Tropical Storm Tour: Bali Part 16
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
A ticket seller at the gate to Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Legong Kraton dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Barong dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Today, during lunch at the Pulu Sari Warung, it took over 30 or 40 minutes for my food to arrive, which was unusual, because it usually only takes 10 or 15. Plus, there was only one other table occupied by a couple of guys. The bottleneck was caused by those two, who had ordered a crazy amount of food right before I arrived. It was nuts, because they gorged on at least four or five plates each, yet they were not very big dudes–they were even a bit on the small side. I could not understand how they could pack away so much grub. I’ll bet their stomachs almost exploded.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Barong dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Sunda Upasunda dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Sunda Upasunda dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Later, one of the guys returned a stack of four plates to the cook / server–just from his side of the table. And she kept bringing out more! At one point, after 30 minutes, I asked the cook if my food would be done soon, She said five more minutes. Ten minutes later, I got really annoyed and thought, “If she brings out one more plate to these guys before I get my food, I’m going to get up and leave.” Luckily, mine finally came out next.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Sunda Upasunda dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Sunda Upasunda dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Sunda Upasunda dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
I finished the night by taking in the Legong and Barong dance by the Sekehe Gong Panca Artha troupe at Ubud Palace. This same gamelan and dance performance by the same troupe was the first I ever saw live during my inaugural trip to Bali back in 2010. The program consisted of Legong, which was performed by three young girls who employed subtle hand and facial expressions and body movements to tell the tale of a tragic royal love triangle. Accompanied by the ever-present gamelan ringing away, this dance was very lively and jerky yet graceful at the same time.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Sunda Upasunda dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Sekehe Gong Panca Artha performs the Sunda Upasunda dance at Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
Next up came a character study of the Barong, a powerful and benevolent creature, performed by two people in one costume. “He is the king of the spirits, the leader of the good, and the enemy of the evil Rangda in the mythological traditions of Bali.”–Wikipedia. The ender arrived in the form of Sunda Upasunda, which was taken from a Hindu epic called the Mahabharata. This section of the story concerned two brothers, Sunda and Upasunda, who were merely on a quest to conquer heaven and rule the known universe.
Words and photos ©2015 Arcane Candy.
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