Bali: People

I have fallen in love with the beautiful people of SE Asia and Bali was no exception.  The people we met were gracious and friendly and so lovely.  I could have spent days photographing them.  Their culture and religion are still so living, which is what I think makes Bali such an interesting place.

Haggling or bartering is a way of life in Bali and they are disappointed if you don't join in.

Mara had her first experience with this.  While shopping at the market in Ubud for her souvenir, she eyed this bracelet and HAD to have it.  We hid it under the others and went to look a little more.  After several minutes of her insisting someone else would buy it, we went back and I told her to ask how much.  "50,000" says the seller. I tell her to say 20,000.  "40,000" replies the seller.  Mara, with no clue what is really going on, agrees, "OK".  Quickly I whisper in her ear that we can't pay over 25,000 (~$3USD) Mara says, "25,000 and no more." The woman LOVED it!  She giggled and said, "Ok. It's yours!"  Ben is terrible at bargaining and insisted that I play that role as it's my strong suit, so I'm just aiming to pass those skills onto the next generation.  Had I intended beforehand to have her do the buying, I would have pulled out the video camera to record the transaction.

Ok.  Back to the beautiful people of Bali....

 Girls at a temple.  Their bindi are so unique.  I'd never seen ones like these before. 

Is it wrong that I thought these little poker players are the cutest thing ever?!  They were so darling and very methodical about their game.  I'm pretty sure the little guy in the orange shirt is spying for his friends. :)

Like all important events in their religion, wedding dates are based on the Balinese calendar.  We happened to be there during the ideal time to get married.  We saw many homes decorated like this.  Both the groom's and the bride's houses are decorated as celebrations take place at each one and last for days.  They start at the bride's house and then move onto the groom's, which is where (I'm almost certain) the official ceremony takes place.  We saw a  couple wedding parties en-route to the groom's house. 

A maid-of-honor, who let me photograph her.  I loved her beautiful attire.  What you wear is determined by the groom's caste.  The bride marries into the grooms caste whether it is to a higher or lower caste.   Our driver then asked the wedding party whether I could take a few photos of the celebration. 

I was so thrilled to have a chance to go in a see what it was like.  They were all so kind and gave me a yummy cake to try.  I'm not sure how I would have felt having some foreigner off the street show up at our wedding wanting to take photos.  But everyone was just sitting around seeming pretty bored. :)

Does anyone know if there is meaning behind how the men where their head scarves?  I noticed several different styles.  I wondered if it was just a preference for a certain style or whether it had something to do with religion, i.e. their priesthood. 

The bride and groom 

I spoke with this sweet family on my way out of the wedding.  I asked how old their daughter was and commented on how darling she is (all in Balinese, of course).  They said, "Take a picture.  Take a picture of her."  I was more than happy to oblige. 

Looks like a comfy spot to read the paper but I am pretty sure he was sleeping! 

 I was so impressed by how much they carried on their heads.  They must have really strong necks.

 Darling girls on their way to school in the morning.

 Last but not least, I kept running into these two lovely ladies on the trip.