SECOND LEG

second leg is just bali.

 bali is a small place in the malaysian islands. from the airport we were met by our tour guy for the stay, a skinny guy call Widgi (or something like that, pronounced weeji anyway) he was bare safe, knew about everything, and spoke really good english. he kept asking about home, and told us that he had never been abroad. i was thinking, as a tour guide who had never travelled outside his own country, it was kinda like working in a sex shop and being a virgin.

when we got to the hotel, we got welcomed with these nice freshly juiced tropical drinks and got some flower necklace thing round our necks, pure chilling style.

the next day, we went down to breakfast. if was a buffet with all like fresh croissants and fruit and shit there. i was eating these little banana's called my ladies fingers.

at the start of the day, Widgi took us to a play, where it had like dancers and people in constumes and stuff. something about raama and siita. i dunno, we got a little sheet about it, but it was all a bit hard to follow.
then, he took us too this sort of art gallery/shop. there were people working inside, and loads of paintings everywhere. alot of the paintings had like wooden carved frames. he was saying that the balinese people are dead arty and that because besides tourism, there isnt alot of money comes in, so they have lent to make and sell things given the materials they have.




then, we went on to this wood carving shop, which was a family business. all the stuff was super crazy good.

 but there was one massive thing, about 4 and half feet tall carved from one piece of wood. it was siita dancing, and all her sari and loads of beads round her neck were all swinging out to the side. it was fucking so so detailed, and just mad. i asked the guy how much it was and it was $3,500. he told me that when his grandad was 30, his grandad said it was time for him to become a grand master of wood carving, and he took a year and a half to make it. i wasnt allowed to take a picture of it, but it was fucking mental.
we saw bare people on this tip too when we was driving about. at midday, local people take down offerings of fruit and that to the gods at the temple. later that day, they go and collect it and eat it themselves. religion.
it was as green as this everywhere too. this was just like next to a road, bare jungle.
later that day i rode a fucking elephant! it was well cool, one of the guys who kept the elephants had a little pet monkey, and he was a pure chilling guy.
man on an elephant. i sat on his neck later on that day too, and the bastard kept trying to pull my shoes off with his trunk. they fucking stink now, gonna wash em today.
this guy was jumping on and off, taking some pictures for us, and he kept going "good tip, good photos good tip" i gave him 10,000 balinese rupia (about 6 pounds)
look at the monkeys face in this picture. he was so funny.
my little sister rose well wanted to take it home.
after riding the elephants and that we drove up this mad mad big hill for about an hour to a proper poor village, that was next to some volcano's. they were all extinct, but the one that is further away on the right hand side last erupted in 1993!
then we went to some plantation where they grow all plants and shit like that. there was bare fruit that you could try and various products they made from their produce that you could buy.
they had this coffee which i heard of on Q.I (the popular television quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry on BBC2) where the coffee beans have been eaten by a mongoose an shit out. they then wash them off and sell them, but the ones in the jar infront of us where not yet washed off.

they reckon that the mongoose only eats the ones that are ever so close to being ripe, so by the time they reach you, they are perfect you would think the fact that they have been through a fucking animal, and covered in shit would counter act this, but apparently not.
my dad tried it, was polite at the time, and later said it was fucking horrible.
as we got back in the minibus, loads of people came out of nowhere trying to sell little things. the people were so so poor, and it was all stuff that here is well expensive, but it was dead cheap, just because life is cheaper over there. the women with the folded clothes on her head was selling silks, that were patterned using wax and ink. 
other people were selling little jesus figures. bullshit.
 a rice field we saw on the way back, that was literally one of the busiest days of my life.
me and my dad paid pittance to rent two bikes for an hour and took a bike ride along the coast, it was sick.
the next day we met up with widgi again, and we went to some more places. first went to a gold and silver works factory, and there was all people making little rings and that. some guy had a cool hat, he made it from fag packets.
then to some art place, where again, a family business made tapik (sp). this is where people take material and drip hot ink on it, wait for it to dry, dye it with ink, dry it, then melt the ink back off, so the patches that had the wax on are the original colour of the fabric. if you think about it being done like that, sort of the artwork was fucking mental good. 


later we went to another temple that was real high on a cliff and there were wild moneys all walking about and that.
as the sun set we went to a performance area real up high, and the benches were all so fucking hot, because they had been roasting in the sun all day. the dance was billed as "an offering to the gods where people walk on fire". i thought, brilliant. perfect for wickedland. however, it was not quiet that, but it was pretty funny. they all sat around chanting getting into a trance for nothing. youtube vids below.

JUNGLE JUICE!!!
chickens legs and head, to buy, by the scoop from the market.

so that was bali, on the third leg of my journey!