Bali quick land tour 2

after the diving safari, we had a couple of days in Sanur (Bali) before heading back to Phuket.

On sunday, we went for a coffee at a very nice bar called "Batu Jim Bar"; as we were having breakfast, we started hearing people and music approaching... a very colorful crowd was attending a funeral...
the people were heading to the beach in order to cremate the body, keep the ashes and give back to the nature (ocean) the bones...

In Bali, there's a very special "branch" of Hindus to be found only on the island and nowhere else in the world...

anyway, the funeral there ends with a cremation ceremony and a sort of celebration for all those who participated.

here is how it started: as you can see, everyone is wearing colorful clothes and the music played made it look like a party rather than a funeral... I like this style better than black clothes and sobbing partecipants... note to self: when I'll go, I want something like this!!!

fruits and food offers for the spirits...

Cow shaped coffin, here the body will be cremated (gas torched actually!), the cow will help the soul of the mortal travel to "heaven"...

family member gathering around the ceremonial spot

another shrine for offerings...

last few details before the fire...

ready to start! (notice the 2 gas tanks...)

family members...

master of ceremony in action...

remember! NO cars or motorbikes on the beach!!!

Miss Bali 1934-35...

kidz...

folks

another shrine near to the cremation ceremony...

street vendor...

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Bali quick land tour

our liveaboard in Bali-Komodo gave us a chance to explore the island (Bali) for a couple of days before and after the trip.

Being totally new to the place, we decided to hire a motorbike and go for one of the most popular destinations: Tanah Lot Temple.

A bit of INFO: is located in coastal side of Beraban countryside, Kediri sub district and Tabanan Regency. It is situated in 30 Km in west side of Denpasar town and about 11 Km in south side of Tabanan town. The temple is built on the rock with 3 acre size and reachable in a few minute by walk, because it is just 20 meters from the coastal lip. This temple is very famous among tourist destinations in Bali with spectacular view of sunset. At some nooks of coral reef around Tanah Lot Temple there are holy tame snake in black and white color where according to the local society believe that it as a deity property and as the guard of the temple from the bad influence.


Once parked our motorbike, we started a walk by the coastline where we first stumbled upon a shrine/temple on a rock connected to the coast by a natural bridge

Few minutes walk away, we started seeing the Temple... you can see that at low tide, it is easily reachable... sometimes at high tide, it is completely separated from the main land...

classic "touristic" picture in front of the temple... (notice that the tide was rising...)

touristic picture with a bit of pre-thought...

Andrea, my Italian contact in Bali and improvised tourguide for the day...

ok, enugh with the Temple, let's go back... wait! what's that? a random photo subject! need to take a snapshot!

Small "pit-stop" at the guest house (overpriced and under-maintained-cleaned)

let's go to Ku-de-ta lounge bar in Sanur for a stunning sunset!

Haaaaaaaalloooooooo... sunset here is sooooo nice!

as the place started getting overcrowded, we decided to go to another bar next to KDT to enjoy the sunset in tranquillity...

color swap for a pink sunset!

sunset silhouette...

back home, ready for a "Mango Extension"... still have to figure out what that is...

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Bali-Komodo-Bali Part 5

ok guys, this is the 5th and last section of the photo report of an unforgettable trip, I might add a "dragons special" page and eventually a "Bali quick sightseeing" section as well...

sticking to the UW subject, here are some other few shots... enjoy!


lion fish! it used to be one of my favorite subjects, after countless picture of them I kind of lost interest (better say that I shifted my focus on other creatures)... this one was hovering on top of some hard coral (most probably hunting for a meal) and provided an excellent composition...

did I mention that the quantity and size of coral and sponges was overwhelming? check this barrel sponge and the countless long-arm feather stars on it!!!

another old friend from Lembeh and Sipadan: crocodile fish! this time I went for a close-up as the pattern in their eyes always fascinated me

I know what you're thinking! Come on, don't be shy and say it! Are you scared to fall into the cliche'? OK then, I'll help you out... Let's shout it together with a kiddy voice! ready? here we go: NEEEEEEEEEMOOOO!

soft coral... had not had the strobes, I would have gone for a no flash and ending up with the black silhouette against the sun burst. My 2 babies really made the difference during this trip!

Jaw fish in this area are similar to those in Borneo, they have yellow "eyebrows", hence they differ from those I see in Similan which have them dark.

Fallen Star...

shrimp colony on anemone

Indian Ocean Walkman another "so-ugly-it-becomes-beautiful" creature...

the yellow-ous pigtail-ous whipcoral-ous... :-D

and that's all folks! well, not really... but I am way too overloaded with pictures, projects, work and many other things that I cannot afford to spend anymore time on this... but hey, no worries! as prevoiusly mentioned, I'll do couple of entries on dragons and bali exploring... hence more Indonesian pictures to come!

for the moment being, check the links to the other 4 sections!

Part 1
PART 2
Part 3
PART 4

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Bali-Komodo-Bali Part 4

part 4 a.k.a. "Manta Enlightment" (whoaaaaaaaaaaah - celestial voices...)



Manta Alley: moderate to strong current, several Reef Mantas feeding and getting cleaned... technically this is another first for me as all the Manta rays I've seen so far were all Giant/Oceanic as opposed to these Reef ones... size is somewhat smaller and they don't have the "lump" on their back before the tail...

"Manta Enlightment" (whoaaaaaaaaaaah - celestial voices...)

Manta approaching...

Mantas, Black Manta, Manta, Manta, Mantaaaaaaaaaa!!!

"Manta Enlightment" (whoaaaaaaaaaaah - celestial voices...)

Self Enlightment... picture taken by Razzi, Editin and Posting by Papa

few pictures left from the super-selection (more than 800 pictures!), wil put them all in part 5

here's the link to it and to the other sections:

PART 1
PART 2
PART 3

:

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