to paddy each from three inches to a couple of feet lower than the pre- ceeding one and every available horizontal area utilized. This results in green as far as you can see and a very neat and attractive country- side. We were fortunate to be there when there was to be a cremation of a priest which we attended. Ordinarily this would seem, by western standards, not to be a tourist attraction but it was. I won't go into details other than to say that there was a procession of three or four hundred people very colorfully dressed carrying gifts and offerings on their heads and marching out to a large field. At the end of the procession was a tower perhaps 25 feet high all done in white and gold with the body on top. Following it was a stairway and then a carved wooden bull under a little canopy. All three of these were carried on poles by groups of men. When the whole procession arrived at the field the tower was placed on the ground, the stairway brought up to it and men went up the stairs to get the body and carried it down to the ground and over to the bull. This was hollow and the body was put within it and the cover replaced. Wood was then placed under the bull and the whole thing lit and the fire gradually consumed it all. Meanwhile perhaps 1000 Indonesians, men, women and children milled around. There were 24 Americans in our group and perhaps another dozen white tourists. We were lost among the rest but everyone was friendly and interested. It was very colorful as everyone wore their ceremonial clothes and it was a real "people" experience.
After a Balinesian visit of three days we flew to Bangkok, Thailand. This city has more temples and Budda statues than I'd care to count. One of the latter is of solid gold with a value of 14 million dollars. There is a large river running right through the city with numerous canals and waterways around it. All the water is the color of cocoa and people swim, bathe, do laundry and brush their teeth in it. They must have developed a marvelous variety of antibodies to almost everything. There are hundreds of boats of all kinds from freighters down to one man (or woman) small boats. The water taxis are long narrow boats just wide enough for two and with a new (to me) kind of outboard that has a straight shaft about eight feet long sticking into the water behind. They just tilt it up when they want to slow down. With no 90° gear arrangement like ours to worry about these Japanese-made motors really deliver the power and these craft move like a speed boat throwing up a considerable bow wave. This fre- quently splashes on the small craft carrying food materials up and down the canal. Much of this is ready to eat such as rice, fried chicken, fish, etc. and it must get to be pretty tasty by the time it is delivered with that extra "dressing" of river water.
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