Change of Plans

I mentioned before, 2 or 3 entires ago, that my primary reason for making this trip to Indonesia in the first place was to assist a client who had hired me to act as a sourcing agent for furnishings, antiques and other asian art.I had hoped that if all went smoothly with the client, there might be a few days left at the end of the month away to escape with Mr. T for some serious photo hunting in Myanmar.. a country I have long dreamed of visiting.

As luck would have it, purchasing for my client went better than expected... in fact so well that in 12 days, we had purchased enough items to entirely fill a 40' shipping container. There were still things to do... tighten up arrangements with our cargo forwarding company, check on progress on multiple furniture pieces being custom manufactured, etc...

A few days before we had finished most of our purchasing, over dinner, Mr. T mentioned that he had a friend... a wealthy italian pearl dealer. This friend was in the process of purchasing property on which to develop a remote dive resort on the islands of Raja Ampat in West Papua New Guniea, at the far eastern end of the 14,000+ islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia. In pursuit of the dive resort dream, this friend had also commissioned the building of a custom and luxuriously outfitted 100' teak schooner built in the style of the Bugis sailing vessels from the island of Sulawesi.

It just so happens that this yacht was currently moored in the harbor formed by Serangan Island near the village of Sanur in the south of Bali. Sometime during the next 3 weeks, this boat had to be delivered to West Papua to meet it's owner who was flying in with friends from Europe. This boat's owner had invited Mr. T. to ride along with the 7 member crew and to bring a friend or two to share the journey.

I have always dreamed of having the time and resources to visit other parts of Indonesia. I know Bali and parts of Java well, but have never been anywhere else in that country. At the time of the invite, I thought there was very little chance that business with my client would be completed in time to make the journey. I also knew that Mr. T would be sailing if and when I got the chance to free myself up to make the trip to Myanmar. Still, I declined the trip aboard the boat.

Two days before the boat was scheduled to leave port and my client was scheduled to return to the mainland, we discovered that purchasing was indeed finished and all there was left to do was to follow up on the items still in production. I still had two weeks to kill. My client, being a former luxury charter captain himself, insisted that I join the voyage. It didn't take much more than that to convince me... Mr. assured me I would return to Bali and still have 4 days to follow-up with the manufacturing and the invitation was still on.

I had never heard of Raja Ampat. I did know a little about Papua New Guinea and what I knew about it had never sparked much interest to visit there. I did a Google search for Raja Ampat. What I found on the internet changed my perception. These tiny islands were part of a national marine preserve with more species of marine life and coral than anywhere else on earth. Most of the islands were uninhabited. That night I fell asleep dreaming of adventure. 

The next day, I loaded up on sunscreen, prepared my cameras for the voyage and purchased a small duffle to avoid dragging my suitcase on board. Mid-afternoon on Sunday Oct. 26th, I arrived at Mr. T's home compound. We loaded up his big SUV with our gear and with Widi, a young Balinese photographer and friend who would be joining us on the trip, and aimed the car towards the port at Serangan.

There, we were met at the docks by a motored inflatable zodiac with crew members of the Manta Mae,a splendid grey and maroon vessel anchored a few hundred meters off shore. This would be our "home for the next 12 days. Quickly filling the dinghy with our gear and personnel, we crossed the harbor and climbed aboard the yacht... straight out of the set of a pirate movie. I half-expected Johnny Depp to swagger up on deck from below to greet us.

Here's a map showing roughly the route we sailed across the Indonesian Archipelgo... a 1300 mile voyage... to the islands of Raja Ampat. Our approximate course is delineated in red.

Pulling up anchor just before the sun set behind Mount Gunung Agung on the island of Bali, we slowly motored out of Serangan Harbor, the crew waving goodbye to moored vessels nearby, and made our way into the open sea of the Lombok Strait. Night came quickly and the stars grew more brilliant in the sky with each mile as we sailed away from the veil of mist and haze surrounding the island. Lombok's silhouette could be seen in the distance off the starboard side. We stashed our gear in the staterooms below, returned to the deck for a fine fish dinner prepared by the ship's chef. Darkness fell around us and we excitedly watched as the lights of Bali faded in the distance behind us.

Departing the Harbor at Serangan Island, Bali

A Royal Cremation in Peliatan

Leaving Klungklung, the maddening traffic and choked roadways of Bali conspired to delay our plans to attend the Cremation procession for Jero Kaleron, a member of the Royal family of Peliatan, a small village of artists adjacent to Ubud. The procession, where the giant paper-mache bull sarcophogus and giant bade tower are carried from the Palace to the cremation grounds, had just concluded when we were dropped off. Already the family was removing the deceased's body from it's resting place high in the tower and moving it to the insides of the giant bull sculpture which, once proper last rites and rituals were concluded, would be set ablaze.

The Bade Tower

Transferring the Remains

The body now interred within, the bull is readied to be set ablaze

Offerings of spit-roast suckling pig to nourish the soul on it's journey into the next life

Lest you consider my writing about this topic to be on the morbid side, I should tell you that the atmosphere and mood at any Balinese cremation is nothing of the sort. A cremation, for the Balinese, is a joyous occasion... the setting free of the soul from it's earthly cage so that it can return in another and hopefully better circumstance in the next life. I find this take on death to be honest and refreshing. Nothing is hidden from family and friends... no whisking away of the corpse to the funeral parlor where, hidden from view, all sorts of procedures are performed in order to make the body shell "presentable" to the survivors. Upon a death in Bali, the entire family and village is involved in every stage or preparation prior to cremation... from the elaborate, ritual washing of the corpse, dressing it and eventually freeing the soul with fire. All are invited, visitor and community-member alike, to participate in the ceremonies.

MR. T & friend

First Flames

"Baris Gede" Warrior Dancers are a familiar site at all cremations

A Visit to the Royal Palace & Trance in Klunglung

Mr. T (center) with a Prince from the Royal Family (L) and Budi, a local photographer (R)

A few days after the ceremonies in Ubud, plans were made with Mr. T to follow another procession and ceremony, this time in Klungklung... the former center of Government for the island. Following the procession later in the day, we were to return the village of Peliatan to join in a cremation for a Raja of that village.

The procession in Klungklung involved two different temples, attendants and Gods (effigies carried in ornately carved shrines) converging from different directions at the crossroads in the center of Klungklung and then proceeding on to the beaches just north of Sanur for a ritual cleansing. One set of Gods and the accompanying procession originated high in the mountains several miles away at the Mother Temple of Bali, Besakih. The other group comming from somewhere south of Klungklung.

I began the morning with Mr. T picking up in front of the Ubud Palace and driving to Klungklung. Here, we stopped and waited for the grand convergence at the Royal Palace in Klungklung. Mr. T had lived here with the family during his early years in Bali... the princes of the palace were like his brothers and we were welcomed in to sit on shady, cool, open-air bales.. offered strong, sweet coffee and the ubiquitous kreteks (Indonesian cigarettes laced with clove oil). Mr. T caught up with his adopted "brothers" while I chatted and shared photos with a handfull of local photographers who had also arrived at the palace awaiting the festivities to begin.

A Prince of the Royal Palace of Klungklung

A short time later, we began to hear the sounds of drumming in the distance... a sign that one of the processions were rapidly approaching. Grabbing cameras and quickly saying our goodbyes, we headed out to the main crossroads just outside the Palace walls. Roadsides were lined with villagers out to witness the procession and arrival of the temple gods as the leaders of one group bore down on us.

In the center of the crossroads, a giant Hindu sculpture loomed. Around this sculpture were dozens of priests, their attendants and hundreds of offerings piled high for the welcoming of the gods as they approached from two different directions.

We busied ourselves making photographs of the crowd and festivities when suddenly, the procession carrying the gods from Pura Besakih appeared in the distance from the opposite direction and with an even larger crowd. As this procession approached, many of the women and some of the men began erupting into spontaneous trance all around me. Some, with eyes glazed over or shut completely, danced a graceful pendent style of dance, a welcoming for the approaching gods.Others began shaking, shouting, screaming & thrusting fists violently in the air. One woman, far gone by the looks of it, begins to spill small amounts of rice wine on the ground to appease negative ground spirits, then begins a pendent herself before grabbing a handful of burning incense sticks. She begins chewing on the smoldering incense, smoke coming from her mouth. Suddenly, attendant priests appear from the crow to douse her with holy water and bring her out of the trance state... she is apparently unharmed, unburned.

Trance is a common phenomenon in Balinese religious rituals, explained as the gods communicating thru the vessels of the faithful. Those "in trance" will often attempt to harm themselves by pressing sharp, pointed ritual daggers (kris)into their chests or in the case of one of the women pictured above, by eating smoldering incense. No harm ever seems to come to them while in the state of trance and, should things appear to be getting out of hand, attending & watchful priests are always nearby with holy water to douse the trancees and bring them back to a normal state of conciousness. In fact, as the two processions began to converge at the crossroads and the trancees were in their most frenzied state, a small pick-up truck appeared in the crowd and made it's way... bearing a bed-load of priests who began dispensing holy water to the entire assembled crowd.

My guess is at the peak of the processional convergence, there were easily 50,000 people in the crowd. At times, things got a bit scary but overall, the ceremonial demeanor prevailed and the two crowds converged and moved on to the seaside destination a few miles away.

Wishing there was time to stay and follow the procession further as they made their way to the sea, we had other plans. The Royal Cremation in Peliatan was scheduled to start in an hour or so. We quickly said our goodbyes to our Klungklung hosts, hopped in the car and headed back towards Ubud.

Read on... more to come!

Nyenuk Processions...

I've just returned from a month of wanderings in Asia. Though my best intentions were to make regular posting updates here throughout the journey... full daily schedules, excruciatingly slow internet connections and an unexpected, 12 day sail across the Indonesian Archipelago allowed little time for editing on the fly or opportunities to log on here to post the wisdom.

This trip... a month abroad, was made primarily o behalf of a mainland client who had retained my services as guide, consultant and sourcing agent for asia style furnishings, antiques  and objects'd art. Having previously lived in Hawaii, this fellow had moved to Kansas City a couple of years ago and was frustrated by the lack of interesting home decor. Consequently, he planned on opening his own furnishings gallery and through a mutual friend, contacted me about showing him the ropes and providing him with suppliers for the goods he hoped to stock his shop with.

After several months of brainstorming via email, a date was finally set for travel to Bali & Java, where all sorts of exotica could be found. 

The first two weeks of the trip were spent crawling around dimly lit, dusty warehouses in search of suitable items for export back to Kansas, leaving little time for photographic pursuits above & beyond the documentation of purchases. The client proved to be a good natured travel companion. We had never met previously and I was relieved to find that we shared a very similar world view and seemed to click immediately when Adi and I picked him up at Bandara Ngurah Rai Airport in Tuban. We hit the ground running immediately on the following day... in search of treasures. In between treasure hunting, we managed to dine on fabulous Indonesian delicacies, make introductions to several of my local friends in Bali and take in a handful of cultural activities... touring a temple or two, attending a colorful Hindu ceremony and the cremation of a member of the Royal Family of Peliatan.

The client seemed impressed with the sources I directed him to and by day 12 enough purchases had been made to fill a 40' container full of goods. While my trip was to last a month... my client would only be in Bali for the first 2 weeks. Many of the items he purchased had to be manufactured, leaving me behind to supervise production and follow my own pursuits for the remaining two weeks of my stay.

The adventures that ensued during the month abroad were many... so many that I will be posting multiple entries in the loose form of a diary/chronology of journey. There are many photographs to share and tales to tell... 

Ubud, The Start of An Adventure:

My home-base for the month would be in the small mountain village of Ubud. Again, I set-up shop in the nicely appointed home of friend, generous host and internationally renown photographer Rio Helmi. Located just a couple of hundred meters behind the Royal Palace in the heart of the village, Rio's home has been my camp for my last several visits to the island where, over breakfast, we have the opportunity to compare notes & share our respective photographs.

Having arrived during the full moon, the island was already swept up in ceremonial beauty with temple festivals and other rituals taking place at nearly every turn. During our shopping weeks, we were able to take a day off to attend a large procession & ceremony called Nyenuk... the final cermonies involved in the rededication of Pura Gunung Lebah, a spectacularly beautiful temple lying just below the Tjampuan Bridge. This temple had been undergoing expansion & rennovations during my last visit a year ago. Now complete, the temple was brought back to life, spiritually, thru a series of elaborate rituals, the processions of Nyenuk being the final events.

A large procession, complete with giant ogoh-ogoh, paper mache sculptures depicting gods, demons and various players in the great Hindi epics, orchestras of drums and gamelan and the Balinese community en-masse and dressed in their best ritual finery paraded down the main street in Ubud... bringing all traffic to a standstill. The parade began at the temple and carried on for a couple of miles to the village of Peliatan... all during the intense heat of mid-day before returning back to the temple just after nightfall.

More to come... stay tuned.

Took a break from sorting out the mystery that is all things SEO to enjoy a farewell luncheon with bff, BF... just a few weeks away from relocating into the heart of the media world beast, NYC. She will be missed and I cop to no small amount of envy. The confines of this rock are, for the first time in 32 years, beginning to get to me. I long for the ability to be able to, again, jump in a car and drive for days, experience cutting-edge art, music and culture involving no skirts made of grass.

Over the years we have snarled, gnashed teeth & collaborated on some excellent projects for some equally excellent clients. I'm hoping her new urban digs will include a couch for my weary head when I visit the city. Aloha Oe, B!

All jealousy aside, preparations are finalized for my own escape from one paradise to another. In three weeks time I will again wing my way to SE Asia... a month of assignments, marathon antique hunting and, with any luck at all, more assignments. On the current itinerary are Taipei, Bali, Jogyakarta, Surabaya, Madura,Myanmar and the good lord only knows where else I will end up.

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Summer's Gone... Blogging Is Dead?

Summer has come & gone with barely an opportunity to acknowledge, much less enjoy it. Things around this island seem to be settling down now that the summer visitors have returned home to jobs, school and normalcy. I've been fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to travel around the state on behalf of a handful of mainland publications and racked up a few good projects for major companies doing business here in Hawaii... Hawaiian Host Chocolates, Kiwanis International and Tommy Bahama to name just a few... and of course, there's been plenty to keep me busy with my unpaid passion of relaunching and operating, along with a fantastic crew of dedicated, talented and passionate individuals, our little island community FM radio station with a global reach.

Over the past month or so, I've noticed that many of my favorite photography bloggers have all but disappeared. The best of the aggregate sites for good photography blogging, The Photography Post, has disappeared altogether. Others seem to have moved the bulk of their online activities to alternative social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and others. Having resisted it for years, even I have thrown my hat into the Instagram pool. I find Instagram far less intrusive and far less creepy than what I perceive Facebook to have become. Feel free to follow me there by clicking on the icon below:

Preparations are well underway for another project in S.E. Asia which will occupy an entire month. Bali, Java, Taipei & Taiwan are on the agenda and hopes are high that there will also be time to spend a few days exploring Myanmar (formerly Burma). Departure date is planned for October 9th. If anyone is in need of images or assignments from that part of the world, be sure to hit me up...