Bali.

Psychotic muppets like this one are the official residents of Bali. In Ubud, Stephanie & I stayed at this place, the Puri Saraswati. Beautiful, well located, friendly. Highly recommended. We hired a guide/driver for a day, Agostina. He took us to see a traditional Balinese dance that featured many psychotic muppets. This is the Barong. The dance tells a story of the fight between good and evil, which ends in mass suicide repeatedly. These are the messengers of the evil Rangda. Because they are human, and not Muppets, these dancers have eyes that do not bug out of their heads, but nevertheless, use them in a controlled and artistic manner. This Gamelan band provided music for the dance. It has a beautiful, though discordant sound. After the Barong dance, we ran into a street parade that was also depicting the story of the Barong vs. the Rangda. These kids provided a makeshift Gamelan band. Next stop was a batik studio, where we watched underpaid workers drawing wax resist patterns on fabric to sell at exhorbitant prices to tourists. Women bathe in this water, provided by the god Indra, to rid themselves of any bad mojo. That's Stephanie washing her face in the Indra water. I needed an entire body soak, but that's off-camera. This is the beautiful and sacred Lake Batur. Right off camera are the persistent and unavoidable local hawkers selling junk. We scared away the hawkers for the few seconds needed to take this picture. This is the Elephant Cave, named for that wacky face carved in the face. Inside are various phallic symbols. These goddesses pour out water in front of the Elephant Cave. Here's the Monkey Forest in Ubud. 2 monkeys snuggling and dozing in the Monkey Forest. One of these guys jumped on my back later. Yes, I had a monkey on my back. Monkeys guard their coconuts fiercely.

Unlike the rest of Indonesia, the predominant religion in Bali is Hindu.

 

 Here's another psychotic Muppet. A shopfront door in Ubud. A view from a restaurant of palm trees and rice terraces. We went from Ubud to Candi Dasa, where we stayed at the Watergarden. This is a view of our room. Heaven. Our room had a front porch looking out over this koi pond with lilies. The beach at Candi Dasa wasn't much, but there's fantastic snorkeling right nearby, & the local boys were cute. As always, beautiful sunsets.