On the third leg of my Indonesian trip, we stayed just North of Ubud, Bali. It was such a different Bali to the one I expected – it was full of life, colour and tradition. One such tradition I witnessed was Ngaben , a Balinese Hindu cremation ceremony. The village of Gentong held a Banjar Cremation which is a mass cremation that only occurs every five years. The deceased of the village are temporary buried until the ceremony. Anticipating sombre atmosphere, I was amazed to see the excitement accompanied by the (repetitive-but-cheerful) tune of a food cart. As I later learnt, the ceremony is as much about life as it is death. This is because the cremation allows for the deceased spirit to be reincarnated. Getting ready for the cremation takes hours and one of the first steps is for the deceased bodies to be excavated. I haven’t been particularly close to death before but, sitting at the kuburan (cremation grounds) surrounded by the stench of corpses and sim...
Attempting to document my adventures with photos, places, tech and food