“What do you want me to bring back from Bali,” I asked.
“A picture of a bird, a pretty bird,” Nara responded… and so started my Quest.
This isn’t out of the blue, we both saw Nature documentaries about photographers going off into the wilds of Indonesia, sitting in a jungle blind for days on end, just to take pictures of a ‘Bird of Paradise.’ The photographer thought it was worth the effort; the bird’s very rare, but more, this type of bird has evolved into a beautiful specimen with bright, gorgeously colorful plumage and intricate tails; and of course their mating displays are even more intricate and peculiar.
I hope that’s not what she had in mind.
Bali, though it does have jungles, is pretty much tame and I doubt that a Bird of Paradise still exists here, so I have my Quest cut out for me.
They do have a bird in a cadge here at Krisda Ubud Guesthouse, and though it sings beautifully, it isn’t really in the pretty class. I found others in the temple compound next door; they had more color, but being cooped up in a cadge hid much of their luster.
So, like all good and successful enterprises, I decided to fudge the objectives and parameters a little and went for a walk into town. As you can see in the first picture, I found a number of sculptures for sale, that were colorful, birdlike, and almost pretty in an abstract sort of way; but if I showed these to Nara, I doubt she would congratulate me on a successful Quest.
I decided to take this Quest much more seriously and ventured down a very small ally in downtown Ubud; after about ten minutes and a few torturous twists and turns, I was out in the countryside and the rice fields. The big sky, the palm trees in the distance, and a good breeze not present in town, made my spirit soar. Out here, I was more hopeful in fulfilling my Quest.
I first came across a farmer plowing his rice paddy. He was surrounded by egrets eating the insect and grubs that were uncovered. These birds, though white and stately, didn’t have the colorful plumage that bespoke pretty. Further along were ducks foraging in a flooded paddy. These had some variations of brown and white, but again, calling these birds pretty would be stretching it. Undeterred, I continued along the path bordering the rice fields.
As I passed at an artist’s studio and ‘warung’ selling coffee and lunch; I was startled when something colorful, on two legs, ran across my path.
This bird had beautiful, burnt-orange plumage with patches of dark, almost iridescent black-purple on its body and tail feathers. I was surprised, normally I don’t think of chickens and roosters as beautiful, rather as a commodity you buy, pre-packaged, at the grocery store. This domesticated, free range-bird and the ones I saw later along the path were actually very pretty.
It’s one of those things; when you stop to really look at something common, you can often find beauty. With this picture below, I know I have fulfilled Nara’s Quest.
