Paradise Found
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2004
1
74
89
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Ubud - Bali,
Indonesia
Sunday, February 6, 2005
Arrived at the airport with a place to stay in mind and a vague plan about spending a few days in Ubud and then going to the Gili islands for a bit of beach and diving. Well we never made it to the Gili islands but then you can't do everything right ? And we can always come back, right ? and so on just about sums up our justification. Anyway and first to Denpasar.
B, acting in top annoying mode totally dismissed our plan of where to stay and started a conversation with the taxi driver about what would be "a much better idea." Stay by the airport and catch a shuttle bus to Ubud the next day. Well it sounded ok but the alarm bells were ring a ding dinging. Suprisingly....(duh) the taxi driver knew a place close by so we stopped and got out to check it out
Bob from Private Garden in Ketut's Place Ubud
. Steam is beginning to emerge from my ears but heh perhaps we will give him the benefit of the doubt. B checked out the room - always a top plan unless your staying at the Sheraton in Hongkers ! B emerged after 5 min laughing which I took to mean that perhaps the room wasn't suitable. Apparently the room was ok (apart from the price and lack of ventilation) but it was the broken toilet with a turd the size of a sausage dog that put him off. We asked the taxi driver if he knew any other places close by but by then he was in a mood and decided to drive us to our original place without any further communication. Fine by me !We were met by the owner of our guest house at the gate who gave us a warm welcome, a great room and told us to sort everything else out in the morning. Sweet.
The next day we had a leisurely breakfast chatting with a fellow traveller Roman - who was an artist. We secretly believed he was a tortured genius. Then we set off on our exploration of Denpasar before we went up to Ubud. We were pointed in the direction of the markets and told the traffic would clear a bit in the next few hours. Off we skipped trying to avoid the motorbikes and huge holes in the pavement (where there was any)and the religious offerings made out of bamboo with petals and dried rice outside every house or shop. We found the market alongside one of the main squares where women were crouching under umbrellas to hide from the sun, selling huge bunches of blue flowers. We made our way through the crowds and up the stairs where we got collared by a woman immediately. Unfortunately there was no escape and we got the guided tour to her stall. We decided not to buy one thing "for luck" as we didn't have any small money and found that we were being bamboozled into buying saffron and other spicy delights
Bob is it hot here or WHAT?
. Not much call for those in backpacking. Tried to escape but all I could hear were her flip flops chasing us through the narrow rails of clothes and food. We cut our losses and ran. The next market was a bit more subdued and was a bird market with every type of bird staring out from little cages. There seemed to be some undercover birds too wearing squirrel, chipmunk and monkey outfits ! Back at the ranch we admired the owners fish and chatted to him about what it had been like growing up in Denpasar. Its hard to belive but from his house where he was born (and where we were staying) he could see fields and used to go fishing in the river just 10min from his house. Now a cloud of fumes. However denpasar still has a certain charm and I'm glad we explored it if only briefly.On the way up to Ubud we soon got out from the traffic and realised what he had been talking about. Fields of green beyond the main road with paddy fields stretching across the horizon. The main road cut straight through all to the way to Ubud, lined with a thousand stone carvers and furniture makers. We decided that a splurge was order of the day in Ubud so we stayed at Ketut's Place. Really really nice. For $30 had out own apartment on a private terrace with our own garden that overlooked the river gorge. Up on the top terrace there was a beautiful swimming pool surrounded by flowers and plants with overhanging trees stone carvings pouring water into the pool
Bob with Dental floss at Ubud Temple?
. As well as having rooms for people to stay, this is also Ketut's family home and somehow that also made it seem special. We felt like it might be difficult to leave the place and we were right. It took only one day before we decided to drop the anchor for a few days and chill out. The next few days were spent eating amazing food, exploring Ubud's markets, chilling by the pool, visiting some amazing temples and generally getting lost in the paddy fields on crazy walks. Everyone in Ubud was great and we met a whole bunch of people at Ketut's who shared our feasts and who we lounged in the pool with.
In short (well its difficult as I liked it a lot) our favorite things in Ubud.
Nasi campur at Rodi's restaurant on the balcony - overlooking a small side road with blossoming trees and flowers spilling over the terrocotta adobe brick walls of family temples and guest houses. Talking with the owner about how the Hindu religion culture is followed by his family.
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Carved Temple Ubud
Roast suckling pig for lunch in the main hubub of Ubud, sitting cross legged on the floor with the locals tucking into our roast pig, crackling and black pudding with rice - chased down with a cold cleansing ale. I chased the guy holding the road pig on a platter on his head down the street so I could get a picture ! Every day a brand new roast pig, lunch keeps going until its gone !
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Lunch at Murni's Warong down by the river. Wooden decking and balconies overlooking the Sungai wos river. Flowers everywhere sneaking a peak through a gate that leads down to the river where a couple stand in the river washing huge sheets with brilliant colours glaring under the sun. Another trip to Murni's where we sipped beers and ginslings in the lounge with Don and Joanne our fellow travelpodders as the sun set. We then went on to a shadow puppet show where we were the only four people there. They were going to cancel the show but the choice of refunding or giving a private show was not too much of a tricky decision for them.
Behold..........
Anoman, the devine messenger (from Ramayana epic)
Obviously it was a bit tricky as we couldn't quite follow the story not being in English and all (the print out was actually negative help) but the whole thing was mesmerizing with the flame behind the screen pulsating and the puppets moving to the beat of drums into a frenzy before silence before the narrator started the next chapter of his tale
Ketut's Pool
. As the story unfolded the puppets would speak and you could see the detail as they blinked and the large eyelashes flashed in the flame. The shadows flew around the screen and the narrator interjected the story with a few funny Ubud observations in English and a few fart gags which was very amusing. Finally after the show had finished we had a quick peek behind the screen to say hello to the theatre group. Expecting to see two or three people we were amazed when there were ten or so squished at the back playing different instruments and handling the puppets. I loved it !Afterwards we walked to Lotus cafe and had dinner at a table overlooking the ponds with huge lotus flowers floating. In the background we could see through to one of the temples where some ladies were practising their traditional dancing.
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Feasting with the gang at Ketut's (twice as it was so good). Ketut's wife and family prepare a Balinese feast several times a week to give people the opportunity to try all of a host of different dishes that are traditionally prepared for celebrations and ceremonies. So we went right ahead and tried them all, all 20 or so of them. Fabulous !
Ketut them proceeded to show us around his own family space. The different buildings are all a set distance away from each other and as per Hindu tradition are used for different purposes. Some of them are open buildings with just roofs and some are enclosed. Most homes have their own small temple which the women give offerings to, twice a day and where incense burns
Lisa Fancy Ubud dinner
. All of these buildings are quite beautiful and the path that leads through the home to where we stayed goes over pools with fish swimming and between overgrown plants and past ornate cages with birds singing. It is truly a wonderful place.We had several of our own feasts at other restaurants with long communal tables like Dewars where we ordered half the menu and the old woman owner would bring out dish after dish as we passed them around. Afterwards we decided to go for a midnight swim, much to Ketut's amusement to see all of his guests in the pool at the same time in the dark watching the stars....
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Overlooking the paddy fields on the balcony at Indus at sunset. Very romantic.
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Getting lost on one of the three walks that I dragged B on (he had a couple of sense of humour failures after the first one). We explored three different parts of Ubud on foot before taking a wider tour for a day with a driver
Lisa Ketut's Place
. The first one was the ridge walk, which we started at 7am before breakfast (did I mention the amazing fruit and pancakes for breakfast ?). We found the start of the walk just before crossing the bridge at Campuan and made our way down a road leading past the school over a river footbridge and past the temple walls. Running along the temple wall the path leaded us out in to the tall grass and onto a path leading up to a ridge that overlooks the river gorge and miles of paddy fields. We then carried on to the small villages of Bangkiang Sidem, Sebali and Keliki. Along this ramble we past young women and girls carrying huge baskets on their heads stepping as if they had just come out of finishing school with amazing grace considering the weight and the restrictive sarongs. We also ran into about 100 children on their way to school all of whom expressed there own personal hellos to us as they giggled and smiled (crazy tourists). As we walked along the road we would get a small glimpse into every home/garden through which we saw a general hive of activity such as chickens getting lathered up ready for bathtime (really) and out in the fields the paddy fields being worked. Eventually after much winding of road and sweating we made it to Tegelalang and realised we had hit a main road and lost the path, we were starving, it was bloody hot, we had hit the centre of all wood carving and furniture making and it was too hectic
Lisa Ubud carved Temple
! Bemo (minibus) back to Ketut's shared with the usual chickens and women who looked 250 years old at least !Two of our other walks took us into the paddy fields to the east of Ubud (off the path from Rodi's homestay and past the spa and the West of Ubud (over the Sungai river on bamboo bridges lost in the tall grass). No maps hmm. Perhaps I'll tell those stories another time.
We also took a tour to some amazing temples which were beautiful - favourite was Gunung Kawi stone memorials cut into cliffs on a river valley.
Many more pleasant moments by the pool, and sheltering from the torrential rain in our porch, two hour long massages for 2 quid and and and ................. Apparently Ubud was in low season when we were there. And that was fine by me. I hope it doesn't change too much. We never made it to the Gili islands but what a great excuse to go back.
L
