Journey to "Tri Hita Karana" - Bali " D Paradise Island"-n Epilogue

"Tri Hita Karana" or a tripartite concept that include the spiritual relationship between human and God, and their environment- This is wat summarises Bali- The Paradise Island. The island really live up to its name. I am still mesmerised by the ancient temple of Tanah Lot which i will elaborate in detail wif pictures soon.

I learned that Denpasar where the Airport is located is the capital for Bali.

Co-incidently it was Visit Indonesia year 2008 so the place was full of tourists...most of them are from Australia and other Europians. This has lead to an expensive cost of living in Bali whereby the price or costs of food, clothes, lodge is expensive or almost the same as Malaysia- There goes the Rupiahs...

One thing i liked wat i saw was their humility to others and of course to God. Everywhere you go you can see a small basket filled wth rice and flowers or two. These offerings are known as "canang sari" that the Balinese offer to their Gods three times a day.

I was confused as to why are these baskets for and why do they place these Canang Sari on the sidewalks, at the corner of the swimming pool, shops, temples and almost everywhere...so i began to do some research on my own (as i am a local CSI) since i was so curious.....and this is wat i manage to dig out......

Offering made of palm leaf, flowers and foodstuffs are an art form associated with every ritual occasion in Bali. The Balinese belief in the forces of the invisible world dictates that offerings be created with a spirit of thankfulness and loving attention to detail. The Balinese seem never to tire of producing these colorful and highly symbolic, ephemeral creations for every ritual, from the simplest daily household offering to the gods, demons, and ancestors to massive ceremonies such as Panca Wali Krama held at Pura Besakih to purify and bring blessings upon the entire world.

Apparently its a basic ritual of you thanksgiving and repaying to Gods for all the things which has been given to you. It is understood that is is a sharing that is not based upon fear but on gratitude to the richness of life, regardless material items or emotional needs.These offerings soothes or pacifies the spirits and brings prosperity and good health to the family.

Then there are the different temples. The temple dedicated to origin is the pura puseh which faces the mountains. The village temple can be found in the centre and it is called pura desa. The pura dalem is aligned with the sea and dedicated to the dead.

Even in cooking, the search for harmony is the underlying ideology and a balance between the sweet, sour, salty and bitter is the aspiration of every cook. They have offering before and after cook, you can see from the waiters to all the kitchen staffs have several pieces of rice on their forehead.. These offerings are called "Banten Saiban".

Banten saiban or jotan is a daily offering that is offered everyday after cooking or before eating. It is very simple consisting of a pinch of rice with other food like vegetable or fish or meat, on a small piece of banana leaf/other leaf. Due to its everyday usage so it is grouped into “Nitya Yadnya”. Actually what is offered; rice and its companion food like vegetable and meat that are cooked; that means pinch of rice is just the sample, therefore Banten Saiban is also called “Yadnya Sesa”, that means offering is a priority.

Banten Saiban is offered to:
1.
God / Gods, it has a philosophy to thank God for His blessing.
2.
Ancestors before ‘Memukur’ ceremony are done, with the aim to ask for their protection.
3.
Panca Maha Bhuta for not disturbing us.

There is more than this i have learned and experienced but it is unexplainable in words as you need to sense it. However, i wil try to pen down as much i can to elaborate on my beautiful experience in Bali which i will treasure for the rest of my life...

More to come....

A trip to the Immegresen Office

I will never forget my first time experience on applying a passport.

It all started as early as 7 something...can't remember expect time. Thank god as Mr ZigZag's fren and wifey (Mr& mrs Smith) came earliar than us, filled us our portion of the form and also stand in queue for us.


Mr ZigZag's frens came as to apply for group passport but the processing days were too long, so we had to cancel the option. However, Mrs Smith had to renew her passport, so she took a number in the queue with us as well.
<*Note- I and Mr ZigZag is the only 2 souls in d group without a passport,ishk ishk...wat a loosers...>

So, we rushed to be early in queue bt was so disappointed when my application was rejected as the man behind the counter (Mr.Hyenna) told me that my ic is unable to read.

So as usual, i kena bomb by Mr ZigZag for not taking good care of my IC. I was feeling fishy as i remembered clearly MyKad could be read at the EPF Kiosk Counter and how come suddenly now its faulty. So i juz tried my luck again i asked this kind guy (Mr Nice Guy) at another counter to check if my card is functioning. He checked and told me that my card has no problem. I went back to the Mr Hyenna counter since his counter is D ONLY COUNTER FOR PROCESSING (how good service lar) to resubmit. Again Mr Hyenna rejected but this time i argued saying it is working fine as verified by the Mr Nice Guy. By this time Mr ZigZag already came to my rescue by being by my side and asking the same question again with a different tone.
I think Mr Hyenna felt uncomfortable or got scared and he asked me go inside and speak to his senior officer. His Senior Officer said if card is readable then go ahead bt this Mr Hyenna felt his action to be justified so he said the Most Senior Officer said physical look is also important, this Card the plastic sheet is loose, so have to reject....Since it was said like tis, no choice, i had to rush back to NRI dept to obtain a paper document stating i am genuine citizen of this country....

With no choice, Mr ZigZag, rushed me to PJ NRI from Subang to obtain the document. Things were good in NRI as the queue is not bad and their service is quite fair. When it was my turn, it was shocking that the officer told, there is no need for the letter as it is acceptable for passport application and the chip of the card is still functioning, however, she did print out the document for my record, the info in the document was the same in the CHIP!!! so what is the purpose of the document when you still can get the info from the CHIP?.. by then my blood was already boiling......

[To be continued soon... as its a very long serial drama...]

Casper - Part 2

So wif no choice, me n Mr Zig Zag had to take him to the Pet Barber but unfortunately there is no Pet Barber available at that time, and we had to take him to the local pet shop. The lady, the owner of the shop, say we call her Chikecing lar.... sounded kind and nice and seem to appear as a petlover....however, don't judge a book by its cover, she is an amateur in grooming, she accidently cut Casper's ear while groomin...poor fella..had to stay over night until his wound his healed.....Basically he looked like a bald doggie after his clean shave........ [to be continued...]

*p/s- For those who do not know , Casper belongs to Mr Zig Zag and Mr Zig Zag belongs to me (partially)- Moral of the story...some how i owned both of them......

Casper, tiny devil (Part 1)

Yeah, i was looking for something to talk bout and i juz remembered i have someone special who came into my life recently....and it has changed my life 180 degrees from wat i was in the beginning of the year.....

His name is Casper, derived from Prince Caspian. He is a Yorkshire Terrier.
He is somewat between 1 -2 years old.
When he came to us, he was full of hair but with a bad hair do...so wif no choice, we had to bald him.Let him have a make over. This is how he looked when he came to us.

Lost blog

haaihh..i have lost my old blog..tat means i havent been updating my blog for a long long time.....hehehehehehehhe....now i will make it a point to update it as often as i can....