Pasar Badung, part 2

To conclude Pasar Badung, part 1, here are more pics of the biggest flower market in Bali.


a sleepy vendor tending a flower stall in Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia



mussaenda flowers for sale


In between, I’m sharing a lesson in language which I learned when I was studying Bahasa Indonesia on my own 16 years ago.


vendors selling canang offerings



an old lady selling flowers in Pasar Badung


Then, I discovered the intertwining relationship of dialects in Southeast Asia. Take the case of the Indonesian word for flower which is bunga. I always confused bunga with buah (pronounced bu-wa) which means fruit. You see, in Cebuano, fruit is bunga while flower is buwak. Somewhere, sometime, during the centuries of direct contact between the archipelagos that are now the Philippines and Indonesia, words jumbled and blended.


baskets of exotic fragrant flowers



varieties of Lombok peppers that are also on display in the flower market


Somehow, it doesn’t really matter much. The flower and the fruit are interchangeable in a biological sense, both being bearers of progeny of the plant. First, the flower blooms, withers and ultimately becomes the fruit. One can’t be without the other. You might as well mix them up.


petals of pink and red roses that are sold for Balinese offerings