You tourists who come to Bali purely for sun, sex, shopping and slosh – the cringe-worthy, sunburnt, hair-braided, whining, alcoholic ‘muppets’ who always end up sitting next to me on international flights – I forgive you for not realising that this wonderful island is actually home to an indigenous people with glorious cultural traditions. But only because your eyes aren’t trained to stray any further than the top of a beer can…
And without getting into the details of how blatantly different (and utterly valid, I might add) cultures, and hence mindsets and world-views, are across this planet, the way Balinese ‘holiday’ themselves and the way you ‘holiday’ yourselves are not likely to be the same.
So where do Balinese go to ‘get away’ once in a while? Beaches and picnic areas, especially the botanical gardens at Bedugul are favorite destinations, but staying overnight is almost unheard of, except perhaps with family who may happen to live in the area. Couples may be seen gingerly holding hands and cuddling, but never getting into gratuitous PDA as may be considered the norm in our home countries. Sunbathing, except for health reasons, and parading around in bikinis and thongs is definitely not the lingua franca of the Balinese beach break. People modestly swim in t-shirts and shorts and there is no showing off of the ‘body beautiful’ à la our beaches back home. Popular holiday food is grilled corn basted with chilli sauce and sweet glutinous rice cakes. Beer is not on the menu on any Balinese holiday bash.
Any ‘holiday’ longer than a day will be focussed around religious pilgrimages. Top-of-the list Bali-Hindu missions include Semeru, Bromo and the large temple in Jakarta. Most people will go by bus; however the wealthy will fly, some even making the ultimate Hindu pilgrimage: India.
Overseas holidays are reserved for the super-rich and probably not on the wish-list of the average Balinese, since their way of thinking still very much revolves around the community. Anyway, if everyone was going overseas for holidays all the time, who would run all the ceremonies?
