Some thoughts on Bali

[paulhope]

I'm currently in Ryoshi, a Japanese restaurant that's playing smooth jazz. They aren't serving cocktails at the moment.

I've spent the better part of the past week in Ubud, the main tourist center in Bali, Indonesia's Hindu island.

Comments

[util]

Are you sure the cremation parades aren't for the tourists? Sounds like another great experience in any case. Fun reading about it! Thanks.

[paulhope]

Not entirely sure, but they are the funeral celebrations of real people, and there are traditions around them (different kinds of statues--white bull, black bull, horse...--for different castes.

I think that there may be a kind of symbiosis where genuine piety is rewarded by tourist interest. But there's been no indication at all that the religiosity here is fake.