Ubud in a nutshell (Mar. 8/09 - Ubud, Bali, Indonesia)

A morning monsoon threatened to derail our day of exploring Ubud before it had even started, but the sun broke through even before we had finished our banana pancakes served on our patio (the service here is great!). First up, we walked down the main drag in town, called Monkey Forest Road, where both sides are jammed with restaurants, tour agencies, guesthouses, and shops. There is so much fabulous stuff for sale here - beautiful fabrics, cute handmade dresses, original jewelry, house decorations, and artwork. The lack of space and budget for shopping came back to haunt me again! A little window shopping never hurt anyone though. At the end of Monkey Forest Road is a big treed park of the same name, which is a sacred area containing three Hindu temples and a couple hundred monkeys - Balinese long-tailed macaques, to be specific. They're basically the same cheeky guys we've seen everywhere else, but to the local people, these guys are sacred. Some people were dumb enough to buy bananas at the door to feed them, but most people get assaulted by the big aggressive males before they're even through the gates, mugged of their fruit and now officially scared of monkeys. We saw one guy trying to tease a monkey that was carrying her baby, and she actually ran up to him, leaped up and grabbed his shirt, hung onto his chest spread eagle, and grabbed the banana out of his hand. They mean business! Despite having seen so many of them elsewhere, it was still fun to watch the tiny babies and try to photograph them.


We spent a few minutes checking out the temples, which were pretty with green foliage overtaking the carvings of demons, monkeys, and even some huge Komodo dragons. Incense wafted through the air, and a trickling stream nearby made for a serene setting. Back outside in the heat, we made our way back up the street for lunch before heading out to see the more rural side of Ubud. We had read about a two hour walk that goes north along a path from town, through some pretty rice paddies, and back to town past coconut groves. "Pretty" was an understatement - once we left the urban landscape behind, the land opened up into a patchwork of brilliantly green rice fields, terraced toward the horizon as far as you could see. Coconut palms bordered the path and some of the fields, and farmers' houses and tiny thatched barns popped up in the sea of green. Most homesteads had a simple house, a cow or two in the barn, a few ducks or chickens, and a whole lot of rice. Most of the fields were in the early growing stage, with the thick grass-like stalks rising a foot or two tall, but with few rice grains visible. Guys worked out in the fields and occasionally looked up to wave when they saw us pass. The whole landscape was stunningly beautiful - definitely postcard worthy!




One of Bali's famous cultural traditions is dance - story-telling performances that involve singers and dancers wearing bright, beautiful outfits. We wanted to see what it was all about, so we attended one called "Janger dancing" that took place at the Ubud Water Palace. This is a small temple that is framed by two lotus ponds out front, which had some gorgeous pink lotus blossoms in bloom. A stage was set up in front of the temple, where an orchestra of bamboo flutes, mini cymbals, bamboo xylophones, maracas, and drums played throughout. The first part involved a group of ten men and a group of ten women, each dressed in exquisite costumes, to perform several dances together. The women wore bright pink and gold wrap dresses with elaborate gold jewelry, tall head dresses, waist-length dark hair, and carrying purple fans. The men could have passed for Thai ladyboys, as they wore gold and maroon wrap dresses, elaborate gold jewelry, and more makeup than the women! It was pretty funny to watch muscly guys in pink lipstick struggling to pull up their strapless dresses! The dancing involved a lot of synchronized, fluid body movements, with particular emphasis on the hands and feet. They had some weird jerky eye movements going on to, all set to music. Part way through, a storyline took over that involved a woman trying to seduce a man and having to kill a pig or something - the plot was definitely lost in translation, but it was thoroughly entertaining nonetheless!