Gypsy Journal - In and Around Ubud

After 2 days in Kuta, we ventured off to less touristy grounds and found the artist town of Ubud, a lovely place to stay. We quickly melded into the daily life of markets, shopping, eating, arts & culture. The market was a busy and lively place where goods of ALL types were sold. The people were friendly & inviting (sometimes a little too persistent in the selling of goods) and we enjoyed it all.

We really admired the means of transport (more later) and mode of carrying. The high heat & humidity meant more action in the early morning & late day but we found shopping at high noon often brought us the most personal services & best prices!

This is one example of the local shops. This woman was very accommodating and went right to the actual price (as opposed to the starting point of bargaining at about 10 times the actual!) in order to make a sale at the end of the day. Rick has a new batik shirt & pants from her.

The material was exquisite with sarongs being the most widely sold. Everything was so nicely laid out too.

At the outskirts of Ubud is “Monkey Forest”. This is an actual forest with 3 main temples and about 200 monkeys living there! It was a popular place for locals & tourists due to the temples, monkeys and the forest providing some relief from the scorching heat!

Near one of the temples in Monkey Forest was this fishpond. It attracted a lot of children and of course Janet and Rick!

Although there are bicycles and cars in Ubud, by far the most popular means of transport is the motorcycle (actually more like a scooter or moped). They are for carrying goods, for rent, for taxi ride and for everyone from the family to ride together. We saw 5 on a few. We also saw many with flip-flops, no protective headgear, and breastfeeding on the back. Note the dried palm/bamboo leaves in front and see below.

In Bali, the locals place “offerings" to their deities twice daily. They are placed in the home temple (which everyone has), in front of shops, cars, motorcycles, etc. They are comprised of flowers, fruit, crackers, leaves, etc. in these little baskets. They are swept up and thrown out at the end of the day after they have dried up. They are everywhere and require a lot of time & effort (to prepare and avoid while walking).

As rice is a staple here, the rice fields are everywhere out of the main towns and villages. The old, young, male, female, all contribute in a meaningful way.

As Ubud is an artist community, there are courses offered in batik making, drawing, language, wood carving, painting, weaving and cooking. We took a 6-hour cooking class that included a tour/explanation of spices/produce in the market, demonstrations and hands on cooking of 7 courses and our own cookbook & apron. Here is one of the star pupils!

Every night, there are different performances going on in the various palaces & temples. Our host family mother & daughter were active participants. Su played the lead gamelan instrument and her daughter Ayunda (just turned seven) danced in 2 of the ballets. Here they are preparing for one of the shows that they were both in.

This is one of the traditional dances we saw. This one is the "Birds of paradise”. All tell a story and are beautifully acted out in magnificent costumes & makeup.

At the end of one show this Arabic tourist smiled at Janet. She remarked that she liked his “Calvin Klein” scarf (and pointed to it). Although we spoke no common language, he communicated that he wanted to take a picture with us. We gladly obliged and then had the same photo taken with our camera. Somewhere he must be telling the same story!

Another performance included 80-100 men making ‘clucking-type’ and various other sounds with their mouth and tongues, and dancing. It was done around fire torches at night and is called Kecak (the c is pronounced “ch”).

The next show at night was the fire dance. First a pile of coconut shells were placed in the middle and doused with kerosene. Then they were set on fire. The “priest” then enters in a trance dance and walks through the hot coals and kicks the hot cinders all around. It was hard to believe. The darkness made photo-taking difficult but we think that the soles of his feet at the end say it all!

We took a day trip into the mountains were there is still volcanic activity. Mount Batur is smoking in the distance and you can see the lava and ashes from the last eruptions; about 4-5 big ones in the last 40 years. We climbed part way to see the view and lava rock.

The next stop on our day trip was Tirta Empul - the Spring Temple. On the way we saw this impromptu parade. There is always a reason for celebration and something special going on in Bali!

The Spring Temple is so named for these water springs that flow here. An inscription dates back to 926 AD. Ex-president Soekarno built a presidential palace just north of Tirta Empul. We were told that he did this so that he could watch women bathing in the holy waters of this spring.

Although we visited many more temples it seemed that the best photos were of people! We were always greeted by friendly hellos and usually something for sale. The people were generally warm, friendly & inspirational. This little girl was climbing the steps from the temple. (This temple is known for it's carved bas-relief cliffs.)

Yes, it wasn’t just temples and people! This magnificent grasshopper caught our eye and gladly posed for a picture before it hopped away!

And of course there are the ubiquitous rice fields that can’t help but catch your eye & camera!

The last stop in Bali was the “Elephant Cave.” This cave was built near 2 temples in around the 10th century. It is still used for worship and the cave can be entered to enjoy the burning incense.