Proberally one of the best experiences of my life!
Nappi is a Hindu Celebration where they celebrate for three days and follow with a day of silence. It is on the island of Bali because of the huge Hindu population.
Although we are on the island of Lombok, in the capital city, Mataram there is still a large population of Hindu supporters so they celebrate the holiday.
Ben and I were just going to have a relaxing day when the owner of the backpackers hotel we were staying in asked us and five other people if we wanted to go to the capitaol to see his sons in the parade.
We dressed in sarongs and the men wore a headdress aswell, I was excited getting dressed up only expecting just a small local parade. When we got there it was a whole nother story. There were thousands of people! If i could put a number it would be over 100,000 people.
And did we feel special, there was only a handful of other westerners that we saw throughout the day so we were something of a attraction in it self.
Beside people all we saw were these huge statues, all made by the people of the villages, with angry poses, either stabbing each other or holding weapons covered in blood, some statues were over 3 meters tall.
What I'm told is the story behind the figures is that there are gods, humans and then these creatures in this order and they represent bad and evil spirits, so they parade them around with music and the following day is the Nappi day of silence. But the following day they distroy the statues by either bashing them or lighting them on fire to ward away the bad spirits.
The whole day was really colourful and I got some great photos and apparently so did all the locals, I saw alot of people over the day secretly taking photos of me on thier phones, I held babies and got my photo taken, an old ladie i walked past stroked my arm maybe for good luck, im still not sure but the biggest thing was everyone one wanted a photo with us, I stood in so many Photos, they loved my blonde hair:) I felt like a celebrity.
The whole experience was just amazing, I had so much fun and have never been stared at so much in my life haha Will deffinetly be a highlight of my trip.
Who said religion cant be fun!!!
