Ubud, Bali

We've been in Bali for 5 days now and went straight to the village of Ubud. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed the first few days.  It did not seem like the idyllic village portrayed in the book and movie Eat, Pray, Love, much less an island paradise.  There are narrow streets filled with cars and motorbikes and crossing the streets is challenging.  It's the high season so there are lots of tourists and many vendors asking us to buy things as we walk by.  Every block has men with signs for taxi asking if we want a ride.  I've been totally turned around and unsuccessful at following maps, not what I'm used to.  But now things are feeling more comfortable.  The same walk to the internet cafe where I'm writing this has gotten shorter every day, funny thing.

Ubud is known for its culture and arts.  We've gone to two dance performances and one shadow puppet show.  The dance performances were amazing, the puppet show less so because it was difficult to follow the story.  The kecak dance was our favorite, 50 men chanting and dancing while other dancers in elaborate costumes dance and tell a story.

Dancers at Legong dance performance

We first stayed at Nirvana Pension for three nights, then went to another guest house.  Both guest houses are a family compound where they rent out 5 to 10 rooms.  Family members also live there, and every compound has its own temple area.  A delicious breakfast of local fresh fruit has been included at both places.

Entrance at Nirvana Pension

In addition to the dance performances we've explored Ubud and gone on a bicycle tour.  We were picked up in a van and driven for breakfast to a restaurant overlooking Lake Batur, which is situated between two volcanic mountains.  We then stopped at a coffee farm and saw a variety of plants in addition to coffee.  We were offered samples of about 16 types of coffees and teas.  We then got on the bikes and cycled about 25 kilometers, almost all of it downhill.  We had other stops to see a huge banyan tree, a rice paddy where they were harvesting rice, and a family compound.

View of Lake Batur

The tour ended at the Monkey Forest, it has a temple and is a sanctuary for macaque monkeys.  There are hundreds of monkeys there, running all over the place.  Vendors sell bananas, and the monkeys will crawl on visitors to get at the bananas.  (We didn't feed them.)

Monkey mom and baby

Main temple in Monkey Forest

A sarong and sash are required to enter the temple area and are provided

Despite tourism and western influences, Bali culture is still very strong.  Islam came to the island of Java next door over a thousand years ago, and the Hindus there moved over to Bali.  Bali remains mostly Hindu, but it has developed in a unique Bali fashion over the centuries.  There are many temples and religious ceremonies are a part of everyday life.  One huge aspect of Bali culture is offerings.  Offerings are set out daily and are seen everywhere:

Offering on the sidewalk in front of a shop

Typical daily offering

After Made brought us our breakfast she distributed offerings around the family compound

Offering in produce section of a local grocery store

Most locals speak at least some English, but we've learned a few words of Indonesian and Balinese (two different languages).  We now love saying "thank you" in Balinese (suksmon) because every time we do we get a huge smile.

Tomorrow we leave to go north up the island.  Our plan is to take local transportation and stay with a couchsurfing host in a small village.  On to our next adventure!