BuggslifePhotography, Homebrew, Canoe, Travel, Nature…

After much filtering and editing (in Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3 Beta) I have finally completed my gallery of travel photos from one month travelling a few corners of Bali and Java.

Enjoy the whole set at:Indonesia travel photo gallery.

The main areas in Bali are Sanur, Ubud, Mount Batukaru and Bukit including monkeys and surfers at Uluwatu. It was during the Balinese Hindu New Year – Nyepi – and features heavily on its festivities. One of my favourite moments – particularly in a photographic sense – was Melasti on the beaches of Sanur at dusk and dawn.

In Ubud you’ll see many shots from the Ogoh-ogoh parades as well as a sense of tranquility on Nyepi itself.

The other shots were from 3 weeks on Java – about 10 days of which were in the south western tip (Ujung Kulon in Bahasa Indonesia) in the remote and wild national park of coastal rainforest, mangrove swamps and idyllic islands, beaches (storm worn yet untouched by man) and tropical seas including superb coral reefs.

Inland in the central areas of Java you will see Jogyakarta (Yogya), a popular traveller’s base city nestles between famous volcano peaks and surrounded by many historical ancient religious sites such as Borobodur. I also feature shots of Candi Sukuh – a lesser known Hindu site on the slopes of the sacred mountain Gunung Lawu east of Solo. Sukuh features numerous sexual and erotic references in its carvings and symbolic temple structures.

Rice paddy terraces in Bali on hills of Gunung Batukaru

That’s just a flavour – there are also numerous wildlife photos among them along with candid portraits and, of course, many rice paddy landscapes…perhaps too many!

Enjoy.

I randomly came across some Sanskrit text which got me curious and I started to scratch the surface of a culture / religion / world that I know nothing about. After visiting Bali this year I caught my first tastes, smells and sights of Hindu culture having experienced the Balinese Hindu New Year – Nyepi and all of its associated festivities…notably Melasti (or Mekiyis / Melis ) and the Ogoh-Ogoh parades (part of Tawur Kesanga on New Year’s eve), both of which feature heavily in my Bali gallery. There is a nice summary of the festivals on indo.com here. Nyepi itself is a wonderful day of serenity, where people are forbidden to leave their homes and to make noise.

So my mind started wondering toward these things and, being a huge fan many years back, thought of some Kula Shaker lyrics such as:

• “Tattva, acintya bheda bheda Tattva …”
• GOVINDA JAYA JAYA
  GOPALA JAYA JAYA
  RADHA-RAMANAHARI
  GOVINDA JAYA JAYA
  NRSINGADEVA JAYA
  NRSINGADEVA

The latter praising Krsna (or Krishna) and the former meaning something along the lines of:

Same same, but different

Slightly more eloquently would be:

“simultaneous oneness and difference”

Which, according to one source is about:
“Though we come in various forms and though we are all individuals, we all come from the same source, we are made of the same material/substance, but we are very much different from each other physically. The same is true for everything in nature.

As for “Tattva”, tattva means reality, principle, and truth. It can be thought of as an awakening, when one realizes that there is more to life than what he sees through his eyes.”

I just thought that was great!