Estrela Meets Our New Balinese Family
Photojournal
Bali, Indonesia
September 2006
For eight months the crew of Estrela has been looking forward to our arrival in Bali with very special anticipation. Last January we learned that one of Kyle’s two first cousins, Peter Moore, had just married a young Balinese woman who was living in Boston. Cokorda* Istri Rai Dwi Ariani (her nickname phonetically spelled “Chotie,” for her American friends and family) has not yet been able to bring her new husband home to meet her own family in Bali. Wisely, they are waiting until all formalities have been completed with the U.S. Dept. of Immigration to give Chotie full freedom to return to the U.S., before she travels abroad again. Within Balinese culture, in which family and Hindu religion are paramount, bringing Peter home to Bali for a celebration of their marriage is of the keenest importance to Chotie and her family. In the meantime, Chotie and Peter asked the four of us to be their ambassadors to Bali.
“Of course!” we had shouted over the telephone. It didn’t take much for us to figure out that it could be the highlight of our voyage around the world to be welcomed as family members by our new Balinese family. Even still, we could never have anticipated the welcome we have received. In this photojournal we have tried to convey the love and joy that has greeted us here in Bali.
Thank you, Chotie and Peter, for finding each other. Chotie, you have about the most wonderful family we have ever met. Peter is one lucky guy.
* The letter “c” is pronounced “ch” in the Indonesian and Balinese languages.
This was our first view of Bali, as sunset illuminated Mount Agung, Bali’s sacred volcano towering 10,309 feet.
Estrela arrived in Bali on September 21. We anchored at Serangan Harbor with many other yachts from the Sail Indonesia Rally. Our hosts here were SeaBali. They took great care of us, helping the foreign yachties all feel safe, even when we left boats and dinghys to tour inland. Above is a picture of SeaBali’s and Sail Indonesia’s beach headquarters near the dinghy landing jetty.
We couldn’t wait to meet our new family (which we had heard was pretty big) and the advance party joined us for a quick visit to Estrela the next morning. Kyle is holding up a picture of the Holt clan while we swap explanations of who is whose child, who’s married to whom, and who’s a cousin and how. In the big picture are, from left, one of Chotie’s brothers, named Agung, her father Ajung and uncle Tude. Our apologies (maaf) to our Balinese friends and family reading this who will, we’re sure, spot many spelling mistakes in names and places.
Uncle Tude (pronounced, “Tu’-day”) was the only real English speaker in Chotie’s clan and the Hopkins’ Bahasa Indonesian vocabulary, though growing, is still less than 50 words. So Tude was the master communicator for all of us. Through him the three men asked lots of questions about life aboard Estrela and all the complicated mechanical systems. Tude wasted no time trying his hand at onboard communications. Here he is typing an email to Chotie which we successfully transmitted moments later by high frequency radio, or SSB.
Then it was off to an elegant and delicious (enak sukali) lunch at Padi Padi, a restaurant in Kuta looking out over rich green rice fields. What a magical introduction to Bali. We returned afterwards to Estrela to rest up and get ready for our big next day of meeting Chotie’s family and visiting family homes.
This restaurant was a short distance from the site of the terrible first Bali terrorist bombing in 2002. That event is never far below the surface in many conversations between Balinese and visitors. The Balinese have paid a terrible economic price and also carry a profound sense of sorrow for the pain and loss that resulted, to the killed and injured tourists and Balinese and their families. We so appreciated the Balinese’ willingness to discuss this tragedy so openly. Their irrepressible joy in life and love affair with their island home helped us to understand how they’ve healed wounds and carried on with grace.
The next morning the family met us by the dinghy jetty and gathered us into two cars for a day of visiting family homes, meeting more family members and sharing delicious foods. Our first stop was Chotie’s mother’s family home in the villager of Gianyar, a half hour drive northeast of Bali’s capital Denpasar. From the left, here are some of Chotie’s family, mostly on her mother’s side: Uncle Tude, who runs his own travel agency*; Chotie’s mother Oka who is Uncle Tude’s sister and has a beauty salon you will see much more of later; a great aunt whose name (maaf) we missed; Chotie’s younger brother Cok Agus, twelve years old; her aunt Enny, a midwife and Uncle Tude’s wife; Chotie’s younger brother Agung, a computer science graduate; the grandmother and matriarch in red, Tude and Oka’s mother; Chotie’s father Ajung (a retired general court judge); and on the far right, another of Chotie’s uncles, Oka and Tude’s brother, who lives here with his wife (at top next to Kyle) in the family compound.
We Estrelans were dizzy trying to absorb Balinese and Hindu culture and learn family names and relationships. At the same time we were trying to savor every moment. How privileged we felt to be welcomed into Chotie’s family with such warmth and genuine affection.
*Kriya Sakti Tours and Travel (kriyasakti@denpasar.wasantara.net.id or kriyasakti@gmail.com)
The families of each of Chotie’s mother and father have large and elegant, even ornate, family home compounds, Oka’s in Gianyar and Ajung’s in Blahbatu. Each of these includes an extensive temple complex with shrines and other buildings for conducting different ceremonies. There are also many homes and living areas in each compound. Various extended family members live in these compounds at different times of their lives and all family are welcomed back whenever they can make it home.
Here we are having a delicious light snack, including “young coconut” in the main meeting area at Oka’s family home.
Each day, literally everywhere throughout Bali, thousands upon thousands of offerings like these are made up fresh from palm leaves, flowers and often rice or other food and placed in the most remarkable spots, in simple and humbling acts of spiritual devotion. These offerings were a few of the many being prepared at the family home of Chotie’s father Ajung in Blahbatu when we visited.
All family compounds, and especially the family temples, have the same basic lay-out, we learned. Here we are on the steps of the building with the same function as the one where we were photographed at Chotie’s mother and Uncle Tude’s family compound. Uncle Tude is behind the camera.
In the traditional homes of the family compounds in the villages the communal kitchen facilities were spartan. Off camera, to the girls’ right was an open fire cooking area with sticks for fuel. Kitchens in Chotie’s parents’ home and Tude and Enny’s home in Denpasar were familiar modern kitchens.
Here’s our group resting in the shade within the temple of Ajung’s family compound.
We drove to lunch at a restaurant in the nearby village of Ubud, famous for it artists, galleries, coffee houses, rice field views and, as we were to discover, quacking ducks. Here Doug tucks into crispy duck while Eliza’s chicken satay skewers continue to roast over a tiny ceramic brazier. The food in Bali has been incredibly fresh, varied and flavorful. Despite the generally gentle and peace-loving culture, however, Balinese food can also be extraordinarily spicy. The chile and shallot–based sambal sauce accompanying the grilled fish plate on banana leaves in the center of the table would elicit, a few minutes after this photo was snapped, a glistening carpet of perspiration on Doug’s freckly pate.
On the way to Chotie’s parents’ home in Denpasar we drove past Chotie’s high school.
And here we are in Chotie’s parents’ home, where Chotie grew up. Kyle is holding a picture of the newlyweds, Peter and Chotie.
Q: What’s better than one mom??????
A: Three moms!!
What a wonderful afternoon we enjoyed looking at pictures of Chotie and her brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles; exchanging stories; talking about Peter and his family and Kyle’s; and eating mysterious but delicious goodies.
Finally it was time to say goodbye for the day. We would meet the family again the following evening in Ubud for dinner. The next two days the four Hopkins were to tour Bali as a gift from Chotie and her family. We would travel in Tude’s car with Alit, his younger brother (sibling #11) and employee, as our driver and a traditionally dressed English-speaking guide named Ratna. Get some sleep and charge those batteries, Estrelans!
We started the day by attending a traditional Balinese dance in Batubulan. Called a Barong dance, it told the story of the endless conflict between good and evil, which neither can ever win forever, but in which it is expected that good (embodied by the creature named the Barong) will maintain an edge over the evil (embodied by the creature Rangda). We arrived early and sat front row, center. A monkey character even shared his banana with Abigail. If you ever have a chance to watch traditional Balinese dance, sit as close as you can and watch the actors’ eyes, especially the women’s.
Next we visited a batik and weaving workshop and gallery, the Sari Amerta Batik Collection, also in Batubulan . . .
. . . and the Puri Kancana silversmith workshop and showroom in Celuk.
At an artists’ school and cooperative we watched several artists working and bought two small pieces directly from the men who had painted them. One depicts the goddess of education in water based paint on paper and the other in acrylic on canvas shows a village scene. If only Estrela were a little bigger . . . (sigh) It’ll be a couple more years before we’ll have a home with enough wall-, shelf- and floor-space to display the artwork and crafts we are slowly acquiring and mailing home.
Lunch was high in the mountains (you can’t see the girls’ goosebumps) overlooking an enormous and picturesque crater lake and Mount Kintamani, which erupted spectacularly in 1963. The still-black river of lava can be seen beyond the heads of the diners behind us.
That’s Ratna, our very knowledgeable licensed tour guide, with thirty years experience guiding in Bali, Lombok and Java. We had stopped to sample some mountain grown and roasted Balinese coffee and cocoa. Both tasted spectacular and we stocked up. Those are cocoa pods on the table in front of us. The smoke rising behind Eliza is from the roasting coffee beans being stirred by the owners’ aged mother.
This woodcarver is the son and grandson of the master woodcarver-owners of Jaya Partha woodcarvers, where we purchased a small, intricately carved ebony Barong. He is also a painter, the same Ketut Rustawan who painted the village scene we had bought earlier in the day.
Here we are at breakfast the next day at the Panorama Hotel in Ubud. What a glorious place. With very few other guests, wonderful service, a delicious menu and a beautiful pool a couple meters from the rice fields, as well as a spacious high-ceilinged room and a bath tub(!!) these four salty sailors thought they’d awakened in heaven.
The evening before we had dined with Chotie’s parents and brothers and Uncle Tude and Enny at another lovely restaurant in Ubud. What a thrill when Chotie and Peter called from Boston to Uncle Tude’s mobile phone just as we had sat down at the table. It wasn’t the best sound connection but the love and excitement were crackling.
The first stop on our second day of touring was the royal family temple, Pura Taman Ayun, near Mengwi.
Back to the mountains we drove for lunch. Here is the rice field view from our restaurant table in the high village of Pacung.
During the downhill drive after lunch, Alit and Ratna stopped the car so we could try this unusual fruit we hadn’t seen for sale anywhere else. It’s like sucking mushed banana off huge, shiny horse chestnuts. Sounds awful, but the flavor’s great, though the fruit’s pungent aroma is pretty strong. Eliza is bravely trying this delicacy for the camera. Kyle and Doug actually loved it. Abby said, no way.
Note the American consumer icons at this fairly remote roadside stand. The Coke logo is obvious. “Country” is Marlboro Country. The billboards and signs for “Country” are everywhere in Bali.
And here is Alit. Thank goodness he was so incredibly concentrated. The narrow Balinese roads, jammed with motorbikes and oversized trucks made Doug lose a few more hairs off the top of his head – just watching from the back seat.
Next we visited the sacred monkey temple at the Alas Kedaton Monkey Forest near Mengwi. A couple of the bigger male monkeys had learned to cling politely but firmly to your leg until they were sure they had received every last peanut in your possession. This tactic was overkill with Abigail, whose long dress ended up being pulled half-way down. For most of the rest of the walk she preferred a perch on Dad’s shoulders.
The dramatically situated Hindu temple of Pura Tanah Lot becomes an island at high tide.
After this stop we returned to Ubud and the Panorama Hotel for a relaxing evening. We four ate outside under the thatched open-air gazebo where we had enjoyed breakfast overlooking the rice fields. Amazingly we were the only guests in the restaurant and, at least it seemed, in the hotel as well. So peaceful.
After another therapeutic morning gazing across rice fields we met Ratna and Alit again for the short trip south back to Serangan anchorage and Estrela.
On the way they took us to Bali Bird Park where we wandered through aviaries filled with hundreds of the most amazing exotic tropical birds any of us will ever see. Each of us took a hand with the camera, creeping up to snap close-up shots of gaudily plumaged birds. We all loved the birds of paradise best. Abby talked Bahasa Indonesian with a Myna who called, “Selamat Pagi” (good morning) to her.
Thank you, Ratna and Alit, for our three wonderful days discovering Bali with you.
We’re about to dinghy back out to Estrela to finish preparing her for the next long voyage – about 1000 nautical miles to Singapore, with a stop planned in Kalimantan (Borneo) to travel up the Kumai River to experience orangutans.
First, however, we have a very magical day ahead of us with our Balinese family. Oka, Chotie’s mom, has an unusual beauty salon in Denpasar where she specializes in formal traditional Balinese hair, make-up and dress, for men as well as women. Sometimes Oka has traveled to service clients as far away as Jakarta. Well guess what? . . . The Hopkins sailors were scheduled for a total transformation by Oka and her team of specialist technicians, on Friday, two days hence.
When we arrived at Oka Beauty Salon we gazed at photos around the walls. Here Chotie, lower right, poses at age 17 with her sister, lower left, age 19, during their tooth-filing ceremony. According to Fragrant Rice, a wonderful introduction to Balinese culture by Janet De Neefe, this is “. . . one of the most important rites of passage in Bali. The Balinese say that the essence of the six vices, or sad ripu, of matsaria (jealousy), kroda (anger), kama (desire), lobha (greed), moha (confusion), and mada (drunkenness) enter through the top six teeth. It is believed that the filing of these teeth is a way of balancing these evils within us that can create havoc and lead us to despair – and inner harmony guarantees inner peace. . . . The idea is to soften the appearance of the canines, so as not to look like a demon, and thus be admitted to heaven, meet your ancestors and maybe even God.” (pp130-131)
No tooth-filing had been scheduled for us, but we were about to undergo at least an external makeover. Eliza first . . .
Before . . .
. . . and after! Now for Abigail’s turn . . .
Before . . .
. . . and after!
Our two Balinese beauties.
Now it’s Kyle’s turn. Doug was last; he wouldn’t require any make-up or hair treatment.
Ta Daaaaaa!!!!!!!
This was a very, very special gift from Oka and her family. Uncle Tude told Doug that a woman is only dressed this formally three times in her life (first menstruation, tooth-filing, and wedding ceremonies) and a man only twice.
Chotie’s Parents, Oka and Ajung, and her brother Agung posed with the Estrelans.
With us here are Uncle Tude, his youngest sibling (#12!), also named Chotie, and her two boys.
Ajung and Kyle pose with a photo of Chotie at her tooth-filing ceremony. We wish you could have been with us, Chotie and Peter!
Oka graciously treated Kyle and the girls to real hair trims during their transformations back into sailors, their first in a real salon in nearly three years.
Then our Balinese family surprised us with a round of incredible gifts, beginning with these three quilts from Oka and Ajung. Wow! Here’s Abigail’s . . .
. . . Eliza’s . . .
. . . and Kyle and Doug’s. These will sure keep us cozy aboard Estrela. Thank you!
And then Tude and Enny gave us these two lovely Balinese paintings, this one of village life . . .
. . . and this one of Balinese women dancers. We will always remember you when we look up at these in our home.
On the way back to Estrela for a last visit, a few gifts from us and farewells, we stopped for a delicious lunch on Sanur beach, looking out to sea. We will soon have to raise anchor and sail away. We will remember our new Balinese family with deep affection and joy. We feel truly blessed to have been embraced with such love by Chotie’s family here in Bali.
We hosted the six family members and a close family friend, Turah, aboard Estrela for a short send-off visit. The two mom’s had wanted to see how the Hopkins shoehorn ourselves into our little home. Here they are down below in the cabin with Agung and the two girls.
Though we were all overflowing with smiles and love, this was a very tough farewell. It would be almost dark when our Balinese family climbed down into our dinghy and Doug motored them slowly back to shore, everyone waving until lost from sight.
We know we will see our Balinese family again, and hope it will be soon. We wish that Chotie will soon be able to return to Bali with Peter. We hope this photojournal gives Peter and his family in America a glimpse of what awaits them when they come to meet their new Balinese family.
Terima kasih banyak. Sampai jumpa segera.
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