Tumpak Landep

The offering with a burning incense.

Last Saturday was Tumpak Landep day. That was the birthday of all vehicles and machinaries in Bali. Balinese prayed and put "sesajen" or offering on their motorbikes, cars and even sewing machines and scissors.

I went out to meet Aliki - Vincent's friend's wife - and I saw the maid next door was making a little ceremony with all the motorbikes in the shared parking lot. I asked her to decorate my motorbike too, and this is what her husband had to say to me, "Not decorate; it's to pray for it."

Oops, well okay, but the offering looked charming, so the insensible me just spurt out the first vocab that applied to it that came to my mind. So yes, it was my fault.

Anyway, I should have asked earlier, they said, because it needed to be prayed in the temple before. But to make me happy, they slipped one pack of offering between the bike and my license plate, splashed some fragranced water on to it, then on to my face.

"Okay, you are safe now," they both said. Then they looked at Vincent's motorbike and they splashed the water too there. "This one, too. Now everybody is safe."

Oh, one of the things I love about Bali.