Balinese Sunrise, #6!

If you can call it a sunrise. I didn’t win the award on patience today – we are being picked up earlier than usual for our ride to the elephant park, and that meant I didn’t have time to hang around!

The sun is right behind that mass of clouds, and rays are reaching down as best as they can to touch that little but of land there….but it’s gotta try harder!

I was talking about the decorations and celebration that happens today for Galungan Day, or Thanksgiving Day here in Bali.

Decorations have reached the hotel walkways!

See the palm and bamboo decorations? These are all made by hand ---the loops are formed with palm leaves and stapled into place. Staples are used A LOT here…..the palm baskets that hold all the million gazillion katrillion daily offerings are also stapled. At one of our stops we watched some ladies busy at work making offering baskets.

There are shops everywhere selling the dangling ornament for hanging from the family’s pole—for lack of a better word for what this bamboo thing is called. It’s fun to watch them spin in the breeze… We are really luck to be here at their Holiday time. It makes every day feel extra special for us --- that we are witnessing things that others might not experience depending on when they arrive in Bali.

Detail of the palm loops against the morning sky.

I continued on toward my pagoda to wish the world good morning. The other morning I noticed this pillar of stacked stones just standing there along the pathway…..every day I have watched it to see if the tide would knock it down. So far – it’s still standing!

I guess there is a life lesson in that. We are stronger and more stable than we look! The winds may come, the tides may rise and swirl around us, the waves may try to beat us down….but we can stand firm if we are well balanced.

Good morning, Bali! Let’s go see some elephants!