The symbolic cremation was an interesting couple days as my colleague Alex and I were pulled into the fold of a Balinese village, facilitated by Alex’s colleague. Alex and I were dudded up in Balinese sarong and headwrap, much to the grins of the ceremony attendees. There is really too much to relay about this experience and the photos are yet to be uploaded. We did what most Balinese do during these ceremonies, we sat around, chatted, drank tea and coffee, ate pork, and chatted. One of our tour guides on another tour said these ceremonies also act as a type of matchmaking as everyone wears their ‘Sunday Best’ and checks each other out. I believe it. There were dances performed by the villagers. One, according to Alex’s colleague Made (mah-day), is indecipherable these days with only a few of the older men in the village able to perform the ritual, much less understand it.

The second day was the procession to the village cemetery. Made also told showed us the tree where he had first seen a dead body in his youth. Apparently, during the Communist purge, locals affiliated with the Communist party were rounded up and shot. They were left under the tree near the village cemetery for all to see. As it was many years ago, Made said this all matter-of-factly. After the rituals, the effigies were burned to ash. Again, more rituals were performed as people were selling drinks and snacks throughout the day.

After a few days in Seminyak, we headed up to Ubud. There we took a bike tour, watched some Balinese dance, listened to gamelan, and relaxed a bit more since the guesthouse we were staying at had a rat in the ceiling running back and forth all night. From Ubud, we headed back to Seminyak to meet up with our other colleagues and journey to Tanah Lot and a fish dinner in Jimbaran. I would have to say a good time was had by all.

Alex and I took 12 hours to travel to Gili Trawangan, one of three small islands off the coast of Lombok. It was a good move. I do think we did stay too long though. The island is a very nice and relaxing with a little bit of nightlife to boot. Most of the nightlife tended to end up around the Irish bar in the south end; we did too. It was on the eve of the last night that I noticed my ATM card was not in my wallet. I didn’t need to look for it the rest of the time as there are no ATM on the island. This put a little dent in paradise for a bit until I found the number to call the Indonesian bank and put a stop on it. Now I have to get a letter from the police affirming that I lost my ATM card before a new one will be issued. Good fun;)

The 12 hour return put us at the hotel in Seminyak around 10p and I scurried off to find souvenirs for my colleagues. The shops were closing up and I came back empty handed. A last dinner with Alex and I went back to bed as my flight was to leave early. Alex went out to the clubs.

I’ve culled the photos and resized a few for upload, but I won’t do that today. My launderer was closed today. He’s been closed the past three times I’ve lugged my dirty laundry to his shop. I went Thursday to check on the open-closing time. He told me that they were closed on Friday. A sign today said there was a family program; something he neglected to tell me on Thursday. Ahem.

Highlights that will need to be fleshed out later: symbolic cremation hosted by a colleague’s colleague, Tanah Lot, the beach.

1500m swim: 39m26s
T1: 2m47s
40k bike: 1h25m20s
T2: 58s
10k run: 58m06s
Total: 3h06m35s

More on all this later.

UPDATE: The swim started out wild as all 150+ swimmers had a mass start. I just let all the fast swimmers run into the water and I moseyed out after them. I’m no fish. I tried to work a little drafting but seemed to be working too hard and tapping the guy’s feet in front of me. I moved over a little, thinking it would be better not to piss someone off. I’ll need to get someone to practice drafting with this summer. I predicted 45-50min for the swim. I don’t know how I made it in 39min considering I had to stop and clean my goggles quite a bit as well as sight the buoys. I wasn’t exhausted coming out of the water and really looked forward to the bike.

The bike was pretty flat or small grades over long distances. Fine by me. Except the middle of the first loop. I met up with some hills. Anyhow, I expected to hit 1:20 for the bike, but I hadn’t factored in the hills or how bad my bum would hurt after 30km. Hot and soaking wet, I headed out for the 10km run.

I knew I could finish it up. I kept going steady and passed a couple people. I tried to keep quick tempo like I trained but found myself having long, loping strides. The last 50 meters or so was on the beach, and some guy I pass 100 meters before came running up and forced me to sprint for the last bit, which was on the sand. Oh, the burn! I finished and met up with my colleagues who had come to cheer me on. We relaxed for a bit and then I had to ride my bike back to the hotel.

Next, 15 July 2007: Interlochen Music Festival Sprint Triathlon

I’ve been putting my things in order as of late and see that I have way too much stuff. I’m going to leave much of my everyday things and have successfully unloaded the big-ticket items. I have plenty of books to give away. I’m not really sure what else to do with them. Many are at a level that even graduate level students here would have trouble with and I doubt that they are yearning for Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. I know I didn’t; it was on sale. I’m reevaluating my return shipment of books and other assorted material. I know I’m going to buy a lot more over the next week or so.

Less than a week until the inaugural Bali Triathlon.

I rang up my Mom and Dad already. They tell me there’s no snow in northern Michigan for Christmas Eve. Hmm. I don’t ever remember being stonewalled by mother nature on Christamas, yet I’ve not been there for Christmas in four years. Everyone sounded well and one of my lovely nieces told me about her new basketball. She wasn’t saying more than a few words when I left in August.

Work is speeding up and slowing down. Most universities here will have exams in January. My university will start back up again on the 26th and I’ll be giving a final on the 27th. My old classroom is full of boxes for the teacher learning and resource center that is being set up. It’s a mess and it’s exciting. After being tranferred to Makassar in February of this year, things are moving at light speed. I’ll put some pictures up at the end of the month. I had a vision of what this would all look like and what I wanted when I sent a list to procurement but that vision somehow got skewed as I wasn’t explicit enough. I’ll take the blame on this one. Nevertheless, it will work out. The big thing now will be the grand opening and working to build a trainer base in stepping toward sustainability of the center as a place for teacher training and possible certification in the future. Oh, the aims we have. I may even go in tomorrow…

Tomorrow’s plan is unknown. I did some shopping because I asked Safir to teach me how to cook another traditional food. It’s going to be black rice pudding. Black rice, coconut, and spices. I’ve actually had it before when I was on Bali. The black rice kind of throws me off as much as the yellow watermelon. While I’m on the subject of food, I’ll tell you a little bit about durian season. Durian, if you are wondering, is a spiked fruit that you split open to eat the ‘meat’ surrounding the seeds. Durian is foul smelling. Most people are turned off by the smell; most Westerners anyway. As far as nicknames go, New York City is The Big Apple; Jakarta is known as The Big Durian. Most hotels threaten fines upwards of hundreds of dollars for bringing durian into the hotel. It’s smells that bad. But the smell really doesn’t offend most people here. The food court at the mall I must tread to buy my groceries has a new stall set up that serves durian. This creates a smell that wafts throughout the mall and makes any time spent at the coffee shop close to unbearable without a coffee under one’s nose. It’s something to be lived with here. Did I mention that I actually like the taste of durian?

Changes are being made in the presentation of these pages. I’m slowly putting my personal touches, skinning, the Sandbox theme that my friend Scott created with some other guy I never met. This means that I’ll have to learn some CSS basics. I don’t think it could hurt to learn something different than faking my way in Indonesia.

Oh, yes, I’ve also found out that there is a triathlon scheduled in Bali for June. It may be the first in a long line, but I’m a little mystified in the USD125 price tag for foreigners. It’s only USD75 for Indonesian citizens and the 5k event is only around USD22. It’s the norm to provide tiered pricing here. The triathlon I participated in in Interlochen, MI was USD45, I think. This is nearly three times that with most foreigners having to travel (with bike) to Bali. I may end up doing it just to say I’ve ran a triathlon on Bali. When will I have the chance again. I’ll just have to find an acceptable bike for the race (anything will do).

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to y’all in Christian dominated lands. I’ll enjoy my day off here with food and drink minus the trees, snow, and presents. And like it all.