We spent a month in Bali with only one hard rain shower the whole time. It's very dry and dusty along the southern coast, and although I love that kind of climate, I know the rainy season will come! It's amazing how much dust ends up in the boat too, even with screens on the windows. Every day I have to wipe the cabintop hatch screens off because of the dog hair that blows around, and the rag is black from all the dust that clings to them too. Just a few miles inland it's much greener, and there's one giant volcano on the east coast that we would've loved to see.

There was a major difference in Bali from all of the other places we stopped along the way. The Balinese are Hindu, so there weren't any loud calls to prayer at 0500 with the wailing over a loudspeaker like the Muslims. We happened to be in town when the Hindu celebration of Galingan/Kulingan? was going on for a whole week (their version of a Christmas like celebration). Outside of every house they put up these extremely tall handmade tassles, which have loops all up and down like leaves or petals on a flower. They're not green, but cream colored, so they're natural fibers like thin bark or wood shavings. At the top they curve over and some have silver metal decorations attatched, or brightly colored bric brac, and about 3 feet from the bottom there's a structure like a birdhouse for putting their offerings in. Every morning the Hindus put out an offering to appease their gods, little leaf trays with flower and fruit bits, maybe a cracker or two, and sometimes wrapped candy. They have them everywhere, particularly in front of driveways or restaurants and stores, and it's difficult to avoid stepping on them sometimes. Some of them even use little basket covers to keep people from trampling them. There are ladies who walk around with a big tray on their head selling incense sticks and everyone uses incense, not my favorite smells! There are also roosters in tall overturned cages/ woven baskets, and these are sacrificial roosters for the temple. Some days we would see women hauling big piles of wood and figured they were off to the temple and we'd say good luck to the roosters. If you wanted to go into a temple, you have to put on a green sarong/pareo, tied with a yellow sash, and go barefoot.