The rest of the yoga retreat was fantastic! We continued practicing every morning and evening...the class is a bit slower than what I am used to, so it isn't hard to do it twice a day.
We took a day trip to a beautiful beach on the East coast of Bali, then went to visit a well known water temple and all of us were blessed by the Holy Man, and got to swim in the holy water (I declined) .
The Fire dance (called a Kecak dance) wasn't at all what I expected - there were candles in the middle of this outdoor temple, and about 100 men came in chanting "chuk, chuk, chuk..." with one guy leading a base line of "bop, bop, bop..." some of the others were leading a melody...some times they would wave their arms, bow forward - the most impressive thing about it was they kept it up for an hour and half!!! While they were chanting, we are entertained by 4- 6 people acting out a story of a prince that is lured away so his enemy can kidnap the princess, and Honoman (the monkey god) rescues the princess. The dancing is very slow and intentional - with small movements of their fingers, neck and eyes...definitely an interesting experience.
I am still wondering when the fire dancing is going to start, when they light a bunch of dry coconuts on fire in the middle of the floor. A guy in a trance with a straw horse over his shoulder walks in and shuffles through the fire several times before he is tackled by two of the chanters, then he is blessed by the Holy Man. So, there was the fire dance...
The other days were filled with spa treatments (an hour for $8!), shopping, beach and pool time. Ahh, the life :)
Soon I will be off to the Gili's!
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