Seminyak Bali: Religion and tourism in close proximity

Cafe Seminyak on Jl. Seminyak is my usual place for a coffee. Just the other day I was sitting there with my hat and sun glasses reading the Jakarta Post, when someone said “Are you Nick?” An American tourist, who I had never met before somehow recognized me. I can sit at Cafe Seminyak and be 10 ft from a friend. If he is wearing a hat and glasses I won’t see him for 20 minutes. I guess some people are good at recognition. There is short cut from my gang to Cafe Seminyak, which take me through the front yard of some locals. They are all renting cheap rooms and when I pass they have their laundry out drying.

For me it would be a bit intrusive having a heard of buffalo charge through every morning, so I try to go though only one way per day, returning a longer way. The route leads to a small gang that run perpendicular to Jl. Seminyak and drop me only 150 meters from Bintang supermarket. Walking that lane today I saw the small pura (temple) on the corner was having an odalan (temple birthday ceremony). Local women were strolling through and I soon found out it was an odalan, the temple birthday. One lady told me the name of the temple, but I soon forgot it. The entrance was decorated with 2 tall penjor, the decorated bamboo poles. A small line of canang, the small square trays of flowers protected the entrance from evil spirits.