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Published: December 2nd 2008
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Just what it is about Ubud is hard to put a finger on. Maybe it's the streets of small arty shops and cafe restaurants. Maybe it's the laid-back atmosphere or the way everything is closed by 9pm. Maybe it's the lush greenery of the Monkey Forest, rice fields and moss-covered stone temples. What ever it is, you leave (reluctantly) feeling refreshingly restored.
The small town of Ubud is renowned as Bali's cultural center, and cultural it is indeed. Hindu temples dot the small town every block or 2 and every morning, local women bring small neatly woven grass baskets filled with petals, a few grains of rice, a cracker and incense sticks and carefully place them at the entrance to their shops, homes, temples and behind the license plates of their motorbikes as religious offerings.
Dance is also a rich part of their culture, with evening Kecak (pronounced keh-chuck) dances performed for the benefit of the tourists. The performance was made up by 3 dances. The first was backed by about 100 men with sarongs tied around their waists, and each with one red and one white flower behind their ears, who sat in a concentric circles around a
large flame candelabra placed in the center of the stage.
Through out the performance, the men chant variations of "keh-chuck keh-chuck keh-chuck keh-chuck eh eh eh!" (although they say it so fast, it sounds like "Chuckchuckchuck") and every now and then all wave their arms in the air. The dance tells the story of how the monkey god helped to rescue a princess from an evil king. This is danced by a handful of men and women in richly ornate traditional dress.
The second was a Sanghyang dance, which is a synchronised dance by 2 young girls. The really impressive thing is that as long as the dance is, they keep their eyes closed the entire performance. It's a trance dance that was traditionally danced to invite a spirit into the village through the dancing girls. This spirit is thought to bring protection to the village. The 12 year-old girls as they are seen as pure because of their youth.
The last performance was a fire dance. The candalabra was taken out and replaced by a heap of dried coconut husks. An old man then poured some igniter fluid over the husks, lit them with a match,
and cautiously backed away. The blaze died down, leaving a smouldering pile of coals in the center of the stage. A man on a grass horse 'rode in' and proceeded to kick the pile of coals spreading the glowing embers to the feet of the audience. Two men came in and swept up the coals back into a heap and again the horse man charges, spreading the red husks everywhere, this happened 3 times before a priest came in to bring him out of his trance. The fire dancer acknowledged his audience and promptly sat down to let his smoking feet cool off. 😊
Another of the many highlights in Ubud was the visit to the Sacred Money Forest (no regular monkeys allowed!) where you can feed the monkeys... they actually come looking in your pockets for any food!
BEWARE, the mozzies are there in full force looking for food too!
I think the thing about Ubud is that it's just so different to everywhere else. We came in expecting to spend only a couple of nights, and ended up staying 5 days.
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Diana
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would you do it again?
Hey, I'm a senior lady planning to travel to Bali alone for a couple of months in Bali. Do you view it as a safe place for an able body type to adventure on my own? How was the food, did you stay healthy? I'm pretty well traveled but missed Bali and now is the time but would like some first hand info.