A Wild Balinese Temple Ceremony

The temple was full of beautiful offerings as each family comes with a towering stack of gifts for the gods. When everyone was kneeling and silent to begin praying one of the tables, holding dozens of heavy offerings stacked high with fruit and cake and drinks for the gods, gave way. I saw the table begin to lean and groan out of the corner of my eye and then amidst horror and screams we saw the whole table collapse. I love Theo's guilty face in the photo! At first Michel and I were worried, is a collapse of offerings a bad omen from the gods? but the Balinese found the whole thing pretty funny and exciting. 

Adi's Wedding

 

Our friend Adi was married on Friday, we were so honored to be invited! The ceremony started in the morning at Adi's family house which was beautifully decorated in leaves, offerings and colorful textiles. I was surprised by how similar a Balinese wedding and a western wedding is. Sure the clothing, language and religion is different but the nervous bride and groom, smiling family, delicious food and excited children was all very familiar. Theo had a blast being pulled around by beautiful Balinese girls. He is still a very slow and deliberate walker so it was pretty funny to see him dragged around by both hands, head down a little exhausted he was still very happy to see the pigs and be included in the young fun. We had a great time talking to Adi and are thrilled to hear he and his wife plan to have a baby soon, another friend for Theo!  

A Temple in the Sea

In which Theo is swarmed and asked for photos, we drink holy water and I see the biggest snake (in the world?) We went to a beautiful Temple in the Sea called Tanah Lot. When the tied goes out you can explore the rocks and caves around the temple. When the tide comes in run for it, the temple becomes a serene little island. It's like Bali's Mount Saint Michel, at first there were throngs of people as we passed hundreds of little tourist shops, luckily Theo slept through that part. 

On the way to the temple we stopped to see the holy snake in one of the caves (this isn't the giant one).

We posed for LOADS of photos! This one is my favorite though, see us in the back?

Theo practiced his walking, climbing and looking photogenic skills all afternoon. 

We were blessed and drank holy water (thats why there is rice on our foreheads :)

I went to get the boys some bbq corn and when I came back there were so many people around Theo taking pictures I almost couldn't find them. After a few big bites of corn I was asked to pose for pictures too. Given the amount of corn stuck in my teeth I wasn't sure if I should do a closed lip smile or a big cheesy grin. Theo opted for the big grin.

After sunset we met this guy with a python. "This is the baby one" he told us pointing to a nearby animal sanctuary. Once there we saw a huge friendly bat, the biggest snake ever (look at how thick he is compared to my legs!) and a sleepy iguana. I think the iguana was my favorite.