While we were at the palace we went on many adventures.
First we got a tour of the palace which sleeps over 50 families! The man in the brown is Yudi our language teacher.
The man in the white is a descendant of the kings who ruled over the region of Saraswati
The woman in black and orange is BuAri
And the man hiding behind the king is Dede another language teacher
Banyan Trees are sacred to the Balinese and often have black and white checkered cloth wrapped around their trunks.
We also went to a water palace. This particular water palace was used for the kings honeymoons. Every time he got married he would escape to ANOTHER palace to celebrate his new bride, No big deal.
Everything is Bali is beautiful and mind blowing. There are palms trees, ornately carved statues, and exquisite architecture everywhere you look.
We then headed to the beach! This was a rock beach where we got to witness a cremation ceremony. Once the body has been cremated the Balinese perform a releasing ceremony. This is a celebration not a time for mourning. If someone cries then the deceased's spirit will not be able to move on from the material world. There is lots of singing and dancing at these ceremonies and also everyone is to wear white, not black.
After the ceremony we relaxed on some big rocks. Where ever we go a huge crowd of people form around us. During our orientation our leaders warned us about boys trying to romance us. They dress nice and offer to show us around. They call it visa love.
Another day we went to a swimming pool. So I was thinking typical aqua blue, concrete swimming pool. How silly of me. This was a full blown fresh spring water, giant koi fish, fountains, beautiful gardens swimming pool. We swam and explored and took a million pictures.
Apart from all the cultural exploration we also learned about shopping! bargaining is normal over here and expected. One of our tasks was to go to the store and bargain. Here are some of my classmates after a hard day of bargaining and shopping.
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