ODALAN FESTIVAL – BALI

The Odalan festival is celebrated by temples each year (every 210 days according to Balinese calendar) to commemorate the temple’s completion. The ceremony spans three days and nights with local women dressed in their finest clothing making their way to the temple to lay offerings and receive blessings. Men are usually dressed in a white shirt with a sarong and topped with a head scarf. Over the the 3 days, various ceremonies, prayers, dances, feasts and sometimes puppet shows are held. There are over 20,000 temples in Bali; and thus on any day, there are several Odalan festivals ongoing. Though common, each is very special to those involved; those born in that particular village will travel home for the Odalan from wherever they now live in Bali. There is an atmosphere of quiet reverence; nevertheless the festival is relaxed, happy with an air of respectful informality. Images by CHIA Ming Chien.

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Dressed in their finest clothes, these young ladies bear offerings to the temple; and leave hearts aflutter.

Not even the rain can dampened this lady's exuberance.

Receiving an annointment of holy water by priests.

A priest blessing the offerings.

This graciously elegant lady is waiting for her turn to place the offering.

Balinese women with the quiet and refined beauty have been the muse for artists for centuries.

Villagers come and go day and night, rain or shine.

Naturally, I was intrigued by this scene outside the temple...

... a frenzied gambling session was ongoing; all ages welcomed. Note the lone girl among the men.

Wat Arun – Temple of Dawn.

Sitting on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River directly across the equally famous Wat Pho temple, Wat Arun is the tallest of Thailand’s 31,200 Buddhist temples. And certainly one of its most beautiful. Wat Arun comprises of the main 79m tower and 4 smaller satellite ‘prangs’; each of the prang contains a sculpture of Buddha representing 4 phases of his life: his Birth, his Enlightenment, as Teacher, and his Death.

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Main tower of Wat Arun overlooking Chao Phraya River across to Wat Pho.

The different layers, or heavens, are supported by Kinnaree or half-humans.

King Rama III was primarily responsible for raising the main dome to its current height and decorating the Wat with ceramics. The detailing is astonishing. When artisans ran out of ceramics, King Rama III asked his subjects to contribute ceramics in any form; consequently Wat Arun is decorated with all sorts of plates, broken pieces of kitchen and tableware.

Wat Arun is decorated with all sorts of ceramics donated by citizens: plates, broken pieces of kitchen and tableware, etc.

Tower of one of the four smaller satellite prangs.

TO VIEW MORE PHOTOS, PLEASE CLICK ON: WAT ARUN GALLERY.

Padang Pariaman Earthquake 2009

A month after the 7.6 Richter earthquake hit West Sumatra on 30th Sep. ‘09, much of Pariaman remains in ruins; many residents still live in tents and makeshift huts. Aid came much later to Pariaman than to Padang, the capital city of Sumatra. Padang looked relatively unscathed, crumbled building were sporadically spaced. While it’s true that much of the damage in Padang remains invisible – some 80% of high-rise buildings suffer structural damage – the scenario at Pariaman was of widespread devastation.

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Padang Pariaman earthquake 2009. Pariaman district was reduced to rows of rubble.

Tents and makeshift zinc huts will continue to be homes for many for months to come.

Many of Pariaman's residents live in communities of tents.

Several NGOs, for example Island Aid (island-aid.org), are focusing on buildings that use local materials such as bamboo to produce low-cost, quick-to-make solutions. A couple of days in the open rain is touching on miserable; months of monsoon is unbearable.

As can be expected of any disaster on a massive scale, I encountered a whole spectrum of human responses and emotions. Prevailing was a get-on-with-it mien, a concerted focus amidst smiles and laughter… yet, one couldn’t help but sense the palpable grief, nor miss the shell-shocked numbness in the eyes and look of people who were literally tossed and tumbled through 32 seconds of earth-quaking terror, to then find family and, in some cases, a village full of friends and relatives swept away and buried under a mountain… bodies never to be found.

A month later people were still shell-shocked.

These two boys were happily playing in the rain and puddles formed by the rubble.

A village with over 60 people disappeared here.

The earthquake brought out its fair share of heroes. Dr Derek Allen from New Zealand first arrived in Sumatra as a volunteer in Banda Aceh after the 2004 Tsunami, and was on hand immediately the Padang Pariaman earthquake struck. The founder of  Troppodoc, Dr Allen works in the Telos Islands off Sumatra where often he is the only doctor serving the islanders. Troppodoc is supported by himself and donations from well-wishers.

Dr Allen teaching sister of Zainal Abidin, a quadraplegic, how to tend to her brother's bedsores.

This lady pictured below had her house disappear in a landslide during the earthquake. She emerged from the remnants of the house down at the bottom of the hill completely unscathed.

She survived the earthquake and landslide.

Dr Derek Allen (www.troppodoc.com) works closely with Rick Cameron and Jane Liddon of Island Aid (island-aid.org). Both these non-profit organisations are doing extraordinarily good work in Padang area and are worth contributing to.

For more and larger-size photos by Chia Ming Chien of this earthquake, please click: Padang Pariaman Earthquake 2009.

Bali – Paradise revisited and discovered anew.

My first trip to Bali was in 1988 and like many, first stop was Ubud. Victor Mason still lived at Beggar’s Bush and Campuan where I stayed had a couple of guesthouses in the middle of what were once padi fields. There was one street in Ubud – the main street. Monkey Forest Road was a dirt track. And Ubud lived up to its promise as the cultural pulse of Bali. Kuta then was no bigger nor busier than Semenyak is today. Over the years, the more I heard of the rampant changes, the less inclined I was to re-visit Bali. I was spellbound then and loathe for the magic of my memories to be replaced.

I approached Bali in 2009 with mixed feelings. Excited because it would be a dream holiday for my 18-year-old daughter Sky: shopping galore, surfing, white-water rafting, sight-seeing and the opportunity to experience an Asian culture distinctly different from Singapore’s. Ambivalent because I thought I was going to a paradise lost; one that I had savoured once before.

Bali today is different. But in many ways so much better. I realised it is foolish to think that tourism can and will ever take away the heart and spirit of the Balinese. And moreover, Bali is so much more than the sum of Kuta, Legian, Semenyak, Uluwatu, Lovina… to think so is tantamount to thinking Orchard Road, Shenton Way, Chinatown and Geylang is Singapore. A jeep, a motorbike, half-an-hour and the blanket of tourists falls quickly away to uncover gifts of unknown things.

I can’t wait to return.

Balangan

Balangan at sunset.

Balangan at sunset 2.

Sky surfing at Gado Gado, Semenyak

Dream on Gunter!

Lake Tamblingan, 15mins from Munduk, 2hrs north of Denpasar.

Munduk's mist. Temperature can drop to 15deg.C at night.

Near Pupuan

Ubud

Munduk

Munduk

Small village by the sea. Don't know where - we were lost.

Thank goodness someone gave us wrong directions or we would have missed this.

Near Sideman

Sunset view from our balcony on Gunong Lesong.

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Rainbow Over Pulau Ubin

This rainbow at Pulau Ubin is only the third time in my life I’ve seen such a phenomenon. Each oaccasion has been at a special time or place. Once at Mutiara in north-east Bintan. The other, at the Mentawai islands off Sumatra.

I almost missed this one. The problem with French women is they can be so distracting. But the beautiful aspect of them, particularly this one I was with, is they notice unusual and beautiful things  like oyster-shaped rainbows in the sky, while troglodytes are busy staring at them enthralled by more primal concerns.

Rainbow over Ubin (1)

Rainbow over Ubin (2)

Trees at Mt Vernon Park

Mt Vernon park.

The former Bidadari Cemetry stretching from Bartley Road, across Upper Aljunied to Potong Pasir has become a picturesque haunt for the Gurkhas living next door and the – thankfully few – regulars joggers, all of whom feel gratitude for this magnificent knoll, home for the past 50-odd years to trees I’ve come to know individually.

In April ‘09, a 50-foot ficus was struck down by lightning during a week of stormy nights. A branch rescued now grows in my garden.

Each time I go, I discover a ‘new tree’ or some aspect of an ‘old friend’ I had somehow missed all these months.

Dawn

The Twins

Two trees intertwined.