5/22/10 (ubud)
Jon CarrUbud
Today was Kuningan for the Balinese people. Kuningan is the most important day in the Galungan festival that lasts ten days and takes place every 210 days according to the Waku calendar. The festival celebrates the victory of good over evil and all the ancestral souls are thought to visit earth. Families gather together on this day to pray and make offerings as the souls of the ancestors return to heaven.
Annie and I had plans of getting up early to visit the temple on this holy day but were moving a little slow due to the prior days motor bike accident. Annie had a banged up knee and I was limping around with some soreness in my foot and calve. We met with Noyman at the gazebo to eat our breakfast and met a couple from New Zealand who had arrived the prior night. The couple had just gotten to Bali and were from Wellington but when they returned home, they will live in Cooper’s Beach. CB is very near to where our friends Pete and Danielle live and we had a lot of fun rehashing our adventures in New Zealand. I was feeling a little tired and decided to lay down for a short nap before heading out. Annie joined me and the next thing we knew it was 1pm and we had missed the temple ceremonies. We were a little bummed but justified it by having seen so many cool things the day before.
We hopped on the motor bike for one last ride of redemption and were off to lunch. We had a nice lunch at Cafe Wayan, the oldest restaurant in Ubud and decided to leave on Monday to head to Lombok via the ferry. When we returned to Sawah, we arranged a transport with Suma to visit Danau Batur to watch the sunrise at this active volcano. Suma also scheduled a trip to the local healer to work on my ailments.
For the next few hours Annie and I worked on updating the blog and got a little more organized for our remaining time in Bali. It was nice to relax a bit and we spent most of the time in the gazebo chatting with Noyman and some of the new guests. When Suma returned we left on the motor bike for the local healer. The healer was fairly close to our home stay off the main road of Ubud. When we pulled up it was quickly apparent that they don’t get a lot of big white guys visiting because I was causing quite a scene in this all balinese neighborhood. We went to a back alley lined with several small children and even more roosters and they introduced me to the healer. He was a small Balinese man with discolored teeth and a friendly quality about him. I was asked to point out the painful areas. Some of the locals gathered around and there was much laughing probably at my expense and the healer went to work. He began by wetting his hands with an dark oily substance in an old water bottle. It looked like a bottle filled with chewing tobacco spit. He massaged the oil into my aching muscles and worked the sore areas for several minutes. He then combined the oil with what looked like a coarse salt and continued the treatment. After twenty very painful minutes I was asked to walk around and I was feeling better. The pain had subsided a bit and the healer said I had misaligned my foot during the accident and that it wasn’t broken. I felt a little relieved to hear this diagnosis. I paid the healer and Suma and I returned to the home stay. After a little teasing from Annie, we were off to dinner and then an early night to bed. I am hopeful that the healers treatment will help me navigate the volcano tomorrow.
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