Bali - around the world event

Despite the challenges presented in the previous footprint, we had an around the world event to attend on Saturday evening in Bali. This was billed as a “lavish evening of Indonesian culture,” and it did not disappoint. The venue was the GWK (Garuda Wisnu Kencana) Cultural Park, a nearly 150-acre open space containing an enormous statue of Vishnu riding his mount Garuda. The statue is some 250 feet tall and sits on a pedestal that brings the total height to nearly 400 feet. It’s quite impressive. Parenthetically, while looking up these statistics I also discovered that Iron Maiden played at the GWK park in 2011. This makes both Maiden and the park even cooler. Up the Irons!

We were bused to the event in a convoy with police escorts to help guide us through the traffic. This worked well until we were on the final 2-lane stretch of road that was gridlocked in both directions. We crept along, watching motorbikes and pedestrians pass us by, until we finally reached the turn-in for the park. We debussed and walked inside past what seemed to be an endless line of Balinese women in native garb and makeup. We caught glimpses of the statue, which just became increasingly impressive as we got closer. The park is set in what I suppose is an old quarry, because there are symmetric blocks of square-cut stone going straight up for perhaps fifty feet in regular ranks. It makes for an interesting local as you feel like you are in some gargantuan maze.

We took a slew of photos of all the statuary and were then presented with a wonderful Balinese musical drum, music and dance show. This continued through the buffet dinner. After dinner we enjoyed a concert by a local band playing covers ranging from “Country Roads” to “I Will Survive” to “The Final Countdown.” They even had fireworks. And they got me to dance, which, as Liz will attest, is not a common occurrence.

This did not top the Namibia ATW event; I’m not sure anything could. But it was very impressive and very well done. Sadly we were once again without Thomas, who had suffered a relapse of his stomach trouble and stayed behind for a meal of steamed rice from room service.Read more