Main enterance's floor

Finally from plan to action! The making process of mosaic floor to the main enterance. First I sketch the shapes and patterns for the floor. After selecting the shape I sketch for the colours. After selecting the colours we started to actually make the mosaic for the floor and stairs.

It feels so great to see it there. The men doing it were so happy and fast! After it was ready they said they really like the design, and by the look on their face when they took the paper with measurements and all I wouldn't be surprised to see them making it to somewhere else too :) 

Kecak and fire dance

Kecak is classical balinese dance style where they use no musical instruments but only human voices. Almost a hundred men sits in a circle making the kecak sounds and the dancers performs in the center around the big light stand.  This kecak was a story from the Ramayana epic. This circle has also been seen in films like Avatar and The Fall because of the strong visual effect.

The sanghyang dedari dance followed after the kecak. In this dance two young girls (dedari = angels) does the whole performance in trance, eyes closed. In the end they are brought out of trance by the pemangku, a man who prays deside them and blesses them with holy water. In my opinion this was the most beautiful part of the evening. The girls were so serene and the contrast between the older women in simple clothes and the young girls in gold and decorativr clothes was impressive.

The last part of the dances were the sanghyang jaran dance. This fire dance were performed by a young man playing to ride on a horse (jaran = horse). First he just dance around the bonfire but if the sanghyan song leads him to the fire he will dance on it. It was very cool to see him dancing on the fire and see no sign of pain or anything.

Lurking in the dark

Tonight I took a flaslight and went to see how the night view from the house looks like. On my way there I stopped by the pool to ponder what are those small stones casting the long shadows. Taking a closer look there were toads just staying still every here and there in the darkness.
  

The remains of the dinosaurs?

Funny looking one

Japanese restaurant

In the beginning of last week we went to Ryoshi, a japanese restaurant with Ayu and Bagus. Great food and nice place even if Ayu an Bagus had some family drama :)

A lot to choose from.

Nice place and atmosphere

And good food :)

Very clear night at the hotel's pool

View from the hotel's top floor.

Local wedding

Some weeks ago we went to a local wedding of one Ketut's employee.

a part of the ceremony, wedding couple on left.

Me, a little sister of another employee of the restaurant and Ketut

Balinese buffet

Bagus and the gang

Lembu

Yesterday while walking around Ubud I saw these decorative cows next to one temple. Now I sit in the Gayatri restaurant and after asking what they are for the waitresses and Ketut's sister tells me about them. Because of the language barrier Im not sure if I got all the details correct but it is something like this: 

"Lembu" means cows in Malay. These ritual cows are a part of the mass cremation which will happen in the end of July.  All the people who have died before this and been once burned already will be caved back up and be placed in these cows for the second, more ceremonial cremation where they burn these cows and the ashes inside (Sometimes they also place bodies inside these if there hasn't yet been the first cremation). This happends maybe every 4-5 years and it is a really big ceremony. There are different animals for different occasions and Im not sure how they are related to the caste and regions but sometimes they make for example lions too.

Operation Gayatri House

Here are some pictures about the Gayatri House we are making. We are still finishing the details of the building before starting to put the interiors together. These first pictures are when I arrived here and the windows ect wasnt yet installed but slowly slowly it is happening! Today we started to build the kichen and everyday I have made plans and sketches about the interiors. So when the rooms are cleaned and ready the interiors will happend :)

Mainenterance is soon ready to have the mosaic on it :)

stones to do the bathroom floors and the mosaic for the main enterance.

Today started to built the kitchen.