Bali Indonesia IND Mar 1st

Our ship arrived in Bali Indonesia this morning.
We had a nice bus ride through the town to see the local shops and hundreds of scooters that are all along the roads weaving around cars to get where they are going. It seemed like a crazy, unorganized mess but people get around like this here every day.
We visited an open air market with all kinds of fruits, meats, fish and vegetables. We found some local pastries and Scott had a great time bargaining over the price. They are Cap Mawar Noongan pastries, that look like a small empanada, but are filled with pineapple jam.
The city is celebrating Ogoh Ogoh, which is a giant puppet festival. These giant puppets are sort of like our parade floats, just that they are of the local folklore and religious characters. This celebration is a national Indonesia celebration and we were just lucky enough to be right there in the middle of it. We actually got into the street full of people waiting for the parade to start with all the giant puppets.
Our local guide also took us to multiple Hindu temples and small museums and explained the cultural and historical significance of the exhibits. It was very different and a view into a culture very different that what we have experienced and are used to. This area is almost completely Hindu and very different to see the many temples all across the city. It seems that every local neighborhood has its own temple.
We then made our way back to the ship through the huge traffic jam due to the Ogoh Ogoh celebration. And it's still going on during the weekend that we are in Bali. Kudos to our bus driver who stopped the bus when the street was blocked, got out and moved some motorcycles and mopeds so that the bus could make it down the very crowded street. At the cruise terminal we snagged a bottle of Arak, a local Bali liquor.Read more