Bali, Indonesia for
Gamelan Galak Tika
Concert Tour
Click here to see selected photos from the trip,
and click on any photo for larger version.
Also
click here to see selected photos from the trip,
and click on any photo for larger version.
Brother Lieberman
Aaron from the Gamelan
i arrived with my brother chad in bali at about 3am, picked up by a guy from ben's place, the homestay we lived in for roughly two weeks. I was there primarily to play a concert tour around bali with 'gamelan galak tika', the MIT based balinese gamelan group. i am a guest artist with the group, playing electric guitar and keyboard. ok enough context. things of note...
Ayu and Ava
More Balinese kids
Stayed in ubud, known as the cultural center of bali; located in the central southeast section of bali. bali is about 100x50 miles, for reference, but takes about 4 hours to traverse due to road size/quality/curviness. food in ubud was great, although i was still craving a laverde's sub on the trip home, for some reason. most people on longer trips there get 'bali belly' which is exactly what it sounds like. my brother and i were no exception, although luckily it waited until the end of the trip. half of the trip was rehearsals and performances, but luckily there were many interesting people around [like ayu and ava] to keep things going, and lots of pictures to be taken.
Sunset ceremony in Kuta
Tiny dancer
We played a sunset concert along the beach in kuta. Kuta was the location of the 2oo2 bali bombings which killedÊover 2oo people. westerners were the target. the only hesitancy of going to bali was involved in the kuta type terrorist activity, which has recently beenÊon the alarm. Having gone now, i realize the extent to which worrying aboutÊthis was an overreaction, hard to state in words but easy to realize after beingÊin bali for 24 hours.
A local Gamelan group
performing
Dancers
We played at the bali arts festival in the capital Denpasar. Before playing, we watched some 'real' gamelan groups perform there, which was mind
blowing. Many concerts there are held as competitions, with two gamelan groups sitting across the stage from one another, and taking turns playing,
with the crowds jeering as if at a football game. seriously. Music has a different role in bali than it does in america - it is a ubiquitous part of their culture, from a performance perspective - most people perform in groups but are not professional about it, it is just the way of life. local communities stage music shows on a daily/weekly basis. children are performing in gamelans that rival professional groups, at the age of 6. walking around ubud, you hear gamelan music, almost all the time. it is tied into the tourist industry, but is also a religious experience for them, as it is closely tied into their services, as many pieces depict religious stories and are danced as played .
Catra, one of the
choreographers
Dewi Aryani, choreographer
Our performances had dance pieces organized/choreographed by Catra and Dewi Aryani, both beautiful. I knew Catra from playing Oedipus this past summer, but Dewi has become a new friend. Hopefully i will get my hands on some of the videos from those performances to give a better idea.
Priest's blessing
the golden child look
Before half of our performances, we were each blessed by a priest, who at times appeared crazy out of 'the golden child' or something. Music is a religious event. It is also such a ubiquitous part of their culture, that there is no [artificially] large boundary between on-stage performers and the crowd. In america we deify rock stars and are always >50 feet from them on large performances. In this concert series, we were on stage, but this is where all the kids come up to listen. I regularly had children and adults standing right next to me as i performed, along the back part of the concert setup, -on- stage. I had them sometimes actually pushing against me as i needed more room to operate my equipment. It wasÊmuch more fun that way.
Bali has some of the most beautiful children i've ever seen. As well as old people. Scattered amongst my photos you will see many of each.
Chad showing kids pictures
They love to be photographed. One interesting thing about the children there, is that according to their belief system, the ground/feet/etc are considered dirty, and so children up until their first birthday [of the balinese calendar, a 210 day cycle], are -never- allowed to touch the ground. They are always carried from place to place, keeping them more holy. There is a service on their first birthday placing them on the earth for the first time.
Rice Paddies
Gunung Kawi
Paddies
early on, we went over to gunung kawi, one of the temples. most of bali is used for rice farming, and all around this temple are rice paddies. after exploring the temple, me, chad, and laurel explored the paddies which extended along a river.
Treefrog
Serious back
strength
On the way back from this, we saw a man farming coconuts by scaling the ~50 foot tree bare handed. He threw down some coconuts, cut one open, and we drank it. Much better than the one we had in cambodia 6 months ago.
Kecak character
Kecak circle
We saw kecak at JinJinGan. Kecak is supposed to sound similar to the sound a monkey makes - it translates roughly to 'balinese monkey chant' and is a
retelling of the ramanyana story. About ten main characters enter and exit through the story while surrounded by male members from -each- family in the village of JinJinGan [about 100] who sing interlocking rhythmic patterns sounding like a village of monkeys chattering. It is an unbelievable experience, lit by fire.
Black sand beach
Beach view
We swam in some black sand beaches, not quite like the ones in hawaii but beautiful.
They are formed from the breakdown of the igneous volcanic rock, and the sand is
typically flour smooth, and extremely hot.
Sunrise with ducks
Random rice farmer
I went with laurel on a hike at 4am in search of a nice sunrise. Although not terribly picturesque in a photo, the scene and environment was beautiful. We were hiking along a trail through miles of rice paddies. Only a random rice farmer every mile or so moved along the landscape.
Chad on Gunung Batur
Sunrise monkeys
However, the best sunrise was experienced on Gunung Batur, the smallest of the three main volcanic mountains on bali. The last major eruption was in 1963 and killed entire villages. It is approximately one mile high at the summit, and you need to wake up at 2am to drive there and ascend it before
the sunrise. We were all feeling the ascent but the altitude was an adjustment for many, as the air is much thinner and doing exercise in such conditions can exacerbate altitude sickness. However, once we reached the top, it was all worth it. We unfortunately had a cloudy sunrise, but right when it rose, we were greeted by about 40 macaque monkeys on the mountaintop, a beautiful surprise.
monkey kid
shaking hands
Multiple trips were made to the monkey forest, which was only about a mile or so from where we stayed. Monkeys are revered in bali, are a religious animal. My brother and I made three trips there, mostly due to the great photo experiences to be had . I was regularly shaking hands with the wild monkeys, they were climbing onto my head, etc. They could see their reflection in my camera lens to would hover in close to see themselves which led to some fun pictures from my camera as well as my brothers of the situation [his shots are up at
http://flap.tv].
bite mark...
scary monkee
However, on the third trip we took laurel to show her how great everything was.. and it was horrible. One of the monkeys had died that day, and we think there must have been a rank/power struggle or something, because every monkey was acting really weird. the monkey forest staff was holding a funeral for the deceased monkey and all the other monkeys were fighting with each other. I, being so used to the friendliness of the monkeys, let one of them crawl onto my bag, and immediately and without warning it bit me (hard!) in the arm, barely ripping open the skin. I pushed him off [a teenager] and his mother quickly and fiercely attacked me and my brother, trying to bite our feet and baring its teeth until we slowly backed away and tried to keep everything calm. Not the most fun experience. Their grin is slightly scary when they want it to be. Overall though, when they weren't freaking out, they were amazing to be around.
When i went to morocco, aram had a near death experience. When I went to cambodia/vietnam, in the airport
on the way back in tokyo, i watched a man have a stroke at the terminal and wait 15 minutes for the
ambulance to arrive as all his limbs shook violently. I thought i had made it safe through this one
as we drove back to the airport.
Over half of the motorists in bali get around with motorcycles, which goes without saying as one of the
least safe methods of travel available. Especially when you don't have a helmet on. A woman and her
boyfriend we driving about 5 vehicles in front of us on the way to the airport on Sunday evening. A cat
ran into the road, they swerved, and crashed hard. We arrived about ten seconds after this had happened
with her crying over him. She needed to be peeled away screaming, from her boyfriend, who was broken
and motionless. They needed water and i ran some over, as they picked him up to put him in a car to take
to the hospital. I was then a foot away from someone whom i still believe had died less than a minute ago,
leaving the details of his appearance out of it. It remains with me a haunting image as a fall asleep, as
does her screams as she was torn away from him. Bali has no adequate medical facilities, so his chances
were slim. And this,Êbecause of a cat, and no helmet.
I end with this not only because it is more accurate temporally, but because it was a deep reminder of
several things. First of all, the obvious appreciation of life. Seeing this happen renews, in your face, the
belief of how temporary this experience will be. and secondly, the appreciation of what we really have
available medically in the united states. The fact that he was even moved from his position [one of the most
dangerous things to do to someone with a neck injury] only happened because there is no good way to
get an ambulance with EMTs to come out in three minutes. They threw him in someone's car and drove them over, and slowly. And when they got there, doctors have almost no real facilities to do anything for anyone.
I hope for the best for him but fear the worst given what i witnessed. Each of us on the trip had medical
evacuation insurance, because if anything happens, the closest place to get good medical care is in thailand,
a helicopter ride away.
I hope all of you have been well and look forward to catching up with you as things settle back down with
the daily life here. I am glad to be home, after a life-changing set of experiences.
best-
jeff
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