Lyla and I made the trek up the road to the village market for the parade of papier mache ogres meant to scare the bad spirits away from Bali ahead of Nyepi, the Hindu holiday of silence on Monday.
While waiting for their arrival everyone wanted to give her a cuddle and once she was out of her sling it really was impossible to keep her to myself, but it seemed like she was in capable hands… and hands… and hands.
One woman didn’t like her hairstyle. So she changed it.
Even the local TNI soldier insisted on a hold. Maybe a winning hearts and minds PR strategy?
Anyway, Lyla showed him what she thought of TNI human rights abuses.
And then the fun began!
Here’s one of the silence police: they roam the streets on Nyepi itself to make sure everyone is inside and at night there are no lights showing to the street. This means that when the fleeing bad spirits look back over Bali they’ll think no one is home and keep on flying… on to Java or Lombok, presumably. Considering all the disasters on Java lately, Bali probably did a good job of tricking the spirits last year.
Then it got too dark for me to take any more photos… The ogres were paraded down to the beach to be ceremonially burnt, but we went to bed. And it seems that the burning only takes place in theory: so much work goes into building the monsters that they stay on display for a few days in a public area.
Lyla looks so much like you Sam in the top photo – it looks like she is saying – who is this woman? Get me outta here!