In the first week of June my four friends and I spent a week in Bali, Indonesia, where we all attended the Third Conference of the South and South East Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion. We travelled via Kolkata and Bangkok by Thai Airways to Denpasar, the administrative headquarters of Bali, where the conference was being held. We checked in at the Puri Dalem hotel located in Sanur, a five minutes’ walk from Sanur beach. The five of us — Deepirekha Kouli, Sangeeta Gogoi, Ritu Thaosen, Sikhamoni Konwar and I — were assigned two cottages in the hotel that had exquisite sculptures and carved doors.

The next day, i.e. June 3, along with other delegates we were taken by a bus for the inauguration ceremony to the Institute Seni Indonesia (ISI), an organization similar to our Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted with folded hands, just like our Indian namaskar, by young students dressed in traditional attire. There was a wonderful musical recital by a women orchestra known as Asti Prativi and young children on an instrument that resembled a xylophone made of bamboo. The young musicians are called Asti Kumara. This was followed by a dance recital.

The next four days saw 567 papers presented by scholars from 63 countries. We felt very proud that the guest of honour was our Indian Ambassador to Indonesia Biren Nanda who spoke about the age-long cultural relations between our country and Bali. While two of my friends had finished their presentations on day one itself, we realized that our remaining three presentations were scheduled for June 5. So with the help of the organizers we arranged to see something of the island the next day.

Our taxi promptly arrived at 9 am on June 4. Our driver-cum-guide was a young man called I Made Budi, pronounced E-maa-de-Buddi. When we remarked that so many men seemed to have similar names, he explained that the names of all middle sons were pre-fixed with I Made, like the Assamese maju. The first stop on our itinerary was the Bali Orchid Garden. I had earlier visited the orchid gardens in Singapore. Although not on the same scale, it was really lovely walking among the flowers. Then we visited an agro-farm where in little bamboo shacks one could sample free coffee, tea and ginger and lemon tea. There we also sampled a fruit, locally known as ‘snake-fruit’ as its skin resembled a snake’s skin. Our next stop was Kintamoni to see an active volcano and the Batur Lake. On the way we were overwhelmed to see many roadside artist studios with beautiful stone sculptures and wood furniture. Our guide said these local craftsmen have continued this tradition down the ages. Bali is famous for its wooden, silver and leather crafts. Budi took us to a shop selling beautiful silver jewellery. The prices were quite high as compared to India.

By the time we reached Kintamoni it was lunch time. The buffet lunch in a restaurant called the Bhumi Ayur was expensive but very interesting. The food was mainly boiled and lightly fried fare. There was roasted fish and meat on sticks, similar to our Assamese khorika. There was also an array of colourful desserts.

Lake Batur was really a beautiful place, calm and peaceful. However, the peace was at times disturbed by hawkers who refused to let us be. I was thrilled to have bought a beautiful sculpture of an old fisherman for $10 (which in Balinese rupiya was equivalent to one lakh). The Balinese currency is very weak, 10,000 rupiya being equivalent to one dollar. Hence while in Bali we felt very rich indeed, dealing in thousands and lakhs of rupiya! We also visited an arts and crafts emporium where the sheer beauty of the goods on display overwhelmed us.

On the way back we halted at a village temple. All Balinese villages have their own temple, dedicated to the Hindu Trinity — Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. They also worship the sun god Surya. The individual shrines resemble thatched cottages with curved roofs like pagodas. To enter the temple we had to put on a sarong. Although Indonesia has one of the largest Islamic populations in the world, 90% of the people in Bali are Hindus. But Indonesia as a whole does not deny its Hindu legacy and the local language has more Sanskrit words than does Hindi.

That night the ISI students put up a grand cultural programme, the highlight being dance called Ligong Kuatul where young girls dressed as birds, looking for food, sway to the beats. On June 5, the venue of the conference was the Universitas Hindu Indonesia, replete with traditional buildings. During the day we had skipped lunch at the conference and instead gone to a local shopping mall called Matahari where we tried a variety of local fare at the food court. Although the suckling pig is considered to be a special delicacy, because of the swine flu scare it was not available. So we had different dishes containing sea fish, prawns and chicken.

The next day the conference drew to a close and we were taken in a convoy of buses to Ubud, to the famous Gianyar Temple and the palace of the king of Gianyar. We were privileged to watch a special ritual temple dance known as Odalan that is held every ten years or so. Many of the dancers looked very similar to young girls from this part of India and their woven sarongs resembled our woven fabrics. We all had dinner at the Casa Luna. It was a grand buffet dinner preceded by traditional local cocktails. All too soon, our Bali trip was over.

The next day we would all fly home. As our flight was at 4 pm we spent the morning at the Sanur beach and also indulged in some more shopping at the beach stalls with their colourful wares. We also visited the Bali Museum which consists of a series of double storied traditional cottages with traditional sculptured entrances. After this, we rushed to our hotel, had a light lunch and went to the airport, taking with us fond memories of the enchanting island of Bali and their artistic people.

Dr Paromita Das