Marco Polo's Treasures

The prime advantage that Marco Polo's Treasures has over our competitors is that we personally travel to the Pacific Rim countries to select our treasures. This makes for quite a hectic schedule, but it allows us to develop very personal relationships with local craftsmen and traders, and to discover wonderful items that are not available through established export agencies. By traveling to South East Asia's remote regions and discovering artsian markets we ensure authenticity, provide a true provenance and then share these exquisite one-of-a-kind items with our customers. Deb just returned from a visit to the magical islands of Indonesia.
Please check our Coming Soon Section often for pictures and updates of our container's journey from Borneo and Bali.

A Balinese Prayer!
I was invited to go to a village rice growing prayer and ceremony on the outskirts of Sangeh, Bali, where fabulous emerald green vista, paddies filled with the water's reflection of the sky and new rice sprouts greet you at every curve in the road.
Bopping along at about 15 MPH and swerving huge pot holes, we finally got the tiny village's temple. I thought that I was done with travel for the day and expected to have a comfortable non-swaying seat for this ceremony, but I was wrong. The temple site was only the staring point of this afternoon event. After lots of chatter, offerings and dancing, the villagers took the show on the road. Being the proper guest, I followed the traveling gamelan and other participants out of the temple and down the dusty road….…and around the bend on the dusty road…and through another village….and yet onwards, still, with music playing and drums beating. I need to point out that it was a very humid and hot 90degrees and, again, as a proper guest, I was tightly wrapped in a full length sarong and non-breathable long sleeved shirt as custom decreed.
About 3 miles later, this traveling group took a severe right turn off of the road – "Great," I thought, "we've arrived!" Not so, for another half mile, the parade of Balinese with instruments, banners, offerings and saffron umbrellas balanced, then tip-toed across rice paddies on extremely narrow rock walls. I, of course, followed. We also forded two streams along the way to reach our destination.
This final place was a simple walled hut with a muddy floor and gold painted shrine surrounded by an 8' high concrete wall…where, I thought, I could finally rest my sweaty, hot self. I wondered, "what exactly was going to happen here that couldn't in the relatively comfortable, dry, large temple we left??"
Everyone stuffed themselves into this smoke filled room until we were literally being held up by one another – a few people squatted without fear of getting stomped – which I thought was a crazy idea. Inside, the overwhelming heat and sandalwood incense was as thick as our bodies. Then the low, deep chanting started. It continued for about what I thought was an hour – but couldn’t really tell since I wasn’t able to look at my watch – and then I realized that we were just beginning the serious portion of this ceremony. I thought if I passed out it wouldn’t matter because I’d never make it to the muddy floor, so I started making up words to the on going ancient chants. “…we must be leaving soon…I’m so thirsty…I haven’t had a drop all afternoon…” and on it went until I became the improper guest and quietly nudged prayerful people a few inches to PLEASE LET ME OUT.
I finally got to the door and into the sunlight and clean air. As I started my journey back dripping wet and really thirsty, I took deep breaths of fresh air; the greens looked greener and I treasured those panoramic views the hidden Bali countryside. I was quite thankful for the beautiful green rice paddies and did appreciate the rich Balinese growing season...maybe that was just the point.