Four Faced Gods & Giant Chess
Denpasar, 5th March 2002
 Due
to a mix of their bad days in Bali and the fact they were almost
down to their last dollars, the girls have booked an early flight
home. They were unable to change their round-the-world ticket to an
earlier date because there were no suitable, available flights. So
they had been forced to spend, literally, their last bit of money on
flight tickets to Heathrow (London) via Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). The
tickets cost over 400 pounds each, so for their last few days in
Bali, they were sticking to very tight budgets.
Because of their budget watching, Em and Nat had spent all their
time in Bali in the town of Kuta. But in the end, I managed to talk
them into a day trip to Denpasar, the capital of Bali. I told them
it would be a lovely breath of fresh air in comparison to hectic,
hustling Kuta. But, I was a little wrong! Sorry girls!
We jumped into a metered taxi (the cheapest and easiest way to
travel when you're in a group of 4) and off we went. We passed
through a mix of green bush and grey buildings until the landscape
became progressively greyer and greyer. As we wound through the
streets, the roads were just as packed as they were in Kuta,
motorbikes and mopeds squeezed into every tiny space.
We soon stopped next to a lovely green park, right in the centre of
Denpasar, right next to the main temple. Our taxi driver directed us
towards the museum, I think he hoped to get a commission for getting
us to go there, but we weren't interested in going until later, so
we just thanked him and walked off.
We walked towards the temple and a friendly old guy who could speak
fairly good English, albeit with a heavy Balinese accent,
enthusiastically introduced himself to us, then guided us into the
main entrance to the temple. Next to the entrance was a small table
with a pile of sarongs & temple scarves on it. He told us that we
would need to hire these to wear. It is compulsory for everyone to
wear sarongs tied with a temple scarf when in an Indonesian temple.
We would need to pay a fee of US$2 each though to hire them. This
was fair enough because I had read about this religious conduct
before. We all put on our sarongs, the guy kindly gave Stinge and I
the pink ones. Ta. Pink dresses, even with a different name, aren't
really my thing. Anyhow, once we all had one on, the elderly guy,
who was introduced to as the owner/caretaker/responsible guy(?) of
the temple, started to show us around.
He didn't give too bad a tour, but it was difficult to make out half
of what he was saying. "Blah, blah monkey gtjr frsw ham trytdd!",
he'd say, then we'd all nod understandingly. He kept repeating
himself, making himself not the slightest bit clearer and we'd nod
even more.
We learned a few things about family praying and the Balinese
representation of the Hindu gods (Bali is the only Hindi island in
the mainly Muslim country Indonesia). However, we soon found that
even temples aren't too sacred for a bit of money making. From
almost the first minute, we were followed around the temple grounds
by a lively band of local vendors, all holding their goods high.
Whenever our guide stopped for a breath, a different wooden item
would be flourished in our face, or a flute played tunelessly, in an
attempt to get us to buy something. Luckily, from our time in Kuta,
we were used to this and were quick to say 'No thanks'. It was still
like some game of musical statues though. We'd stand still while the
guide mumbled incomprehensibly, then as we walked, the vendors would
dance around us waving carvings and playing flutes (badly).
The guide took us over to a small collection of instruments in the
corner, which I quickly recognised as a gamelan, a small Balinese
orchestra. It consisted of a number of xylophone type instruments,
large gongs and what look strangely like covered cooking pots. He
happily gave us each a beater and let us play on the instruments. A
bit unsure, we all sat by an instrument and hit them. Very tuneless,
a bit pointless but fun to try anyway! We hit the instruments for a
few minutes, making up some bad tunes, before stopping to follow our
guide off. Just as we went to leave though, a man with long hair who
had been praying earlier, showed us his collection of Balinese
calendars, for sale, of course. We really weren't interested in
buying them, and when he said he'd give us the special low price of
20 pounds (we'd seen them in the shops for about 4 pounds), we
guffawed (in our heads), and said 'no thanks'.
The temple was quite small, nothing very impressive, but worth
seeing as it's apparently a typical Balinese temple. When we decided
to leave, the guide continued to follow us. He now wanted to take us
to the museum. *Chink* the penny dropped. This guy obviously wanted
a big 'tip' for showing us around the temple. And the longer he was
with us, the larger the payment he'd expect. I should have realised
this at the start, it's quite ok to say 'no thank you' to a guide &
look around yourself. In Bali, you never get shown around a temple
for free. At least agree a price beforehand is the rule. Doh! I
suppose I can be let off, this is our first temple, and I didn't
think.
We decided to try and lose this guy, so we said we wanted to sit in
the park for a bit, and hurried away from the temple. Of course, our
'guide' followed us. We noticed that there was a corner of the park
with a number of chess tables and a giant chess set. We saw an empty
table, so I quickly challenged Em to a game, and we rushed over and
started to set the pieces up. However, the guide stayed to watch.
Em and I started playing, Nat and Stinge sat watching us. While we
were playing, a small group of school children began to gather
around us, probably to see the how foreigners play the game. One
small kid, with black ruffled hair and big eyes and a big backpack,
sat down next to us. Before we knew it, he'd challenged Stinge to a
game. Stinge accepted, and the kid whipped out a chunky wooden chess
set and started cheerfully setting it up. Something tells me this
kid is good!
After about 4 moves, Stinge had lost his queen, the kid was running
rings around him, gleefully taking out Stinge's pieces and moving
his pieces at lighting speed. Meanwhile, mine and Em's game
progressed much slower as we carefully thought out each move. Of
course, Stinge had his 'butt whipped' and it was check-mate against
him in no time. This kid was obviously a budding grand-master. All
eyes turned back to our game.
After a while, I got Em stuck in a classic plan. She couldn't see
it, but the school kids around us were all giggling and shouting.
They were probably restraining themselves really hard not to point
out my next few moves. 3 moves later, and I had her in check-mate.
Game over, plus, our 'guide' had disappeared. We thought now would
be a good time to make a move. Thanking the kids & saying goodbye,
we hurried off.
Less than 1 minute down the road, and our friend ran along side us.
Damn. I thanked him profusely but told him that we just wanted to
look around the shops for now. He nodded understandingly, then
started talking about how the money we paid for the sarongs went to
the temple, however, he got nothing for showing us around. I knew
it. He wanted payment. In the end, I gave him 20,000Rp (US$2) and
said that was all we had. He obviously wanted more, but then Nat
made it clear that we didn't ask him to show us around. We would
have happily walked around without a guide if we knew we had to pay.
Reluctantly, he nodded, shook my hand and left us. Well, lesson
learnt! Always check if payment is expected, then agree a price or
say no!
We headed down the road and soon passed a statue commemorating the
brave Balinese people who stood against the Dutch invaders about a
century ago. The Dutch had loads of men and guns, the Balinese had
few people and pitchforks and sticks. But it would be disgraceful to
give in to the invaders, so without hope, they fought and they all
died. After taking a few photos and sparing a few thoughts for the
brave people, we continued our walk around Denpasar.
We soon reached a roundabout with a huge statue of a four-faced god
watching down on the traffic. This seems to be a common feature in
Bali, most of the roundabouts have very impressive statues of
deities built in the middle of them.
We only walked around the shops of Denpasar for about 15 minutes
because it was not a very nice experience. We were the only tourists
around at the moment, so the vendors really singled us out. Almost
aggressively, they followed us and tried to get us to look at their
stall or their goods. This got worse & worse as we walked by the
markets. Coupled with the smog filled grey roads, it wasn't making
for a good time. So we quickly headed back to the lovely, green
park. By far the best thing we'd seen in Denpasar.
When we got back to the park, we saw that the giant chess set wasn't
being used, so Stinge and I decided to have a quick game.
At first, there were a few people sitting around the board, just
eating and chatting. It was good fun playing with the almost
life-size pieces. As the game progressed and began to get more
interesting, we noticed that a crowd of locals was gathering around
us, scrutinising our moves, then nodding approvingly or shaking and
tutting as appropriate. I made a silly mistake because I wasn't
watching the whole board (difficult when it's this huge!) and lost
my queen. The crowd of people groaned to vocalise my feelings.
However, the game stayed tight. The people were practically cheering
when one of us made a good move, or sucking in air harshly through
gritted teeth when we did a bad one. I actually started to feel a
bit nervous with the whole crowd watching expectedly. Stinge had the
upper hand for a while, but then I pawned a pawn into a queen and
pulled it back. In a few moves, Stinge was stuck, and I won! I
breathed a sigh of relief, I hadn't lost to this crowd. We set the
pieces back up, and in no time at all, we were in a taxi and back on
our way to Kuta.
Denpasar wasn't that nice a place, we were glad to be back in Kuta.
Kuta was growing us, it's a nice place when you get used to it,
especially when there's other tourists for the vendors to focus
their attention on!
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