turned out, they live in the village of Trunyan and they saw our boat approaching. They were really friendly and started explaining the history of the cemetery, showed us around.

The unique feature of this village is that they do not bury the dead. Instead the bodies are wrapped in linen and left in slots built of bamboo with their personal effects. An umbrella is placed at the area where the head is. If the person had held office in the village, a silver umbrella with trimmings is placed. For the layman villager, a white umbrella with no trimmings is placed.

At any one time, there can only be 11 bodies placed in the slots as the village people believe that 11 is a holy number. And they have a FIFO basis. As more people die, older bodies will discarded to the side. There was a whole pile of what seemed like garbage in one area of the cemetery. When we took a closer look, there were human bones and skulls amongst the garbage. What a way to treated...

At another area, there were skulls lined up on a ledge. The villagers offered to take a photo of me with the skulls in the background but I politely declined. That wasn't in my agenda to be photographed with skulls.

What's most important to note is that there is a tree that grows in the cemetery and it is absorbing all the smells of rotting bodies. The tree is called the Taru Menyan tree and the name of the village is derived from the name of the tree. The village is one of the Bali Aga Village which means that the inhabitants are descendents of the original Balinese people before the arrival of the Hindu Majapahit Kingdom in the 16th century.

And also, not everyone gets buried at the Kuban cemetery. Only those with families and those who died a natural death can be buried here. So those who commit suicide or died in accidents get a normal burial at another site. This cemetery is accessible only by boat and there are no treks leading into the cemetery from the other side.

Here comes the most interesting part. There was a basket with some money in it and as we guessed, it was for donations. I am more than happy to give a donation whereever I go but not if I'm forced to donate a fixed sum. They were asking for Rp 100k. I was just not for it. I was also low in cash. I gave them Rp 30k which I still think is too much.

And then.... as we were leaving the cemetery, the villagers started asking us for tips. For them taking the trouble to come over and giving us explanations about the history of the cemetery. Oh my gosh! I really wasn't left with much by that time. So I gave him Rp 15k. And that was all I had with me. I was left with Rp 4k. Can you just imagine that?

Amazing how sometimes we think that Bali is still a very holy and pure island and you bump into people who will just try to spoil our image of Bali. Oh well, I'll just accept it the way it is. There are still plenty of great people here.

Off we headed back to our car. It was just about time to head to Le Meridien and we still had to go to the money changer. Needed more money for the rest of the trip. Plus Bob wanted to get some booze to stock up in his room.

We made it just in time for Bob's meeting at 4.30pm and our crew meeting at 5pm. Short briefing but we know we're gonna be having really long days ahead.

EBS always starts off with a dinner party. All total strangers so it's really a great networking opportunity. You never know who you'll meet. After all, EBS attracts people from all over the world. I had the opportunity to meet some great people over dinner but I felt the strongest attraction towards a lady from the US of A. Lorrin Parrish. I was to find out later that she is one of the founders of Quiksilver and is now running 2 non-profit organisations in Santa Fe. I have never met such a down to earth person who is always in her flow. A person with so much success in her life, you would expect her to really know it all and have it all. But yet, here she was at EBS and the amazing thing about this is she'd only heard of EBS the day before and here she was. She had no idea what she's in for and yet she was all ready for anything that's going to come her way.

I was fortunate enough to eventually have her in the team which I was crewing for. She was so attracted to the plan of my team that she traded places with another member on my team. It was really amazing for me to see Lorrin interacting with the team and just constantly flowing even when the rest of the team were not in flow.

To be continued...