In Love With Ubud.

Everyone said I would love Ubud, and I did instantly. It is a small, quiet town, but also has lots going on. It is surrounded by rice fields and tiny villages. The villages each specialize in some kind of craft, there are whole villages with glass blowers, wood workers, bone carvers, stone masons, silver smiths, you name it. The villages are all along the highway, so as you leave Ubud you just drive through one town after another.

Our first day in town Sven took us on a drive to the Bone Carver village. It was a beautiful drive, through jungle and rice paddies.




On the way, Sven took us to a tiny warung (restaurant) that served amazing fish. There was fish on a stick, fish ball soup, and random fish something something. So yummy, and for less than a dollar each!


From there we parted ways with Sven, and he pointed us to Terta Emul temple. We went in, Elesa had to wear one of the sarongs provided. It seems like if you aren't wearing clothes that cover past your knees you have to cover up. I had wrapped a scarf around my shoulders since I was wearing a tank top, but the man told me to take it off. I felt like maybe he just wanted to see some cleavage, rather than there being an actual religious significance.

The temple was bustling, with some kind of ceremony going on. I gather ceremonies happen frequently in Bali (daily, from what I've seen so far). The temple was very interesting, lots of ornate carved stone covered in moss. There was also a large pond of holy water with something bubbling up into it from deep down in the earth somewhere.

After the temple we drove to the bone carvers village. The main reason for us to head there was to look for earrings. We heard almost 70% of the gauged horn jewelry you can find at home is made in this village.

We went to a store Sven recommended called Mantra, and I went crazy. Shopping is not my favorite, so I like to be fairly efficient. I went through that whole store and within half an hour I had found about 15 pairs of earrings I wanted. And guess what, they all cost less than $35, which is about what you would pay for one pair at home. I was all shopped out and very satisfied after that!

The horns of water buffalo, used to make earrings.

That evening Elesa and I went to get a massage at a place recommended by Little Woo, called Bali Healing. It was great, there was a nice garden, it was clean, the massage was top notch. It cost $8, a few bucks more than our ghetto experience in Kuta, and a hundred times better.

After that we went home to relax, and watch the fire flies dance in the rice paddies.

The next day the house cook, a woman named Cadek, came for the first time. Sven hired her to come and cook one meal a day for us, and Elesa and I were excited to meet her. We went to the market with her, then learned how to nasi gorang, the fried rice. I'm going to be able to make some delicious dishes when I come home.

After that we headed to Goa Gajah, also known as the Elephant cave. Built about a thousand years ago, it was pretty interesting to see. Sven had told us to wander around the back of the temple a bit, which proved to be as interesting as the front.

We walked by a small shrine, where about 30 locals were praying. An old man gestured us to come in, and we sat at the back. One man went around giving people holy water. He had what looked like a paint brush, and he dipped it in the water, then flicked it on a persons head. Then you held out your palms, right one over left, and three times he sprinkled water in for you to drink. We were encouraged to participate, it felt so welcoming.

While everyone was getting holy water, people were chatting with their neighbors and laughing. They all watched and smiled when it was our turn. Pretty different from the Catholic church ceremonies I went to when I was young.

After that we wandered off into the jungle a bit, and found another cave. Then we went back to the main area, where there was a giant tree and a giant fallen statue in a river, which we were told was a Buddha but was fairly hard to make out. We went down in the river and a little grandpa showed us the back. We took pics and then he took some of us, and we took some of him. He got really excited, I don't think he gets to use a digital camera often. And he wanted us to take more and more pics of him.

Part of a giant fallen Buddha statue.

After that Hitoshi and I headed home, and Elesa went to use the internet. We realized when we got home Elesa had the key, and with no way to call her we broke in, although we could get into our room we couldn't get into the rest of the house since the bedroom door locked from the other side. That was fine with us, as we passed out for a nap pretty quickly.

After Elesa got home a freed us, we headed into town and had wonderful curry dinner and the went to check out a shadow puppet show going on down the road. There were hundreds of people watching, and we crept to the back to check it out. I had heard that these shows can be long and hard to follow, and I can see what people mean. Although it was interesting there was not much happening, so we only stayed about 20 minutes.

We did walk around to the back of the stage and got to get a behind-the-scenes glance, which was fairly interesting. The puppets were huge, and there must have been more than 30 people back there working them, and playing live music.

Every night in Ubud there is dance, music and all kinds of cultural things to check out. I can't wait to explore more.