The two elderly foreign women stood in front of the sand creations with a look of amazement on their faces.

The sand had been sculpted to depict a white stork laying helplessly as a big crab squeezed its long neck with its powerful pincers.

"This is the best and most intricate construction in this competition. However, I don't know what story it portrays," one of the women said.

A local girl, who overheard their conversation, approached the tourists and began to explain the local folklore about the crab and the stork, which inspired the sand creation.

It was said that during a prolonged drought, a starving stork devised a cunning way to get a continuous supply of food. The stork dressed itself as a Hindu priest and assumed the title of Pedanda (high priest) Baka, before visiting a small pond nearby.

The pond was filled with fish and all of them were worried that the drought would soon dry up the pond.

Playing on the fishes' fear of a tragic future, Pedanda Baka, who had introduced itself as a full-pledged vegetarian and a bearer of sacred knowledge, told the fish about a majestic lake high atop a mountain. The lake - a sanctuary for aquatic creatures - had never suffered a drought and possessed an abundant supply of food.

Feigning reluctance, Pedanda Baka initially refused to take the fish to the lake, as the lake was the abode for the devout and the pure at heart only, the stork said stoically. Eventually, the fish begged to be the priest's disciples, to earn their salvation.

One by one, the fish were flown by the stork to the promised lake. The stork carried each fish inside its beak. Eventually, the fish made the shocking discovery: There was no lake on the top of the mountain. Only a smooth, flat rock, upon which the stork slaughtered the fish and ate them.

However, the last resident of the pond, a big crab, wasn't as gullible as the fish. The crab refused to travel inside the stork's beak. Instead, it gripped the stork's neck and hung there throughout the flight. When, in mid-air, the crab saw the ominous-looking rock and piles of fish bones, it realised that the lake was nothing but a hoax.

The crab then squeezed its pincers as tight as it could to kill the greedy impostor. Both the stork and the crab fell from the sky and met their ends on top of the stone.

This story is quite popular among Balinese, who often label leaders or intellectuals who coat their ulterior, savage motives with compassionate speeches or demeanors, as either Pedanda Baka or Cangak Maketu (a stork dressed as a priest).

The sand creation, which depicted Pedanda Baka's story, was created by a team from The Laguna Resort and Spa, one of the participants of the annual Sand Castle Competition held Tuesday on the white sandy beach of Nusa Dua Beach Hotel.

Organised by the Bali Hotels Association (BHA), the competition involved eight teams -- from the Sanur Beach Hotel, Sanur Paradise Plaza, Padma Bali, The Legian, Kayu Manis, Melia, The Laguna and the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel.

The BHA is a professional association of star-rated hotels and resorts in Bali. Members include general managers from 80 hotels and resorts, representing 14,000 hotel rooms and 21,600 employees in Bali.

BHA's executive director, Djinaldi Gosana, said the competition was an effort to channel the hotels employees' creative and esthetic energy.

"It will also serve as a medium through which employees of different establishments could gather together and interact with each other in a friendly setting. In the long term, it will increase that sense of togetherness and cooperation among them," he said.

"And, it will also provide the patrons of our hotels with a new, interesting attraction," he added.

From early in the morning, the competing teams had descended upon the beach and started constructing their sand artworks. Each team comprised of five men, who labored for hours to create a sand creation inspired by folklore.

"We selected 'fairy tale' as the theme of the competition in order to provide the participants with a wide space of imagination and creativity," the judges' coordinator, I Wayan Kun Adnyana, said.

A lecturer from Denpasar's Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI) and an accomplished painter, Kun is currently pursuing his master's degree at ISI Yogyakarta.

"Each work will be judged by five criteria; innovation, concept, esthetic achievement, level of difficulty and integration of Balinese elements," he said.

Following a tight judging session, the judges awarded the first prize to Men Brayut, a sand creation by the Sanur Paradise Plaza team. The work was inspired by a local folk tale about the trials and tribulations of Men Brayut, a mother who raised seven children.

"Men Brayut scored less in esthetic achievement compared to the Pedanda Baka. However, Men Brayut managed to reach a higher overall score," Kun said.

The Pedanda Baka sand sculpture earned second place in that competition while the Sanur Beach Hotel team took third place with its sand Sutasoma, which depicted a vital moment in the life of a compassionate prince who unified Hinduism and Buddhism. (By I WAYAN JUNIARTHA/ The Jakarta Post/ ANN)