The festival features arts, crafts, traditional and modern performances, plenty of food, a night market, and a midway. It is ridiculously well attended, and has the vibe of a county fair. But it’s Bali, so everything about it is beautiful. We went our first night, and it was so much fun we spent the next two evenings there, as well.

Grounds

To call the grounds rich is to diminish them, but there are only so many superlatives to throw around. Close your eyes and spin, and when you open them you’ll be staring something marvelous in the face. It’s dense.

This is just the entrance gate.

It’s not at all clear how much of the decorative infrastructure is reused vs. what’s created fresh each year. Some of the more elaborate constructions seem to be made of ephemeral materials, but even if some pieces are reused, they’re all beautifully maintained, and certainly look brand new.

This is just one of the stages.

But wait. There’s more.

As promised, there’s even a midway, as part of the stalls that make up the market area.

And plenty of food stalls. We were there three nights and ate dinner in the stalls every evening. The cuisine has a distinct top note of ouch. I believe they use the chilis in surgery instead of anesthesia, to distract from the pain. When we are given the option of pedas (spicy) or not, we choose not.

Performance

We saw dance and music performances every night, and got a crash course in Balinese gamelan music, which is both offered on its own and accompanies the dance. I kind of wasn’t expecting to like gamelan, as it doesn’t use a Western tonal scale, and operates, in my mind, in the same taxonomic space as Chinese opera. Which sounds to me like cats desperate to convince you of something very, very important.

I may have to revisit that bias now, as I truly loved the gamelan music. It has the manic, coked up energy of a Raymond Scott Looney Tunes score.

Gamelan is not, as I had ignorantly thought, an instrument, but a style of music. While there’s the odd flute or string, the vast majority of the instruments are percussive: drums, xylophones, gongs, and metallophones (tuned percussion). That’s a gangsa metallophone on the right.

While this isn’t the craziest music we heard, it’s the craziest we recorded.

But that wasn’t our first exposure to gamelan music, which came on our first night, in an outdoor arena that seats 6,000, but had plenty more standing.

What we didn’t know we had walked into was some sort of weird all-female gamelan orchestra battle of the bands, featuring dozens of women in identical outfits, like a Bizarro Tommy Dorsey orchestra.

They must have been local celebrities, because each band had a cheering section with fans waving flags the same color as their outfits. The whole thing had the energy of an Iggy Pop performance, the ambiance of a World Cup match, and the choreography of a Busby Berkeley jam. It was enchanting.

Then there was this, and whatever was making those weird harmonics. I thought it was singing, but Dorothy thought it was flute and strings. We both thought it was wild.

Topeng Dances

Topeng is a masked dance that is found throughout Indonesia, not just in Bali, with roots that stretch back to 850 AD or earlier. While they originally focused on nature and ancestors, the introduction of Hinduism to Indonesia added the Ramayana and Mahabharata as source texts for new dances. Still, many dances represent archetypal characters more than structured narratives.

Here’s the blustery guy arguing with another character. This went on for so long, without dance or music, that we had to leave. I’m sure it was funny if you spoke Indonesian, but that left us out.

We think this character is Patih Keras, a high-ranking court official. But that doesn’t get us anywhere near understanding the narrative of this dance. This clip is long, as I wanted to capture an entire performance, so feel free to bail. I certainly wanted to, or have magically sprouted a tripod. On the other hand, it does an excellent job of capturing the sonic range of a gamelan orchestra, which can go from eerie to frenetic, delicate to thunderous, and every stop in-between.

In this particular case, the music is sinister and the dance is a little creepy, making a compelling combination. The dancer’s fine body control is something to behold.

Ramayana Dance

While the Topeng trended more folk dance, there was another troupe that focussed on Ramayana dances. Knowing that didn’t make them any easier to understand, but there was at least some familiarity. The Ramayana has been a consistent through line during our time in Southeast Asia.

We think these dances had something to do with trickery, abduction, and, shall we say delicately, seduction. But only because that seems to be what the entire Ramayana is about. This may have been about a lovely picnic.

Again, the body control is very hard to wrap your head around.

This dance, though, was the bomb. We were totally not expecting saucy drag. Shockingly, Googling “ramayana saucy drag” brings back nothing, when it should most assuredly be bringing back this.

More Ramayana…

This performance was less dance, more play, and was played very broadly. So broadly that I tagged it as commedia dell’arte when I filed the photos. It’s still from the Ramayana, and appears to involve giants, or giant hermits, kidnapping fairies, or little girls, or princesses. And impertinent men hitting on saucy wenches. Or something. There was much declaiming.

The Crafts Mall

And this is where our dreams came true, and the reason we didn’t bother trying to fabric shop on Jalan Sulawesi. This was a selection of artisans so perfectly curated that we didn’t have to go anywhere else to find the very best artifacts. They had conveniently all been brought into one place, seemingly just for us.

The indoor mall had a large open courtyard, with a side gallery featuring a series of four rooms with textiles and jewelry.

Crafts

The courtyard had all sorts of things, from housewares to sculptures in a variety of media. For whatever reason, what leapt out was one woman who hand painted baskets, purses, fans, and wall hangings, using canvas and reed. Dorothy picked up a swell fan.

Jewelry

There’s a famous silver village, Celuk, just half an hour from Denpasar, that had been on our list. But since it seemed like every major Celuk jeweler had a booth in the craft mall, no need. I bought a ring and we both bought earrings.

The four large side galleries were all set up identically: three walls of textile makers, the fourth wall and the center island for jewelers.

And… Ikat!

We’d done a good job picking up display quality textiles on our day trips to Tenganan and Sidemen, but we needed things that could be cut up and made into garments. We only have so much wall space, but I wear shirts every day.

As with the jewelry, it seemed like every artisanal ikat maker was represented at the craft mall, so it was an incredible one-stop shop. We bought fabric each of the three nights we attended the fair. They started to recognize us.

The range and selection was astonishing, and rewarded three nights of viewing. Every time we went back we saw amazing things that we’d somehow overlooked on previous visits. I’m glad we took the time to go slow and dive deep. Our wardrobes will thank us.

One of the most amazing things we saw was ikat with figurative, brocade-like designs. I understand how that’s theoretically possible, but it still doesn’t seem practically achievable. The technical complexity is just through the roof.

Here’s another thing that should be impossible. That hand-woven stripe on the right isn’t pieced in. It’s woven on the same loom as the ikat. Then just to show off, it shifts back to ikat. Insane.

But this is going to end up exactly where you thought it would: with loot. We bought us some fabric.

I have to blame Dorothy for the fact that I’m a fabric slut. I can’t imagine that I’d have wound up in that place without her influence and guidance. My world is profoundly enriched by that, as it is by her in so many, many ways.

Unless you need dental work done. Then Denpasar is a must-visit dental tourism destination. Because, you guessed it, we needed dental work done.

Dorothy developed a throbbing pain in a tooth with a filling, so we got a referral to a dentist in Amlapura, a mere hour from Amed, rather than the three-hour drive to Denpasar. Verdict: “Dude, that’s fucked up. You need to see an endodontist.” They provided a referral to a provider in Denpasar, but they couldn’t see her soon enough, so we found someone the old fashioned way: Google Reviews.

We made an appointment and got dropped off here. Which is whatever the superlative of unprepossessing is.

Despite the first impression, the interior was clean, modern, and well-staffed. We’d made an appointment for an exam for Dorothy and a cleaning for me. My cleaning was outstanding, maybe the best I’ve ever had, and the price tag was 600,000 rupiah, about $35 USD. It was so good, I canceled my return cleaning at my expensive Chicago dentist. This is how I’ll be managing dental care going forward.

Dorothy’s X-rays and exam came to $18, and they scheduled her for a crown. One appointment for the surgery and the temporary, and a follow-up appointment to install the final crown. That last appointment was five days before we needed to be in Denpasar to fly to Yogyakarta, so we decided to burn our last five days in Amed and pick up a hotel in Denpasar. Easier than the back and forth, and onsite in case any follow-up care was required before we left.

As it happened, they were able to replace the filling on Dorothy’s first visit, so she never went the crown route, but we stuck with our plans to finish up Bali in Denpasar. Why not? By the way, the hypermodern, ridiculously skillful filling came to $60 USD. Here’s hoping our next dental emergency happens outside the US, where we can afford it.

We were pretty confident we could fill five days in Denpasar. Despite its reputation, a little digging revealed a fair amount going on. There was a whole street of fabric stores, a massive craft market, an array of temples, and an annual, month-long arts fair. We’d be fine.

Goa Lawah Bat Cave Temple

Our first stop was actually on the road to Denpasar, the famous Bat Cave Temple in the seaside village of Klungkung. It’s truly built around the opening of a bat cave, although that part wasn’t open to the public. It’s one of Bali’s six most holy sites, and dates back to the 11th century. And it’s bat-themed. Which is, I suppose, all you truly need to know.

We thought this was pretty cool, right at the first courtyard. But then we looked closely and realized it was starlings, not bats. Still pretty cool.

The courtyard also featured a couple of these crazy seed beasts. I have no idea why it appears to be standing over a pair of severed human feet. It does give one pause.

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Like all proper Balinese temples, a cadre of fierce yet charming guardians.

There was plenty of action cross the street from the temple, too. There were services being conducted right by the beach.

Even better, there was a massive bat-themed sculpture (Installation? Roadside attraction?) that was the total highlight of the visit.

Hunting Crafts

I had a couple of hours to kill on our day trip to Denpasar for Dorothy’s filling. I thought I’d check out the Kumbasari Art Market, four floors of crafts. I figured I could scope it out in advance and that Dorothy and I could make quick work of it together when we came back.

Kumbasari was impressive in scale, the first two floors dedicated to clothing and textiles and the upper two floors featuring handicrafts. Bali is known for its beautiful ikats, and while we’d picked up museum quality specimens in our day trips to Tenganan and Sidemen, we were short on textiles that could be fashioned into personal wardrobe.

With that prompt, I was in and out of Kumbasari pretty quickly. The third and fourth floor crafts mall was mostly souvenir grade goods. There were some nice wooden bowls and trays, but nothing that inspired acquisitiveness, and certainly nothing that warranted trying to squeeze in the additional weight of wooden artifacts. And the first two floors were mostly utilitarian ready-made clothes for locals, so no treasures to be unearthed there, either. Unless we truly ran out of things to do, there’d be no reason to return with Dorothy.

That took all of half an hour, so with more time to kill I crossed the street to Denpasar’s largest fresh market, Pasar Badung. We’d be staying in a hotel for our five days in Denpasar, so we wouldn’t be cooking. Still, these local markets are always a treat and it was fun to walk through. But knowing that we wouldn’t be shopping there meant it was more a tourist visit than a scouting trip, so that didn’t take long, either.

Finally, I took a quick tour of Julan Sulawesi, three solid blocks of nothing but fabric stores. I didn’t do any shopping on my own, but this definitely warranted returning with Dorothy.

We did go back, but the goods leaned distinctly utilitarian. There wasn’t a lot of art there, and we wound up scarcely stopping. Part of that was because the night before we’d gone to the annual arts fair, Pesta Kesenian Bali, and that’s where the action was. They had a craft mall set up with an exceptionally well curated selection of textiles, jewelry, and crafts. We went three of our four nights in Denpasar, and found something new each night. With a rich array of art, performances, and food, I had to give Pesta Kesenian Bali it’s own post.

Bali Provincial Museum

The Bali Provincial Museum was just the right size to do in about an hour without feeling overwhelmed. There are three galleries, each housed in a discrete building. As with so many Balinese museums, the grounds were as, or perhaps more, spectacular than the collection.

The collection itself was… odd. There were representations of multiple art forms, but all of the artifacts on display seemed modern. I’m not at all clear what their curatorial POV might have been, but it was still all interesting stuff.

Bajra Sandhi Monument

This, despite looking ancient, is modern, designed in 1981 with construction completed in 2013. Its design abstractly celebrates Indonesian independence, which was declared on August 17, 1945. The monument has eight main pillars, 17 gates, and central tower of 45 meters. Which, you know, visually screams, “Hey! It’s about independence.” Couldn’t be more obvious.

Still, even if you somehow miss the hit-you-over-the-head symbolism, the building is awesome and the site is beautiful.

The exterior is also festooned, as the Balinese do, with guardians.

The first thing you notice is the faux Victorian interior, complete with marble columns and staircases and a pond. Because, you know, Independence.

The second thing you notice on entry is the garish, exaggerated sculptures of pig-nosed turtles. They surround the main floor, with their snouts facing out and their tails facing in. There’s no overt explanation for their presence, but Hindus believe the world is supported on the back of a turtle, so… probably?

The second floor is a rotunda with wall to wall dioramas covering the entire history of Bali. So, plenty of chieftains overseeing their bucolic domains, and plenty of Dutch fuckery. Which, sadly, is not the name of Amsterdam’s red light district.

It’s a lot of fuckery to take in at once, and I’m not sure the dioramas truly help it go down easier. Dioramas don’t usually make me want to cry.

It turns out that a 45 meter tall tower holds lots of steps. Lots and lots of steps. But if you make your way to the top, no matter how slowly, you are rewarded with spectacular views, both of the surrounding area and the compound itself.

Puri Agung Pemecutan, The Pemecutan Royal Palace

This 17th century palace is technically open to visitors, but only a tiny bit. You get the outside, but the inside is off limits. Still, sometimes a lot is too much, so I’m not going to complain about having a manageable scale.

Mostly, as seems to the case in Bali, it was about the statues. There were the expected Balinese guardians, but the emphasis here was on goofy animals. Hard not to love ’em.

Roadside Attractions

No trip anywhere is complete without enjoying what can be found on the way.

This was an innovation in dessert so compelling we went back. They make and stock plain yeast donuts. The bins on the left are the icing dips, and the bins on the right are the toppings. So you could get mango icing with peanuts, or chocolate icing with crispy ball pink. As you should. And they make them to your spec right there. In front of you.

And this, just your run of the mill bridge decoration. Basic.

And finally. I thought it was a lesbian bar, but it turned out to be a women’s clothing store. I wasn’t going in either way, but I was still kind of disappointed.