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Published: August 20th 2008
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We arrived in Denpasar around 9 am and headed straight to Ubud. Ronn, a Warm Heart friend, was already there, so we asked to go to the Swan Inn where he was staying. Our driver couldn't find it, but we were quickly exposed to some Balinese hospitality, as a stranger offered to walk us down a side street to the guesthouse. We managed to get the room next to Ronn's and ran into him on our way out to search for food.
The three of us wandered down Monkey Forest Rd. to find lunch, continuing downhill until we found a price we were happy with. This landed us at Sagittarius Cafe, where we feasted on Indonesian dishes. Wes and Ronn tried the local rice wine, and forced themselves to drink a small bottle. I have to say that after smelling it I didn't even want to try it, but they wanted to get their $2.50 worth.
Monkey Forest Sanctuary was next, a collection of Puras (Hindu temples) in a forest filled with monkeys. I've included a few pictures, and if anyone wants to see more I have an additional 100 or so that are equally cute. The monkeys were
a little scary, as they were pretty straightforward in asking for food and would jump on or paw people if they didn't hand the bananas over immediately. I made sure to keep my distance. I'm really not interested in a monkey bite and a series of rabies shots. It was fascinating to watch though. There were tons of babies, older monkeys that would pick fights with each other, and a few that just wanted to sit around and scratch their balls (literally).
We rented bikes and went down to ARMA to sign up for a Balinese wood carving class the next day. In addition, we were talked into coming back for the Kecak fire dance that night. We ran back to our room to get our cameras, and then ran into a procession and field full of children setting fires in anticipation of Indonesian Independence Day the next morning. We raced through the night on our bikes to the Kecak dance, one of the crazier things I've seen. It was a chorus of around 50 men and boys, emulating the noises of the forest. Two main actors became prominent, brothers who were fighting over a girl (of course). It
was fantastic. The chanting was amazing, and there was even some audience participation during the battle. Well worth the 100,000 rupiah. We stopped for dinner on the way back, another Indo feast.
Despite the rumors that this was the “dry” season, we got stuck in a downpour. It has rained off and on since we got here, although mostly sprinkling. One of the people Ronn met said that it's a result of global warming. We were forced to hang out in front of a convenience store and wait for the rain to let up before taking the bikes and making a mad dash back up the hill. A few hours of hanging out on the porch and talking later, we all passed out. Days of very little sleep had finally caught up with us.
Ronn went on a bird walk in the morning, while Wes and I slept in until almost 10. We had until 2 pm, when we were supposed to meet Ronn for the woodcarving class at ARMA. To pass the time, we bought a map and took our bikes into the nearby hills. It was worth the struggle of navigating steep hills with bad brakes
(I may have walked DOWN as many hills as I walked up, for fear of crashing). We ended up in small villages full of terraced fields and empty Puras.
We ended up at Goa Gajah, a Pura that had a Hindu side and a Buddhist side, as well as a cave (the Goa part of the name). It was riddled with tourists, but we felt it was worth it. We washed our faces in a fountain (a wannabe tour guide had told us it would preserve our youth). We drank from a giant coconut while wandering amid waterfalls and statues. The cave was small and hot, containing a statue of Ganesha.
Balinese woodcarving was next. Our teacher, Wayan, was very amiable and patient. Which was key, because the three of us are
terrible at woodcarving. We spent two hours working away at carving fish. Our results were decent, although I must confess that Wayan may have done more work than each of us on the fish. But at least there was something resembling a fish when we were done.
On our way back we found the Independence Day ceremonies had started, so we stopped to watch the
marching band performing for a field full of school kids. We watched the rest from Deli Cat where we had fantastic cheese, our first taste of Camembert since leaving the states a few months ago.
Tomorrow we set out for Candidasa, and are unsure of where we'll go from there.
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