Bali Life (by Luke)

At first I wasn’t sure if I would like Bali or not, but by the time we left we all wanted to stay. Bali is very special and crazy. It is nothing like anything I had ever experienced. Most people think of Bali as an island right outside of Java where there is great surfing, but it is so much more than that.

One of Bali’s amazing features is it’s religion.  There is a reason why Bali is nicknamed “Island of the Gods”. 95% of Balinese practice Hinduism, making it by far the most popular religion on the island. The Balinese connect Hinduism to their everyday life by making offerings throughout the day for their gods. They also pray 15 minutes before breakfast. Our tour guide said that whatever they eat, the gods get a little bit of it. I remember he said, "if we have noodles and rice, we put a couple of noodles and some rice in an offering." In Bali, families live with their relatives in the same compound. In this compound is a family temple where they pray everyday. The Balinese have ceremonies once every 210 days and another ceremony every 340 days. I think that the Balinese have a very interesting connection with their religion.

The Balinese have a variety of foods like everybody else but they have a lot of foods that don’t grow in the states. For example I learned 3 different types of fruit. Jackfruit which was okay, the sweet and sour fruit that was bitter to me, and the star fruit which tasted really good. Whenever we went out for dinner we always had to ask if stuff was spicy or not. We had noticed that in Malaysia, Thailand (December), and now here almost every thing was extremely spicy. In Thailand we learned that out the hard way. Jacob, Maggie, and Mom took a cooking class on our last day and cooked a ton of really good foods like Lemongrass Chicken, Barracuda, Gadu Gadu, and a Chicken Curry.

If anybody has ever read Eat Pray Love, they would know that Bali has many rice fields. The Balinese depend on the rice. In Bali wherever you go you will see rice fields. Almost everybody owns a rice field in Bali! Our tour guide taught us that every 10 by 10 square meter of rice is about 100 pounds! They grow the rice two times a year and soybeans once a year in the same field. They harvest the rice 4 months after they plant it and plant the soybeans. 4 months later they harvest the soybeans and plant the rice. Unlike most places, the Balinese keep the rice they grow for their own family. This is why the Balinese pray for a good harvest. Our tour guide said that his family consumes about 5 pounds of rice a day! I ate rice everyday in Bali.

Three of the things I found most interesting about Bali were the religion, food, and rice fields. So far, Bali has been one of my favorite places we have been to on this trip.