How’s the Serenity?

Right, I have one more Bali blog entry left in me. Yesterday I started the day with a trek through the rice fields. After a breakfast of green-vegetable soup, I set off with my fellow intrepid guests in pursuit of our guide. One of the things I love about Bali is that it hasn’t yet been OHS&W-ified. Hoorah to risky paths, dodgy stairs and no signage. Was I any more likely to break a leg because there was no sign telling me to beware? I say no. In fact, I say it’s less likely because my mind isn’t at once distracted by the sign while being complacent based on the assumption that if there is a hazard, someone will tell me about it (ergo I’m looking where I’m walking - what a novel concept!) It was a wonderful way to start the day - with great camaraderie amongst our troop and lots of wondrous beauty (sorry about the waxing lyrical but it really is ever so pretty) and interesting insights of another way of life.

After all that strenuous walking, what can a girl do but go lie on the lounger by the terrace? To my credit, I did read so I was at least mentally active. After doing that for a couple of hours, I went off for a mud wrap and massage. I know - its such a tough life here. If it makes you feel any better, the massage did hurt.

In the afternoon, I went out to Ubud village to do some last minute gift hunting, which brings me to referencing the title of this post. After the peace, calm and spaciousness of the resort, Ubud and its market causes sensory overload. People everywhere, noise, heat, smells, noise, smells, cramped spaces, close proximity, noise, noise, noise, noise. Two hours was all I could take and an hour of that was under duress while awaiting the appointed pick up hour.

Anyone that knows me well, knows I love shopping (yes, it is an Olympic sport) and I especially love shopping in Bali where there is tons of ‘stuff’ and its nice and cheap. It always takes me a couple of days to get find my ‘Bali groove’ where I’m comfortable bargaining and feel like I’m actually getting a reasonable price (and more to the point, stop the urge to argue over the equivalent of 50 cents). As a seasoned Bali veteran, I know my pattern, I have a plan and I follow it to get the maximum out of the experience and my rupiah. All this excellent planning fails however, in the face of the Ubud market. Having had the same experience last year, I knew better than to set myself up for an afternoon of window shopping. It was more like a military campaign to secure critical food supplies than a market shopping expedition. A list, a ruthless bargaining mindset, a limited amount of cash in hand and a time limit. I was like a machine.

“How much is this?”
“300,000”
“that’s too much”
“how much you want to pay”
“100,000”
“not enough, 280,000”
“120,000”
“give better price 220,000”
“130,000”
“200,000”
“150,000”
“give a bit better price please, good luck for me 190,000”
“no, 150,000 or nothing. I have no more than that”
“ok, 150,000 - maybe you take more than one?”

I still left feeling like I was taken for a ride - did I really just pay $15 for a dress I wouldn’t have bought at home? Bali is not as cheap as I remember but then it never is. I’m starting to wonder whether it ever was or whether it’s more a case of having a shopping version of maternal amnesia - I have to believe all that crap I bought was cheap otherwise what’s the point of having bought it all? In the end, it all comes down to being in the Bali groove. Frankly, I think I’m lucky that when I stay here at the Como I don’t have time to develop the groove - goodness knows how much excess luggage I’d be paying for.

One final story for today. I was talking to one of the restaurant servers about her life and religion. Yesterday was a full moon, which as with almost all events in Hindu life, warranted a ceremony. She told me that every morning after they wake up, they cook and then they make an offering in all four corners of the house. They do this every day of every year of their entire lives. That’s just the daily morning offering. It doesn’t include all the special ceremonies which require larger offerings and ceremonies such as full moons, dark moons, new moons, weddings, funerals, babies born etc. Just the daily offerings can cost a family up to 1 million rupiah per month to make. That doesn’t include the more elaborate offerings required for special events like moons, weddings and babies. Once born, babies need a schedule of offerings up until they are two and a half years old. And here I was thinking that my life was complicated and that raising babies in Australia was expensive. Clearly I know nothing about either topic (some of you will not be surprised by this and will perhaps want to suggest at this point that there is a lot of other stuff I know nothing about which I really should stop talking about).

After talking to this waitress, I felt a bit sorry for her while at the same time I felt quite grateful that my life was simpler. I thought my lesson ended there - tick for not being trapped by mythology and a reminder to be grateful for what I have. Not bad lessons, but turns out there was more in store. I observed the full moon ceremony last night and noted it’s ritualistic and complex nature. Again, I gave myself a bit of a mental pat on the back (in between swatting mozzies) that I wasn’t held captive by superstitions and mindless rituals. Then this morning, I thought better of my smugness when at breakfast I was talking to the lovely Gail and John from San Fran and she gave me a different insight.

As she put it, all these rituals, the daily offerings, the ceremonies at key intervals connect these people with both the natural world and a deep sense of daily gratitude. Daily gratitude is a way of life for them. It manifests in physical, visible, organised religion-type activities but every day as they make their offerings they connect with a sense of gratitude for all that they have and hope for all that they wish for. Then, at significant events or at important natural events (such as moon changes) they take a step back and get more strategic about both their gratitude and their wishes for the future. How divine. I immediately went from feeling sorry for the waitress to feeling slightly envious that she didn’t have to spend as much money as I have on self development to understand that happiness comes from gratitude. Thank you, Gail, for shining a light from your much more open perspective and hoorah for finding lessons within lessons. More of that please.