Funny Faces

The Phantom of the Opera has nothing on Don and me ...

Bali beaches

Bali is full of beautiful beaches. We had lunch at Sanur one day, on the east coast. I love the brightly coloured fishing boats, poised like spiders on the sand.

We are staying for three days in Jimbaran Bay, in the south. Jimbaran Bay faces almost due west, so is famous for its sunsets.

This photo sums up a typical day in Jimbaran Bay.

Jimbaran Bay is also famous for the seafood from the local fish market. The fish market is a twenty-minute walk from our hotel along the beach. After we watch the sunset in the evening, we walk along the beach to the restaurants next to the fish market. It's very relaxing ... and it builds the appetite. (I'm taking the photo of the restaurant tables from the water's edge. That's sea spray on the camera lens.)

Bali monkeys

The Sacred Monkey Forest deserves a post on its own!

Balinese Hinduism has a strong element of animism, which is evident in the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud. This is a forest, and temple, where hundreds of long-tailed macaques live the good monkey life.

The funniest part of the experience was when about ten monkeys dived into a pool and splashed about, screaming and shouting like incredibly raucous children. They were chasing each other and jumping off the branches you can see in these photos. It was hilarious.

Bali temples

Unlike the rest of Indonesia, which is Muslim, Bali is predominantly Hindu. Traditions and rituals are very noticeable in Balinese everyday life. Each home has its own shrine with a statue of a god, where incense is burned and food and flowers are offered daily. Offerings are also placed in public spaces: in front of doors, on bridges, on steps, on pavements -- a constant reminder of another world.

In Hindu belief, God is in everything, and so there are many, many gods. Ganesh, the elephant god, is a popular incarnation. This shrine below is on one floor of the smoked duck restaurant.

This is the entrance to the house next to our Ubud villa. As I was taking the photo, the man appeared unexpectedly with a snake he’d just caught. I loathe snakes and I nearly fainted with shock … Not happy, Ganesh.

We’ve been to a number of very old, very beautiful temples. We visited this temple, which was built around a natural spring, during a festival in which people enter the water for purification. In the second photo, you can see circular dark patches at the bottom of the water. This is where the spring is bubbling up through the silt.

Huge, ancient banyan trees are also considered sacred, and banyan trees in temples are often wrapped in fabric. Visitors also have to wrap their bare legs in fabric as a mark of respect. Smuts, who was wearing shorts, looks great in a Balinese sarong!

Bali rice

Our villa is in a village just outside Ubud. Local life goes on all around us. No alarm clock needed: we’re woken by the smell of woodsmoke and the sounds of ducks and roosters. Many, many roosters.

The local rice paddies are only a few minutes' walk away. One morning, after a breakfast of banana, pawpaw, pineapple and lime juice, and black sticky rice with coconut and palm sugar …

 … we went for an early morning walk through the rice paddies near our villa. Wayan’s family owns some of this land.

The community also keeps pigs, cows and chickens. Of course, there are ducks wherever there are rice paddies. One of Ubud's classic dishes is smoked duck. We will definitely be eating smoked duck before we leave Ubud.

The rice fields in the photo below are in central Bali. We passed these on our trip to the volcano in the north.  The children were flying kites in the paddies.

Some rice paddies are built on terraces on the side of hills, and are very old and extremely beautiful. These terraces (below) are so famous that there’s an entry fee as you drive into the local village. The yellowish rice on the left of the photo is ripe; the green rice is young and unripe.

I'm writing this in a restaurant overlooking a river in Ubud. Hooray! Our smoked duck (and rice) has arrived. Will take a photo -- but trust us, it looks delicious. Dad, I think you would enjoy this dish. Wish you were here!

Hello Bali

After a six-hour flight from Melbourne to Denpasar yesterday ...

... Smuts and I are now in Bali for the next seven days. I love getting off a plane and into that wonderful fragrant tropical heat.

Bali is about three times the size of Mauritius.

We're based in Ubud for the first four days. Ubud is inland, in a hilly area, and is the cultural centre of Bali. If you've read (or seen) Eat, Pray, Love, it's where the writer's Indonesian sojourn takes place. We're staying in a villa, owned by an ex-colleague, about two kilometres outside the town. Wayan, the house manager, met us at the airport. The drive to Ubud from Denpasar Airport takes about an hour.

It's been a steady 30 degrees, quite humid and a little stormy. Here are some initial photos, to set the mood, from our first day in Bali. Note the gorgeous frangipani and hibiscus flowers that were placed around the pool in our villa for our arrival.

And before long, Smuts was in the pool with a Bintang.

We had dinner at a lovely little local restaurant. This is Indonesian rijstaffel: beautiful pork and fish satays and sambals, fish, chicken coconut curry, noodles, rice. The standout dish was the beef curry. Indonesian beef curry is often made with dried beef -- not quite biltong, but beef that's been dried enough to have texture. The curry is hot and sweet and totally delicious. (We also had some extra prawns grilled on the spot, but resisted the fresh lobster and crab because we will be in Jimbaran in a few days' time.)

More about our Bali travels in the next day or two.

Cousin Hilton

Today would have been Hilton's 61st birthday. He was born on 19 April 1951, a week or so before Mom and Dad's wedding. This photo was taken on the day of his wedding to Carol, in the early 1980s.

Here's another photo from the lovely suite taken by Rene on the day of my christening in 1960. From left to right: Mom, Yvette, Hilton, Brian, Heidi, Marcel, Grandma Tina and Grandpa Arnold. And a sausage dog ...

Bush wedding

Pilanesburg - A wedding in the bush, quite close to Kwa Maritane where the Justus family and Don and I had spent a few days during their World Cup visit.

Keith Price, a very good and old friend of Don's, gave his daughter Claire away in the middle of the bush, attended by family and friends and protected by rifle-carrying rangers.

As the sun started to set, open vehicles transported everyone back to the lodge for the wedding reception, with music provided by a saxophonist, marimba drummers and bagpipers.

Claire and Keith walk down the dusty aisle surrounded by the beautiful Pilanesberg mountains.

Wedding guests were given parasols providing shade against the Autumn sun.

Vintage girls

Before we leave the car theme altogether (well, for now), this photo is a wonderful reminder of the Durban holidays that we used to have in the early 1960s. To those youngsters who are wondering who these gorgeous people are, that's young Heidi on the left and me on the right. Mom is in the yellow shirt next to her father and our beloved grandfather. Mom called her father 'Pop'; Heidi and I called him 'Bop'.

This was taken in 1965. Heidi is eight and I am five. In those days, Durban had a funfair next to the beach. Our holidays always included rides on the cars, boats, trains and ferris wheels at the funfair. Heaps of candyfloss too, which went all sticky in the humidity. Absolute heaven!

Birthday Don

Here's a reminder of our funny-face dinner at Le Galawa in the Comoros, in 1995. Seventeen years ago! Sadly, Don (who was the instigator) is taking the photo and is not frozen into funniness forever.

Don, may your birthday be full of fun and funny faces -- and good memories.