Ubud, Bali

01/03
We leave Nigel and Nikki around 6am: a little hard after a very short night and lots of wine yesterday. Very kindly Nigel leads us up to the highway. A good half hour drive later we reach the Brisbane airport, the sun shines, it is our last moments in Australia, just a bit sad to leave and we will not be in Western countries before a long time... We return the car and board our plane to Singapore, the day will be long, we'll make a Singapore stopover and another flight back to Bali, a 10 hour journey! It's pleasant to fly this morning, we have space, we can sleep, watch movies, eat, more movies, eat again. A quick stop for a Singapore stopover. Two hours in the airport, we connect to the free airport internet whilst waiting for the next departure, then another flight to Bali. We arrive at 7.30pm. We have organised a pick up from the airport to the villa that takes us to our new accomodation: we are staying in 'luxury' this week, my friend Nona from Jakarta has negotiated for us a nice little villa in quiet Ubud, a mountain town in the middle of rice paddies and also the artistic and cultural centre of Bali. It's hot, the thick and humid air wraps us and I feel the next two days will be hard! We reach our home for the next 9 days in the village of Nyuhkuning, next to the Monkey Forest. The villa is lovely, beautiful Balinese architecture, a swimming pool shared between 4 villas, air conditioning, a small tropical garden, dark Balinese wood furniture. We are delighted and pleased to have a place for ourselves! A quick dinner and then bedtime, we are tired and the humid air is hard to cope with!

02/03
We rest this morning and then decide to go explore the city, to get a feeling of the town and discover this place! We are close to the Monkey Forest, we cross it to reach Ubud, a dense forest inhabited by macaks monkeys. The shaddy trail goes through the forest, a funny little jungle! I begin to stress about the dogs... There are millions of stray and ferral dogs in Bali, wild, ill and in a pretty bad state... It's a real pleasure for me who fears these animals! However, they are not really aggressive and I will quickly get used to them...
Strolling in Ubud, we find shops everywhere. Ubud is quite touristic, but clean, a pretty prosperous village.
It is the end of the monsoon season, the humidity is very high, about 80 percent and we struggle a little to adjust. We walk around town, through the streets and side alleys, we stop for lunch in a warong (the local cafes), rest, then a little more exploration of the city. The houses are beautiful, temples magnificent, the sens of ornament, of decoration is present everywhere in Bali. We enter villas and family compounds, admire the splendor of the Balinese gardens, a mix of species, colors and contrasts. Superb! Altars are everywhere, in and around all buildings, street corners, in front of the shops, on rooftops and roof terraces, simple offerings everywhere for the Nature, Gods, Spirits and Human celebrations. Walls, gates and doorways are all carved, orned, family temples are visible in each house, pavillion, altars, the Hindu influence is everywhere. Balinese Hinduism is very specific, a true conglomerate of indigenous beliefs, of Buddhism and Shivaism of Indian origins. The worship of natural elements is very strong, as we see in the ritual of the offerings: small package presented to the gods of the house, the weaving of palm leaves containing flowers and seeds. A real expression of Balinese art, the smoke of incense floating above our small altar in the villa day... beautiful! The beauty of gestures, of flowers, of these simple but meaningful offerings touches us greatly. It inspires reverence, but also serenity. After this beautiful walk, we rest a little, swim in the villa pool and then walk again into town for dinner. It's fun to cross the forest at night, a little scary but really fun actually!! The monkeys sleep and I control my fear of dogs with little difficulty...hanging to Fab's arms!! Nice dinner in a local cafe then time to return home.

03/03
A quiet day, relaxing, pool, walk in Ubud, which we really like, we explore new corners, we see some rice fields, just out of town, chat with Balinese people affable and smiling. We also chat with our neighbours, an English couple travelling, excahnging some tips and ideas. We both want to see the island, see everything, explore each temple but decide to chill out this week and live at the Balinese time, being in serene Ubud. We discover a nice place to eat, Dewa Warong, good local cheap food with shared tables, a place to share, which will become our canteen. We meet some French, Dutch, Belgian people, a slightly alternative atmosphere floats around, travelers from all corners of the planet put together here. We like it!

04/03
Quiet morning, we chat with our neighbours, discuss Bali, an island which seems quite elusive, beautiful and complex. We decide to hire a scooter to go a little further. We leave the villa around noon to reach some villages, the village of Mas, a village of wood carvers and furniture, and Celuk, a small village of goldsmiths, disappointing. We go through some poor villages, dogs are ill, there is rubbish in the streets, and this humidity,wetness of Asia, but flowers are everywhere, at every street corner, a luxuriant vegetation ... We reach Mas, looking for furniture and wood work, a little disappointing, factories and shops along the streets, but little sculpture...just Balinese furniture in large quantity, very nice but not what we are looking for. We visit two antique shops, but are reasonable, we are on a traveller's budget!!!Same in the silversmith village, disapointing, jewelry are all the same, bad styles for tourists. We go back to Ubud to get a massage, Balinese massage is offered at every corner here!!! We go to a small spa that was recommended to us, a very pleasant hour and a half, very relaxing! The rain is suddenly torrential, funny to have a massage and hear the water flowing on the roofs (alang alang), we get back to the scooter and in time to reach our canteen Dewa, are completely wet up to our underwears!! The monsoon rain again and again!! Nice dinner again, we chat to some Belgian and a Dutch, the tables are so convenient to share, exchange, and have a great meal!! When we leave, we run into a French couple met few days ago. A place definitely cool, the food is excellent, the nasi goreng, Nasi Campur or the gado gado, all the local dishes are fresh and good. A delice and so cheap! I start eating vegetarian agan, the Indonesian cuisine is full of soy or tempeh, very healthy... After a convivial evening, we go back to our beautiful villa, this time in scooter! Crossing the Forest seems longer in scooter that by foot that night, strange ... but the monkeys are sleeping and we see very few dogs!

05/03
Early start: we drive to Padang Bay, a long ride up to this small port city. Padang bay is not a success for us, a small port with ferries going to Lombok, many restaurants, plenty of diving clubs but quite disappointing. lots of driving to see an area that we don't connect with, shame...We meet a French couple there and have lunch together, they have spent 9 months in Australia, and are travelling in Asia, they are disappointed with Bali, we tell them about Ubud, talk, exchange tips and impressions, nice. We then drive to Sidemen , a village in the rice fields, recommended by a couple in Dewa, two days ago. A very nice ride through villages, beautiful scenery, tiny rice fields clinging onto the side of the mountains, a highly sophisticated landscape of rice terraces, it's a pretty spectacular ride. Farmers work hard, we can observe the cultivation of rice, its different stages, fascinating. The sky becomes threatening, we leave for Semarapura-Klunggkung to visit Gosa Kerta, the masterpiece of Balinese architecture, a courthouse with beautiful wood panelling, painted ceilings, wooden pavilions. We want to avoid the rain, but it is impossible, a rainstorm hits us!! I like the rain in Asia, violent, strong and intense. We get soaked head to foot, when we reach the villa, the streets are innundated!!! Fab is doing really well driving the scooter in mud and puddles! He is now driving like a local, using the horn, every 5 minutes!
Short break at home to get warm and then we go to see a Balinese dance performance, an episode of the Ramayana this great Indian epic, the episode of the abduction of Sita by Rawana. There are different types of dance in Bali, we decided to go see the Kecak. There is a chorus of men sitting in a circle, chanting and scanding the scenes, words and gestures are apparently designed to exorcise evil spirits. These are vocal percussions without music, the pace is very strong, powerful, supported by undulating movements and the body lexicon-vocabulary really impresses us. The dancers are supported by these singers, the dances are graceful, with beautiful fabrics, brocade of green, red, some diadems. Each movement is one of great precision and of technical perfection, the movements of the wrists, hands are fascinating. It is truly beauiful, fingers are pointed out, so much flexibility! We then go for dinner at Dewa, find Ariane and Alain, our couple from Montpellier, Alain is a sculptor, who does some land art, and Ariane is very much into India, spirituality , yoga, we share and chat with joy. Dewa is as usual so friendly, everyone chat, relax and eat well!! A must! I wonder what it would be like to spend few months here, Bali is full of yoga, meditation classes and I slowly reconnect with my spiritual search...all about reconnecting the mind and the body. A good atmosphere, quite spiritual here and I really like it...

06/03
We decide to go walk in the rice fields throughout the small villages, despite my fear of dogs, dogs are everywhere here and in quantity! It is very hot this morning but after a good breakfast and chat with our neighbours John and Mary Louise, an English couple who are travelling in Asia after living 8 years in Hong Kong and Malaysia, originally from Streatham, very close to home!!!!! It makes us smile to think of London. We reach a temple Pura Ungegen Lebah, between two rivers, we walk the slopes of alang alang grass, the grass used for the thatched roof houses. The path-trail is nice, we finally get to Bangkiang Sidem , a small village, enjoy the view over the rice fields, visit the temple of the village, always very well maintained, very beautiful. A wall divides the various sacred spaces, everything is decorated, sculpture everywhere, mythological figures, gods are all there. We then continue on to Keliki, a village of painters, a little bit disappointing tho. The Balinese reproduce in mass Hindu images or lifestyles scenes, thinking that is what tourists want. There is little originality in what we see, each stall has the same paintings. The sun is very strong, we then decide to return home, have lunch in an organic cafe, chat with another neighbour, an American Morgan, a musician who lives here. We then go to a yoga class: the first one for Fab! The course is organised in a villa, in an outdoor studio overlooking the rice paddies, beautiful! The class is nice, despite the thousands of mosquitoes that attack us! Fab appreciates the mental and physical relaxation provided by the postures, I reconnect with yoga, with joy, despite my lack of flexibility: a rich and relaxing time. We go to Dewa warung, our canteen, which unfortunately is closed for one day! Drama! We decide to have dinner next door. a bad choice....the food is not the same, by chance we see Alain and Ariane, chat, have a beer, exchange our details, we hope to catch up aghain on Sunday night before we leave Bali. Then back to our scooter and villa for sleeping.

07 \ 03
Up early to go shopping, we go to Sukawati, a city with an art market, an active city, we do some shopping and then go to Mas again to llok for some wood furniture, but find nothing....The thunder rumbles, a monsoon rain is coming, we leave for Ubud. A short break at home to leave our bags, then go for lunch in our little organic cafe, a salad, some internet, we book a guesthouse in Ho Chi Minh, then go foir a walk in Ubud before going for another massage. We asre temtpd to buy some batiks, the ikat from Bali, the richness of Balinese fabrics is amazing but stay reasonnable again! The joys of Balinese massage, an hour massage, very relaxing, a small dinner and then off to bed early. We want to enjoy Sunday, it is our last day here!

08/03
I wake up very early, around 6 pm, spend an hour quiet before Fab rises. We have breakfast, talk with two U.S. ladies from Hawaii, here to do a retreat. We then go to the market, do some shopping, haggling like crazy. Fab go for a pedicure, we then had lunch at Dewa, then run to the post office. It's Sunday, but we are lucky, it's open: a parcel has to be sent home again we must be light and we are not!!Our bags are so heavy!! I then go to a yoga class, at the yoga barn, the studio is always pleasant, overlooking the rice fields, a moment of relaxation and to myself. Fab during this time, go for a ride in the surrounding villages, get lost in the rice paddies and small, witnessing some rural life scenes, very unique. We go for our final dinner at Dewa with Alain and Ariane, we share our impressions on the island, our feelings, talk about a study on water and its receptivity to emotions and intentions .... well a very nice dinner. Back to our scooter, and then we have to pack again....hell!!!tomorrow ... we leave for Saigon...

09/03
Last breakfast in the villa, with John and Marie Louise, we chat about London, life in Asia, their experience in India, Hong Kong, a nice breakfast, we exchange our emails, and we hope to catch up in England, a nice encounter... Departure for Denpasar and the airport, we chat with Made our driver, we talk about the local rituals, the difficulties to survive here, especially since the bombing and the decrease in tourism. We speak about Hinduism, as most other islands in Indonesia are Muslim, it is fairly unique here...an interesting time .... we leave Bali with regret, a beautiful island, diverse, rich, complex, far from the cliches of a tropical paradise: a strong culture, spirituality highly integrated in daily life and close to nature ... we want to come back here, but longer, maybe...A beautiful and gentle introduction to Asia before Vietnam ....