I am enjoying my break from social media. I am not ignoring it completely, I still find time to enrage my friends, and friends of friends with my political views on the news of the day: from BREXIT, to gun control. However, while actually meeting locals in a comparatively impoverished culture wildly different to anything I have grown up knowing, it is becoming all the more clear to me that breaks from the mass media, and social media parrots are a remedy all should experience far more frequently than any of us no doubt do.

So our new Balinese besties Kadek and family went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Despite the fact that they were gearing up for one of the biggest days on the Hindu calendar (Saraswati Day) they insisted that we come to their family home just around the corner from Weaving Astiti where we were staying. They prepared a traditional Balinese breakfast of sorts while the women prepared offerings for the ceremony. I will not pretend to know how any of it is supposed to go, but everyday all around Bali you will find little banana leaf offerings of food to the various gods and goddesses, for various different purposes (check your righteous western ideals of sustainability and waste at the door here). We were then photographed and generally fawned over for about an hour; these people were truly gracious and beyond excited that we took time out of our day to visit their home. We were made to promise that were we to ever return to Bali, we must stay with them at the family home.  We attempted to give a bit more money to our driver, Kadek, who was the son of Astiti where we stayed, a bit more money for his efforts in driving us around, but he vehemently refused, and then insisted that he be allowed to drive us around for the remainder of our time in Bali for the agreed upon rate, equivalent to about $40/day. This was no small task. We are a family of five with an irritable two year old. Balinese traffic makes Edmonton, or Auckland rush-hour look like a walk in the park. So my point, despite all of the anger and frustration in the world, here are some people, absolute strangers before a couple days ago, prepared to drop everything and put language, religion, race and all else aside to welcome us into their family and their society. All at a time of cultural significance. I wonder, would I do the same at home if a random family from Indonesia, or elsewhere came to my home? During Easter, or Christmas, or Thanksgiving? I would like to say yes, but the reality is probably opposite. I realise that Bali is far from the political hotbed of hate and racism as other places are, but it is nice to know that genuine un-motivated kindness and love still exist out there despite what Facebook and the mass media would have you believe.

Our time is nearly done now in Bali, soon we will be off to a brief stopover in Singapore before carrying on to Malaysia. From Ubud (the tourist mecca of Bali) we saw most of the key temples, my favourite being Ulun Danu Bratan(the temple on the lake) and the drive through proper Balinese country-side to see the rice fields was a nice insight into the local agrarian economy. A bit more nerve wracking was the Fire and Ice show, which culminated with a fire demon of some description kicking the smouldering embers of a meter high fire at the audience, which included a front row Brynn. She escaped burns, but the lady beside her was not so lucky. I guess we will think twice before sitting in the front row next time. (in the distant future I will post a YouTube video to show you just how intense this experience actually was, I don’t think my words here do it justice!)

One of our favourite experiences has been blindly stumbling into Saraswata festivities. This was certainly not planned, we are ignorant to these sorts of things. I had not even been aware Bali was a Hindu island until recently. But the music and chanting, and people parading around in their fancy white ceremonial dress as they made their way to temple with offerings perched precariously on their heads was, certainly a treat.
Other highlights so far include the monkey forest, where both Stephanie and I had monkeys jump on to us in search of food/high priced electronics for them to take back to their monkey black-market, and waking up to monkeys outside our hotel room door that the girls can then play/run-away from. #whatarethingsyoucantdobackhome

Tomorrow, we bid farewell to Bali and prepare to open up our wallets and haemorrhage money as we say hello to Singapore, but not before one more trip with Kadek, and a trip to Tanah Lot.

I had hoped to attach pictures to this post, and i will but wifi is painfully slow (I know first world problems) If you are a loyal follower, there will be pictures here eventually. For now just words, words, words!

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Do not however go to Bali and expect to see anything Muslim related. Bali is a Hindu sanctuary, and I would assume, having never been anywhere else in Indonesia, quite different.

We are experiencing Bali in the southern hemisphere winter, so it is comparatively cool, on 27C today, and not nearly as muggy as I had thought it would be. We are only a couple of days in, well I am anyway; the girls have been here for a week and a half already. Travel here is not without challenges, there is the language barrier (we are not in what you would call the touristic part of the island) there is the heat, long drop toilets + westerners not accustomed to aiming at such devices, general cleanliness of everything you touch, children who touch everything, and, compounding everything, the biggest challenge of all: Clara. Clara, who “no yikes the beach”. Clara, who “no yikes nanas!” Clara, who will not stand for others sitting in her seat, but at the same time will not sit in her seat. Clara, who at the tender age of two years and five months, will be the barometer by which this trip is measured.

Despite all of this, we have had amazing weather, and what we have seen, has not disappointed. We are operating from a weaving company run by a Balinese family, it has been a real insight into Balinese life and the family that we are staying with (via Airbn’b) is very welcoming and excited to have guests for the first time in a long time.

Our driver, which costs about $40 a day has driven us all up and down the central east side of the island, from the small Gelgel village we are staying in, to Pura Ulun Danu Batur – a beautiful Hindu Temple overlooking the Batur volcano, the water purification temple at Pura Tirtha Empul – where we observed many having immersive holy water experiences (Stephanie had been one of these last year, but we were not prepared for such adventures today.) Aurora and I then toured the impressive, and expansive grounds at Gunung Kawi before finishing our day with street food in Klungkung. Today we are being invited round to the son of the owners of the weaving business (and our driver from yesterday) to meet his family, apparently we made an impression.
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Soon we will be off to the tourist Mecca of Ubud, and adventures in the Monkey forest among other things.

The Hartlen family are again homeless, and travelling to Bali, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand before returning to Canada at the end of July. Not much to report now, but watch this space for what will hopefully be regular updates over the next month or so...

The girls are in Bali beginning an traditional experience at a weaving hut stay with a Balinese family. Having always wanted to go to Bali, I cannot wait until my 16 hour ordeal to get there is over tomorrow.