Sunday, March 22, 2015

Ogoh Ogoh and Nyepi were great

We loved the demon statues of Ogoh Ogoh.
Stood with a slew of people on the street corner - like a thousand - to watch them coming from two different directions. Various sizes. Each from a different banjar or neighborhood - over five thousand in Bali. It was happening all over the island. There was a lot of non erotica sexual imagery like a scary old person with giant breasts - I guess a female demon. There was a snarling black dog, maybe forty feet long, with a stiff erection and a red bulb on the end that a a cloth puppet of maybe ten feet would periodically kiss enthusiastically. All were mounted on bamboo grids and carried by young men. I bet there were a hundred men carrying the giant crab from our area. Like a number of the statues, it was accompanied by men with long bamboo poles with a horizontal piece on top to push up electric and other wires so the statues could pass. The crowds would make way and we'd get forcefully pushed this way and that but everyone seemed to move harmoniously together. I worried a little about some of the little kids on people's shoulders. We got home before 11pm and went for a swim in the pool. At about 11:30 a torrential downpour hit. Good timing. From 6 the next morning to 6 this the whole island shut down - as mentioned in prior posts. We ate cold food and used our head lamps. Wonderful. We sneaked out at midnight to see the stars with no light pollution. As good as Tassajara. I was on the street at the end of Nyepi - 6am - and walked to the beach to sit and watch the sunrise. It felt like New Years. It is. Bali Hindu Saka New Year.

Jakarta Post article on Nyepi

Interesting Facts about Nyepi

Just do an image search for Ogoh Ogoh - and check out Katrinka McKay's Facebook page - tell her cuke sent you.