Gamelan Sekar Jaya

Suzanne in the gardens of the Suar Agung sanggar

The sanggar temple

The flat, flat fields of Negara (Kansas with coconut palms?)

Ah, Sangkar Agung . . . the peaceful little town in West Bali that was our base of operations while we practiced.  It's a far cry from the congested tourist centers of Bali.  The landscape is flat, filled with fields of corn, beans and chili peppers.  It's Bali, which means that you can wake up at 3 a.m. (as I did one night) to hear melancholy prayers being sung over a P.A. system next door at a funeral ceremony, followed by the squeals of a pig being butchered.  But mostly Sangkar Agung is laid-back, lazy, hot, and full of down-to-earth people who seem proud of being "orang kampung" (country folk).  At the lovely Suar Agung sanggar, Gede Oka and his family showed us wonderful hospitality, sometimes cooking us special Negara food such as fried ubi root or a soup of clams fresh from the river delta.