Artistically and Culturally Ubud

After leaving Lovina, Darren and I ventured here, to Ubud.  I'm not sure exactly where to begin in explaining this place, but just as it's located, it seems a pleasant middle ground between the quiet North and East coasts, and the hustle and bustle of the peninsula.

Most of the guidebooks will describe Ubud as a sort of art and craft mecca.  It's not said to hold much in terms of sightseeing, but its where locals and westerners alike come to create and sell works of art.  Everywhere you go in fact you can find just about any type of handicraft, from silver jewellery, to wood carvings, to paintings, to clothing.  Consequently, there also seems to be a little more "culture" here if you will.  In the South, the Australian/Western lifestyle has "tainted" the culture of the people (as I've already mentioned), and on the other coasts, while the people live their day to day, it's a life of necessity (they fish, they eat, they sleep).  Here in Ubud, you see all sorts of colour and goings on.  There are touts calling out "transport" or "teksi" at every corner and in between, there are art/craft shops EVERYWHERE, and more temples here than there are churches in Abbotsford, and in the evenings you can buy tickets to any one of the cultural village dances that surround the area.

So, what did we get up to?  Well, for starters on the shuttle bus on the way here from Lovina, Darren befriended two Danish girls in the backseat.  So when we got to Ubud, the four of us ventured out together and found some quaint little bungalows, complete with bunny rabbits, not far from the main road (Monkey Forest Road).  Our first day here, we also managed to bump into Laura (Sirtonski), which was fortunate because she didn't bring her phone and it would've been a disaster trying to meet up via e-mail in just a few short days.  So, we had plenty of company to share our time with here.

Our first day, we sort of just wandered around, scoped out some decent restaurants and got a feel for the area (as we always do).  We also managed to venture into the market on the first day, which we weren't far from in the first place (never a good thing for me), and though I had every intention of making no purchases, I left with two new pairs of sandals.  The first pair really was quite innocent.  After my Islanders busted (yes Tanya, they are not invincible in heat, humidity and salt water) the only sandals I could find in my size in Amed were bright blue and they just didn't match any of my clothes, so I bought a pair of black ones of a slightly classier caliber.  I wore the sandals right away, and then of course, one of the evil genius salesmen pointed to my shoes and asked me how much I paid for them, I lied by Rp 5000 and he offered to sell me another of the same pair for Rp 5000 less than that.  I was enticed (I'm a sucker, what can I say?), and I bought another pair, a slightly different style and different colour.  I couldn't help myself.  Darren scolded the man for getting me into trouble ;) and I'm now packing five pairs of shoes.  (I'm a pack rat of sorts, and I'm keeping my Islanders to have repaired, and I've kept the ugly blue sandals because the others are too pretty to wear if I decide to go muck about on a beach or something.)  Anyway, after a short nap, we eventually met up with Laura for dinner in the evening.  We were all quite exhausted and called it a pretty early night.

With the reputation for a haven of art, I was determined to find myself a painting of sorts to take home as a souvenire.  So the next day, Darren and I set out walking the streets, popping in and out of the shops and checking out all the different paintings and wood work.  Like China, any art that catches on is then replicated in mass numbers.  Just about everywhere you go, all the art looks the same.  They all paint the same style of Buddhas, traditional Balinese art, abstracts and assorted marine life.  While all of it is quite beautiful, there's something about seeing a piece en masse that makes it lose its appeal.  So, despite walking for over three hours, I found nothing that struck me enough to purchase.  At least not until I had stopped looking (which is always the case it seems).  The problem with this particular piece, is that it's bigger than any wall I've had in any place I've ever lived.  There might be a wall at my mothers house large enough for it, but you'd have to rearrange all the furniture, and I don't live there.  The painting is beautiful (it's a slightly abstract painting of Buddha's face and head, which you can find anywhere but not quite at this level), but it's far too large to even consider.  So, I'm walking away emptied handed; well, almost.  That evening, we met up with Laura again, had a wonderful dinner, some great desert, and great conversation.

That night we made plans for the following morning (instigated by Laura, Darren and I have been rather lazy on the sight seeing).  We hired one of the many drivers lining the streets to drive us to Goa Gajah (some temple ruins).  Before entering we were approached by a man carrying a decent sized python (the largest documented python was found in Indonesia) charging a not so small fee to take pictures with the snake.  I was intrigued.  Nervous, but intrigued nonetheless.  So, I had my photoshoot with the snake (for Rp 20000 Laura made sure to just keep snapping photos).  Darren (unaware of the cost) had his photos taken as well, with one or two of us together with the snake; after which, we moved on and headed into the temple grounds.  Unlike Uluwatu, there were no monkeys here, just a lot of broken stones and ruins.  It was actually quite beautiful, very lush and green.  We wandered through at our leisure, taking pictures and eaves dropping on the information the hired guides were giving the other tourists.  Apparently the temple has both Hindu and Buddhist history but we simply admired the ruined architecture.  At one point, a small man carrying a broom who had clearly been chewing too much beatlenut, enthusiatically led us behind the rocks to show us some small details of the ruins.  He was a little jittery and pretty excited with a big orange smile (the beatlenut stains your mouth orange/red).  After leading us in a small circle we would have otherwise done on our own anyway, he stuck out his hand begging for a small fee.  I had a feeling it was coming anyway, but we found him rather amusing and Laura parted with a few thousand (maybe thirty cents).  While Laura and I were being "guided" by the strange man, Darren stopped to say a small prayer for his uncle and Mama, and we just enjoyed the peace and quiet of the cool stones before heading back to the city.

The days in Ubud sort of melt together, but I think all we did yesterday was go to the market.  I'm compelled to say that we did something else in the morning, but as I have no recollection and no photographic evidence of anything in particular happening, I have but to assume that nothing else happened.  So as far as I can remember, yesterday we went to the market to procure a few things we couldn't leave Bali without.  For me, it was a set of mosaic tiled plates.  You can get them back home at Home Sense, but not in abundance or for the same price you can here.  They are a set of three, different sized bowl like plates, and their made of mosaic green glass tiles.  There were so many different colours to choose from, but I managed.  Darren on the other hand, had fallen in love with the idea of a hand carved chess set.  Now, Darren and I are very different types of buyers, and if we were both like him it would take days to buy anything; but, if we were both like me, we would have run out of many a month ago!  I headed into the market searching for my set and had picked it out, made the deal and sealed the purchase within about ten minutes.  See, Darren didn't just buy a chess set, he scoured the market, and the whole of Ubud, comparing pieces and boards and craftsmanship and prices.  He eventually narrowed it down to two:  one board he liked better than the other, but one set of pieces he liked better than came with the nicer board.  So after pondering at the market for a long while, we went back to this other shop (a good twenty minutes away), where Darren examined and went back and forth in his own mind for almost an hour!  In the end, he bought the board with the pieces he liked best, and got the guy to throw in a pair of earings for me (no doubt to sweeten me up after waiting so long ;)).  After running back to our bungalow (we were almost late meeting up with Laura) we had yet another wonderful dinner, with two deserts!  (The home-made coconut pie is amazing!  I think even Brennan would like this pie!)
A funny thing about Indonesia, which is such a far cry from what we experienced in China, is the male attention.  In China, it is non existent; in Indonesia, it is subtle but nonetheless present.  As we were walking back from dinner that night, Darren was on the other side of the street, and Laura and myself were on one side.  As per usual, a guy asked, "You want transport?", which we declined, to which his response was, "You want boy?"  We laughed out loud, informed him we had a boy, "Two of us for one boy!"  Later that night, a guy again asked me and Darren if we wanted transport, we said no, and he offered me a helicopter ride for free (:S).  Also, in the market on our first day a guy asked me if I wanted to buy a watch.  I said no, so he asked if I wanted a boyfriend.  I told him I already had one, so he asked if I wanted one more.  It is humorous.  Last night, we even had a guy simply say "Yes?" as we walked by.  Not really sure what that was supposed to mean?  Was he asking if we wanted to transport like everyone else?  Yet still, my immediate response was to say no, and I didn't even know what I was saying no to!
Once passed the various solicitations, we met up with the Danish girls to check out the Bamboo Bar for some live entertainment.  Given that drinks started at Rp 75000, we had "mocktails" and only one a piece before deciding to leave, heading back to our bungalows with snacks and beverages from the local corner store.  We chatted and entertained each other with various forms of dance until late into the night.  We said goodbye to both Laura and the Danish girls, who all left today, and Darren and I are once again on our own.  Stuck with eachother's company.  (Just kidding!)

It was nice to have a few friends to spend the days with, and it was great seeing Laura and hanging out with her again.  While we were in Hong Kong she was pretty busy finishing up her school year and just tending to her daily life, so it was nice to just sit around and chat and catch up after all these long years.  Today, Darren and I just ran some errands, getting ourselves ready to head to Singapore tomorrow.  It'll be a short visit there as it's quite expensive and we're both anxious to keep going on our travels (I am especially anxious to head to Thailand); but, it'll be nice to see my cousin and catch up with her as well.  So it's off tomorrow, to yet another mysterious land for a few days, and then we're bound for Malaysia.

PS- I'm really looking forward to eating Indian food in Little India in Singapore!  Mmmm, butter chicken!