On Tuesday Bali went into silence for Nyepi. And when I say silence, I mean silence. No one is allowed out on the streets from 6am that morning until 6am the following morning. And the streets are patrolled just in case - with people charged if they are out. It's also a day of no electricity - no lights, no TV, nothing. Just silence. Fortunately, there are some exceptions negotiated for expats or those staying in hotels - while you still can't venture the streets, you are allowed some lights (so long as curtains were drawn so they couldn't be seen) and you can cook and watch TV (although only movies as the TV stations, including pay-TV are all turned off for the day). We rather enjoyed the quietness of the day - currently there is construction occurring both next door and in front of our house with workers there 7 days a week, working from 8am until around 9pm. For one day, no hammers, no drills... bliss!
Apparently the idea of Nyepi is that the people of Bali are trying to trick the bad spirits into thinking the island has been abandoned so that they leave! Later this month there is another holiday (not a silent one thought!) where they celebrate good defeating evil.
The night before Nyepi there are ceremonies and parades with "Ogo-ogo's", which are odd looking monsters that supposedly scare away any ghosts on the island. We headed to the end point of the parade at the beach to have a look. It started to get quite late (and Alex was a little scared) so we didn't stay for much of the ceremony. I did manage to get a couple of photos before my camera battery died...
Much to report on the stitching front, but I might come back in a day or two with another blog update on that :)
Until next time xx
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