Today marks the next stage in our tour and the start of our adventures in SE Asia.

We are staying in an authentic Balinese hotel, a stones through from Sanur beach. At breakfast we were greeted by smiling faces from the staff and settled in with omelettes made on the spot. After a good feed, we set off to explore the local area and a walk down to the beach front. We have arrived at the tail end of the wet season, so whilst it’s hot and humid, it rained on and off for most of the day.

Tomorrow the island of Bali will be blanketed with silence/Nyepi for the Balinese New Year and celebrated with silence, fasting and meditation.

To mark this occasion, tonight there is a festival where the locals get rid of their ‘demons’ by parading the edifices in the street.

We saw a number of the ‘demons’ being prepared during the day and its fair to say they were eye catching!

As we walked along on the beach we came across traditional Balinese boats and numerous small temples with offerings in advance of Nyepi.

The huge demons were positioned on street corners ready to be carried by the young Balinese boys. Given the spectacle even the locals were stopping to stare and take photos.

To let everyone know the demons were coming, we saw and heard drums beaten by the locals.

Late afternoon we met our fellow tour groupies, who we will be travelling with for the next 8 days as we experience Classic Bali. There’s about 16 of us, mainly from the Uk, Canada and Germany. After initial intros we headed out for an early dinner before going to watch the evening’s celebrations of the ‘demon’ displays.

The various ‘demons’ descended on a square near our hotel for a mock battle.

It meant for a strange and unexpected evening, standing in the centre of a main highway during heavy rain, traffic all around us, waiting for the carnival like celebrations to descend. When they did at last begin, some 2hrs late, we were up close and got some great photos.

Tomorrow the blog will be a lot shorter as everyone is required to stay at home, or in their hotel and honour the days silence with meditation & peacefulness. Oddly feels a bit like a return to Covid 19 times.