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Published: July 27th 2008
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Monday July 7, 2008 - I have another cold. Two colds in one trip? Is this possible? We had a slow morning. After breakfast we found an internet cafe and decided to check email and see if we could cancel our reservation for the remaining days in Kuta so we could get out of there. Miranda took care of it in the nick of time and we checked out at noon. Our hotel booked us seats on the bus to Ubud and we got directions to the Perama office and walked over there. Ubus is a place I was more interested in visiting in Bali. Rice fields, etc. Beautiful surroundings. We walked over to Perama and passed the sight and memorial of the Bali bombing from a few years ago. Quite sad how many people died - so many Australians were listed. We had a little wait for the bus and then we were off. I start to fall instantly asleep on any kind of transport these days. Like a child. Really funny since I have such a hard time sleeping at night. The dozing was mixed with some views of rice fields and then we were in Ubud. Once we
arrived we were instantly accosted by someone trying to get us to stay at his guesthouse. I had really hoped for this since it would make our lives a little easier. I expected several people so we could play them off each other for prices, but we were happy with the place this guy took up to. It was a nice little room/building with a decent, albeit, cold water shower. We sat down, rested a bit, and then decided to take a walk around Ubud. It's a nice town, a lot of it very touristy. Once it was dark we got some food and spilt two dinners, noting instantly that Bali is definately more expensive than Java. It is also famous for spa treatments and massages. So after dinner we found a spa and decided on a creme bath for our hair. It was a shampoo, special conditioning treatment, and head, neck, and shoulder massage for one hour. It was quite a trat. And only $6. On the walk back we met an American couple from Seattle. Very cool people and we chatted for about 10 minutes until our ways parted. We thought we might see them on the next
leg of the trip but we didn't. We went back for a shower before bed, and the water stopped partway through Miranda's shower. Luckily she was mostly done by that point. The problem was that Miranda was sick in the night and we had no way to flush the toilet. Since half of the toilets in Indonesia are flushed by dumping water down them, Miranda went outside and found a bucket with water and made everything alright again. Turns out our water is somehow connected to a pump that had turned off. We were able to get it fixed in the morning.
We started the next day with a walk to the Monkey Forest. Bali is Hindu, unlike most of Indonesia, which is Muslim. The monkey forest area has several Hindu temples, and of course, lots of monkeys. The place itself is beautiful - lots of forest and it's cool and green. The scary part is the monkeys. I am not a huge fan of primates anyway, and after having worked at the zoo, I am especially uninterested in coming into close contact with one. These monkeys are quite cheeky and will try to steal anything good you have
on you. Even worse, people feed them! I saw a man with a monkey on his shoulders and little kids feeding them. Quite awful really. Though there were some cute small ones. 😊
Once we left the forest we decided to have some lunch at a nearby restaurant overlooking some rice fields. We then decided to take some ridiculous photos in the rice fields while we waited for our food. There were no other tourists there - just a bunch of Balinese who worked there, laughing at us. The food was good and filling. We then went for a 5 mile walk around the rice fields. It was good but hot walking. On the way back we stopped at a juice stand and had mango juice prepared just then. It was really good. We also arranged for our tickets to the Gili Islands the next day, through our guesthouse, and had dinner, saw a dance preformance and bought two dresses for Miranda in the process!
Bali has many traditional dances and we decided to see the kecak fire dance. The man who ran our guesthouse would be performing in it as well, which was a plus. It is
different than other dances in that there are maybe 100 men who sit in a circle 2 or 3 deep and chant and sing the background to the dance. The story of the dance was the same as the Ramayana Ballet, though in less detail. It was quite a sight to behold. The men get really into it, almost going into a trance. The end is even better. They lit a fire with coconut shells and then there is a man with no shoes on who kicks the fire apart with his bare feet. They then sweep the shells together again, and the fire rekindles, and he kicks it apart again. This happens several times and you can see his feet are quite charred at the end. I don't know how he does it. Quite a good show.
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