Tuesday, 9 June 2009
We wondered if Jamming would come to pick us up at Munduck, thinking something better might have turned up. It would have been no problem to have organised an alternative lift. In fact he arrived before 10am and as we set off he said that because it was Sunday (they work a six day week here) there would be a game of Gangsing, I had learned the name from the info at the hotel and found that the game was only played in three local villages. As we approached the pitch we had seen earlier it was obvious it was a big event for motorbikes filled the verge for almost a km before we parked 200m further on. A passionate crowd were gathered on all four sides several people deep, women watching with children from the house next door. We paid 0.5$ for entrance for us three including two parking places for a car.
We quickly mingled in with the crowd at the point where they were preparing the tops and mending those with a sort of plastic wood if they were chipped in battle. We watched an old man with a bottle of oil, presumably coconut oil which seems to be used for everything here, this was used by the winders to wipe the 3 m ropes with oil before fastening them into as tight a coil as they could before handing to the pitchers, initial tension was gained by tugging it round whilst holding the rope with their foot.
Across the other side was the score board which showed that the team Bolangan were leading by 2 to zero and they quickly made it 5- 0 indicated by four figure ones crossed out diagonally, I think that this represented victory in the first set. The game incidentally would be played from 10am to 12.30. But Empada struck back probably using the pitchers we had seen earlier and took the next set 5-0 and looked to dominate from then on.
I was trying to decipher the rules, a referee with whistle studied carefully.
The vaguely square pitch was then divided into four quarters named 1, 4, 2, 3. There were two teams each of 12 players I was told. It was not clear which players belonged to which team as all wore casual clothing. A pitcher set his top spinning and almost immediately a player from the opposite thew his fiercely spinning top on top of the other. Perfection seemed to be to hit it dead centre and straight down in which case the top underneath stopped spinning but the attacking top spun merrily away, this was the end of this game. More typically the attacking top would bounce off and both would continue spinning, The next one would be started spinning and attacked straight away, usually both would remain spinning, a third and a fourth would be spun and attacked in the same way. After a short time there would normally be only three spinning as the ones wounded collapsed early, but it would be several minutes before the victor emerged. It was difficult to spot which of the last two was going to win but the crowd sensed the end and started rhythmic clapping to urge it on, interspersed with cheering and counter cheering, though whether in encouragement of their own or as a death wish on the other we could not tell.
Sensing we had begun to understand the game and experienced the atmosphere we went in search of Jamming and found him sitting in the circle around the CD and MP3 CD seller. Jamming bought two but had to take one back when he found the player in the car would not accept MP3. We bought one of each type with traditional Balinese music for the princely sum of one pound.
There was a party atmosphere with several stalls selling food and drink, at one of which Jamming had his breakfast. The police house was next door and they patrolled but we saw little trouble in the crowd. A man with a peddle bike was selling ice cream, shades of Britain in the 40's.
Not much further incident before Pemuteran where we suffered a puncture, which was a problem because we didn't have a tool to match the nuts on this Suzuki. However help was soon at hand from standers by and we paid off two helpers with 1$ and 0.5$.
After looking at three possible venues we struck on Jubawa for 25$ with a full cooked breakfast for two, they had reduced their asking price by 10$, however Reef Seen a dive centre refused to budge form 50$. In fact we ended up getting a much better room at half the price, possibly the best room so far in a town where most beach hotels go for several hundred dollars. Nothing was lost as you are welcome to go to Reef Seen, at this time of year at least, to hire high quality snorkels and masks, 4$/3 hours, and then (off season at least) to use their sun loungers.
That's about it really two lazy days on loungers with daily swimming and snorkeling over the reef with coral just offshore. Reef Seen is active in restoring the coral using low voltage electric cages around rocks which encourage new limestone formation on the wires and form a base for new coral growth. The beach is grey as the rocks of the area are volcanic and black, in all other respects it is by far the best beach location we have yet seen in Bali. The place is above all a diving centre and Reef Seen and many other hotels offer daily diving trips including one to the island between Bali and Java for 45$. We did not take this, but given a third day we would because of the rave review we picked up from an Aussie, who had only snorkled there, this afternoon.
Reef Seen in 1991 started a project to collect eggs, hatch and nurture and finally release them on a suitable beach in an on going attempt to reestablish the local population following the earlier destruction of the coral. One turtle from the first batch kept returning to shore and they now have this one in a separate tank and hope to use it to breed turtles in captivity, for release.
We quickly mingled in with the crowd at the point where they were preparing the tops and mending those with a sort of plastic wood if they were chipped in battle. We watched an old man with a bottle of oil, presumably coconut oil which seems to be used for everything here, this was used by the winders to wipe the 3 m ropes with oil before fastening them into as tight a coil as they could before handing to the pitchers, initial tension was gained by tugging it round whilst holding the rope with their foot.Across the other side was the score board which showed that the team Bolangan were leading by 2 to zero and they quickly made it 5- 0 indicated by four figure ones crossed out diagonally, I think that this represented victory in the first set. The game incidentally would be played from 10am to 12.30. But Empada struck back probably using the pitchers we had seen earlier and took the next set 5-0 and looked to dominate from then on.
I was trying to decipher the rules, a referee with whistle studied carefully.The vaguely square pitch was then divided into four quarters named 1, 4, 2, 3. There were two teams each of 12 players I was told. It was not clear which players belonged to which team as all wore casual clothing. A pitcher set his top spinning and almost immediately a player from the opposite thew his fiercely spinning top on top of the other. Perfection seemed to be to hit it dead centre and straight down in which case the top underneath stopped spinning but the attacking top spun merrily away, this was the end of this game. More typically the attacking top would bounce off and both would continue spinning, The next one would be started spinning and attacked straight away, usually both would remain spinning, a third and a fourth would be spun and attacked in the same way. After a short time there would normally be only three spinning as the ones wounded collapsed early, but it would be several minutes before the victor emerged. It was difficult to spot which of the last two was going to win but the crowd sensed the end and started rhythmic clapping to urge it on, interspersed with cheering and counter cheering, though whether in encouragement of their own or as a death wish on the other we could not tell.
Sensing we had begun to understand the game and experienced the atmosphere we went in search of Jamming and found him sitting in the circle around the CD and MP3 CD seller. Jamming bought two but had to take one back when he found the player in the car would not accept MP3. We bought one of each type with traditional Balinese music for the princely sum of one pound.There was a party atmosphere with several stalls selling food and drink, at one of which Jamming had his breakfast. The police house was next door and they patrolled but we saw little trouble in the crowd. A man with a peddle bike was selling ice cream, shades of Britain in the 40's.
Not much further incident before Pemuteran where we suffered a puncture, which was a problem because we didn't have a tool to match the nuts on this Suzuki. However help was soon at hand from standers by and we paid off two helpers with 1$ and 0.5$.
After looking at three possible venues we struck on Jubawa for 25$ with a full cooked breakfast for two, they had reduced their asking price by 10$, however Reef Seen a dive centre refused to budge form 50$. In fact we ended up getting a much better room at half the price, possibly the best room so far in a town where most beach hotels go for several hundred dollars. Nothing was lost as you are welcome to go to Reef Seen, at this time of year at least, to hire high quality snorkels and masks, 4$/3 hours, and then (off season at least) to use their sun loungers.That's about it really two lazy days on loungers with daily swimming and snorkeling over the reef with coral just offshore. Reef Seen is active in restoring the coral using low voltage electric cages around rocks which encourage new limestone formation on the wires and form a base for new coral growth. The beach is grey as the rocks of the area are volcanic and black, in all other respects it is by far the best beach location we have yet seen in Bali. The place is above all a diving centre and Reef Seen and many other hotels offer daily diving trips including one to the island between Bali and Java for 45$. We did not take this, but given a third day we would because of the rave review we picked up from an Aussie, who had only snorkled there, this afternoon.
Reef Seen in 1991 started a project to collect eggs, hatch and nurture and finally release them on a suitable beach in an on going attempt to reestablish the local population following the earlier destruction of the coral. One turtle from the first batch kept returning to shore and they now have this one in a separate tank and hope to use it to breed turtles in captivity, for release. 
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