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Published: December 18th 2007
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Alam Shanti
One of fountains in garden. Hi family and friends afar, thanks for the replies to our last entry. It's really great to hear from you, and not just so we can gloat about not shovelling snow. Adventuring is great, but it does great a bit lonely at times. Kevan, this entry is especially for you, because I know you are planning a Bali trip. If that is still on, you would be hard pressed to find a lovlier place. Arriving at Alam Shanti, our first hotel, was absolutely magical. Hundreds of flickering torches and candles lead through a garden filled with statues of Hindu deities and lotus pools. Tuberose, frangipane, and incense perfumed the night, which was filled with the chirps of frogs and squeaks of geckos on their evening hunting. The hotel is on the outskirts of Ubud, very peaceful. We had the top floor of a gorgeous two-story structure. Our suite (bedroom, dressing room, balcony, bathroom) measured about 30 X30 - enormous to me. The bedroom is done in dark carved wood, soft white cottons and indigo silks. I sat on the balcony, listened to the sounds of the night and felt like a princess. Breakfast is delivered to your balcony - perfectly ripe
Our Place
The suite took up entire top floor of this building - bigger than the first floor of our house in Ottawa. mangoes, papyas, rambuttans, litchis, and great waffles ("jaffles" here). I watched an incredibly speedy little creature zipping up a coconut tree; I discovered that he was an Indonesian squirrel and that there is a squirrel-hunting society. Not a happy thought. The hotel's infinity pool overlooks a deep jungle ravine with lots of these little guys scampering around. Twice-daily "canangs" are prepared by the Balinese. I'm informed that these are offerings of flowers, rice, and incense placed before shrines, in doorways, in gardens - anywhere- to hounour your ancestors and the gods, ward of demons, attract good luck. The canangs are usually placed on little, intricately-woven palm leaf mats that the women put together with great speed. They're accompanied by holy water sprinkled from flowers - a truly beautiful, graceful gesture. I'm mentally offering the offerings set out on our balcony to the squirrel-protector deity.
We went into the town proper and bought sarongs, which are required dress for visiting the temples. I thought that Matthew looked especially elegant in his. Ubud is full of people hawking this, tours, and taxi services. Do you want transport? Maybe you need transport for tomorrow? I'll give you a good price. A morning
Infinity Pool
Wonderful pool at Alam Shanti overlooking ravine. price for good luck. Fortunately, the Balinese are so polite and soft spoken that they never harass you, despite the fact that tourism has dropped off dramatically since the bombings at Kutu Beach. Driving into Ubud is circuitous and a bit slow, but walking in is quick, because we can cut through the Monkey Forest, which is filled with long-tailed macaques, who are great little thieves of anything shiny, so people are warned to hang on to their cameras well. There's a temple dedicated to the monkeys about a 10 minute walk from Alam Shanti. More star watching and drinking rum on our balcony that night. Hibiscus flowers on our pillows for good dreams. This princess life is very addictive.
We got up early the next day to go hiking through the rice fields before the sun became too fierce. Small shrines are scattered throughout the fields to honour Dewi Shri, goddess to whom rice is offered before the evening meal. Got lost and just a bit cranky with the heat. At one point, we wound up in a ravine (Matthew's call) with one idea how to get out except by retracing our tortuous walk in. More crankiness. And
Four Poster Canopied Bed
One of the beds in our room. then a sweet man appeared and indicated to us by signals to cross on a narrow, downed tree. With all my camera gear wobbling around and with heavy boots, as opposed to our saviour's bare feet, I was sure I was going to fall and confirm that I was the epitome of the clumsy westerner, but I kept my balance and made it across. At that point, I was rather relishing the idea of Matthew at the bottom of the ravine, but he made it too. Much better humour prevailed after we returned to the hotel and I visited the hotel masseuse. This tiny woman with thumbs of steel must have either been very intuitive or else very adept at reading wincing because, just when I thought I couldn't stand the pressure of her thumbs on one spot any more, she moved her hands. A one-hour massage costs about $20. That evening, we went to a shadow-puppet play that told the story of a conflict between a family of good princes whose mother's efforts to hold a festival to honour the gods aroused the jealousy of an evil witch who engaged giants to fight the princes. Good guys won in
the end. On the way back, we caught a glimpse of a not-for-tourists performance of dancers dressed in god and demon costumes about 8 feet high. Only boys and men, all dressed in white, were in attendance. Would love to have been able to watch. We're changing hotels tomorrow. I hope the next one is as gorgeous. Bye for now, Helen
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Deborah McIntosh
non-member comment
Season's Greetings
Matthew and Helen, It is wonderful to hear about your travels - - Bali sounds truly magical. Glad to hear you are keeping the crankiness-to-rum ratio appropriately balanced at all times. This, I believe, is the secret to happy trails, if not happy life overall. Much love to you both as those of us stuck in the northern hemisphere look down the barrel of fast-approaching Christmas. Fondly, Deborah