The weekend getaway to Bali, was exciting. The second day saw us hiring a cab to take us to various locations. We started off with a dance show, The Barong and ended up with a dance show called the Kecak at Batubulan. The one that made an impression till now is the dance show, Kecak. It relates the love story between Rama and Sita backed by about 50 to 70 men in trance singing in rhythm without any musical accompaniment. It is also the event where I made full use of my Canon G7 camera to shoot in the dark at its highest ISO3200 and using a telephoto lens without any aid of the flash internal or external.

The men in trance humming, “cak,cak, kecak, cak” in rhythm.

The beautiful Sita.

Sita and Rama in courtship.

Sita in love and despair

Sita is captured by the evil king and taken away to his abode

Hanuman, comes to the rescue.

The men in trance as the enhance the scene

Sita gives Hanuman her hairpin to pass it to Rama as a sign of her love to him

The battle is over and they unite.

Most of the scenes were very fast action which caused many pictures to be blurred.

We visited at least 9 other areas.

1. Monkey Forest at Ubud where the monkeys posed happily for me

2. The Handicraft Centre.

3. The Coffee Plantation near Tampak Siring

The coffee seed

Roasting the seeds

They served us black coffee and cocoa.

4. Mount and Lake Batur

5. Painting Centre near Batuan

6 & 7. Gold and Silver Centres near Celuk

8. The Bazaar for shopping with so many Orchids

9. The Barong Dance
– a mystical barong (the good)

vs the demon (the bad) story

The musical orchestra

The actors and actresses

The Garuda bird

The men in trance stabbing themselves

Well, something to cool that beating heart!

Enjoy!