Friday, November 1, 2013
We left our hotel in Amed at 7:30am and were back in Ubud around 10am. There was a specific reason that we decided to come back here for a day, before moving on to Java tomorrow.
At noon the Ubud Royal Cremation took place and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to witness this event.
We walked to Ubud center where, together with thousands of locals and tourists, we watched the funeral procession. First a sarcophagus in the form of a purple buffalo, and next the very impressive nine-tiered cremation tower were being pushed out of the palace, along the road, towards the cemetery. It was quite the spectacle with people smiling and cheering; it had the feel of a celebration of life, more than a funeral. From the atmosphere on the streets I’m assuming that the people like their (local) royal family. Police was present but only to keep some streets traffic-free; everything happened in the best of spirits.
