Ubud. Art Capital of Bali.

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We arrived in Ubud a lot later than expected due to another nightmare journey of technical hitches and bad sailing conditions. It was 9pm by the time we found a reasonably priced homestay, but we decided to go out and explore anyway despite the town's midnight curfew when it seems everything shuts down.

Ubud is like one big artists colony, with a concentration of indonesian artists living in the area, both traditional and cutting edge modern, as well as those who have migrated here from the world over. It's jam packed with galleries and art museums, and of course shops and markets- well those artists have to get by somehow.
It's not only painting which the Ubud area is famed for, woodcarving, batik and ikat textiles and traditional balinese dance are also widely exhibited. We attended a legong dance at Ubud palace, and although the plot completely left me for dust, I loved every minute of it. There were the beautiful intense, (scary) eyed courtier women who danced with such precision and attention to detail it was awe-inspiring - every hand movement and positioning of a foot was perfected and integral to the dance. Following their performance was a dragon-monster and a monkey dance, a Prince and a King and finally some warriors that ended the show by skewering themselves violently. The whole show was supported by a Gamelan orchestra that played beautifully non-stop for the 2hr performance, set in the stunning but not overly embelished surroundings of the palace. Good night.

We also went to see Shadow puppetry wich all took place as it would've done originally in the mountain villages with a huge firey torch behind a fabric screen. The puppet imagery was really kool, all jerky movements and long spindly fingers like Jack Frost.

On the saturday I booked myself in for a drawing and painting lesson with a traditional indonesian artist . He was a perfectionist but a really lovely, nice guy (like every indonesian we've met!) and a good teacher, although the language barrier was a bit of a problem. I was at one point stumped for what he was trying to tell me and eventually I grasped he was trying to describe the underside of a leaf. I really, really enjoyed the lesson and learnt a lot but I've got to say, it was three and a half hours at a school bench without a break- and it's been a long time, in fact many years since I've done anything that intensively- haha.

At the end of class Dale met me and was greeted by the workshop owner as 'Tail' as he so often is these days and it makes me laugh sooo much! Dale has become a health drink fanatic in Ubud as there are so many wonderful eco-friendly, veggie health cafes around town that I wish could be transplanted to Manchester. The drinks do give you a sense of wellbeing that's a good alternative to the beer- inspired one- haha, so we're having lots of healthy days. Wish we could all live here, it's that kind of place where you can easily imagine living... like Amsterdam!

Love to you all xxx Send some goss from home! It feels like we've been gone ages! xxx

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