The dramas of arriving on Cremation Day!

Unbeknown to us, we arrived on Nusa Lembongan the day before Cremation Day. This essentially is a celebration of all the lives of the people who have died that year. It a festival for the whole island, often lasting several days, which is lovely... if you've booked your accommodation! Two hours of rejection later, tired of lugging our bags around in the blazing Bali sunshine, we thought we might have to leave the fully booked island before I spotted an ill man checking out. Unfortunately he needed to go to hospital, fortunately for us we had his room!

The cremation day began with a procession, with all the locals making offerings to the cremation tower, which included a nervous boy with a live chicken! Then the cremation tower was picked up and furiously twirled around, this primarily is to confuse the deceased, so they will not be tempted to return home. But we were the ones who got confused, panicked and ran down the street to get out of the way! Later they carried the tower around the village before it got lit on fire and burnt to the ground.