Ubud, Bali
Feb. 1, 2016
I had dinner with 2 friends last night, both of whom have lived in Ubud for over 10 years. What do you think we talked about? Politics? Football?
No, we talked about pigs.
S said that her guests gifted her Balinese staff $500usd to buy 2 pigs plus food and vaccinations. I asked her about this thing with the Balinese and their pigs. My friend Made takes my compost home every day for her pig. “Do they keep pigs as pets or are they fattened for eating?” I asked.
“They’re a great investment, “ S said. “They sell for $100 each in the market, and a female pig can birth as many as 14 piglets per year.” There was more. “The owner of a male pig is paid $175 to pay a visit to a female pig in heat. However, if it doesn’t ‘take’, the owner of the male pig, must refund the owner of the female pig. Artificial insemination is more of a sure deal, and fairly common in Bali (the things I do not know!), but a lot more expensive.”
We talked about a Balinese man we often see walking through town, his 300 kilogram pig complete with huge swinging pig balls, at the end of a leash.
I laugh and say, “I must be in Bali when the topic of dinner conversation is pigs.
M smiled and said, “Well, pigs are cleaner than politics.”
