Tuesday Travels

On Tuesday we hired a driver through our hotel (good rates, speaks English) and went to the Bali Aga village of Tenganan. The Aga are descended from before Hinduism came to Bali in the 11th century. They are reputed to be very conservative, primitive and unwelcoming to visitors. Our driver told us they are also the owners of many of the rice paddies in the area and are among the richest people in Bali. You wouldn't know it from being in the village, that's for sure. Also, the Aga people are, according to Bern who seems to know pretty much everything about everything, one of the three groups of people in the world doing double ikat weaving. In this process both the warp and weft threads, i.e. the threads running in both directions on the loom, are died and together make up the pattern of the fabric. The Aga grow the cotton that becomes the threads, and they grow the plants that become the dyes. It's an unbelievably labor intensive process. Actually, everything for sale in the village was the result of an incredibly labor intensive process.

The whole village looked more or less like this.

Note the chickens. There were lots of chickens. We first came upon this young man selling things, calendars, horoscopes, etc. done on bamboo by first etching the bamboo with a sharp instrument (invisible to my eye), then rubbing with burnt macadamia nut shell and rubbing off. I expect I'm easily impressed, but impressed I was.

Here's a tighter crop.

And then the textiles.

The place was dark, with dirt floors, and I immediately felt myself begin to be devoured by tiny, voracious things. But, they took Amex.

Here's an exquisite example of batik.

These women were weaving, one single and one double ikat.

Here's some of the yarn, showing how it's "tie died".

And here's the double ikat on the loom.

With Bern's bargaining assistance we bought one piece.

Here are a few photos of the village.

And this one's for Chris.

After the village, our driver suggested we might enjoy the Water Palace. What the heck, we thought. Sure enough, we enjoyed it. I don't know a thing about it, but it was, predictably I suppose, lovely.

While there we ate lunch.

Saw a very cool bug.

And had our photo taken by the manager who was grateful for some help with his English signage.

That evening we walked past the sacred pond

To a wonderful restaurant named "Vincent's", run by some Dutch people. Soft jazz and good food. A great end to the day.