Happy 2014! With the Barong dance between dinner tables since it was raining so hard, our new year started. The dragon or lion is the king of the good spirits. Rangda is his enemy, the demon queen who represents everything that is evil. The dance represents the eternal battle between good and bad. No winner, since everything here is in balance.
Ade, the Food & Beverage manager was really scared of Rangda and hided behind the back of the General Manager (from the US) of the hotel. The dancers can play these roles only after praying and being blessed by the priest. It is special to see that there is no duality here between what is inside and what is outside. Barong and Rangda are real and not outside representations. Of course you know that there are people inside the dragon and behind the masks, but this is about good and evil. And those are real.
We were a little less autistic Holiday celebrators this time. So we had dinner with a wealthy CEO and his wife from the UK. She wore for thousands of pounds of jewelry and we discussed the Royals. Bali was nice and beautiful although they hadn’t left the hotel since it was raining so much. In Lombok the staff was nice but slow. They booked the best hotel on every island. We entered new year with friends of the kids from Holland and after the fireworks the chef of the hotel surprised us with his special bottle of Taiwanese 200$ a bottle whisky. We needed to empty it. That might have stimulated the interesting but weird conversation that followed with Dutch fellows at the bar. We heard that a homer pigeon in China was sold for 300.000 euro. Our countryman traded in pigeons and was a vet specialized in: pigeons. He founded clinics all over the world but the Far East was the best. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nyvLr1vwhI It felt boring to be a consultant and coach… But be assured, no resolutions in this direction.