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Published: November 2nd 2005
We took a local flight from Flores to Denpasar, Bali and then hopped in a taxi with a Dutch couple to the cultural town of Ubud, about 2 hours from Kuta. It is a lovely place - the streets lined with art galleries, craft shops, clothes stalls, bead shops and endless cafes and restaurants. We found a lovely Balinese style guesthouse with a pool, and this became our oasis and retreat from the heat after long walks in the surrounding paddies and fields. We left early our first morning there and took a long trek along a river gorge, through rice paddies and unbelievably green fields. It was hot and humid already at 0730am. We reached the top of a steep climb along the ridge and came upon a couple of small houses and local artists' galleries. Wayan is a local artist who learnt how to paint from his father. He was sitting quietly painting on the steps of his shop. We went inside to look at his works and came out having bought several paintings and feeling pretty poor! He was delighted and said he had sold more paintings to us than he had in 2 months! Considering his location
Wayan the Artist
We bought 7 of his original Balinese style paintings which we shipped back to the UK.it is not surprising, but his works are so detailed and intricate and it is probably the only original art we will ever be able to afford. The rest of our walk took us through local villages, ducks in the fields and women washing by the streams. Wayan directed us to a bamboo bridge which crossed the river gorge. It was a steep descent down to the bridge which happened to be only a few pieces of bamboo separating us from a very steep fall. We made it across and climbed up the muddy slopes to the other side. We must have looked a real sight in our muddy pants when we got back in to town.
Our next destination was Nusa Lembongan - an island off the coast of Bali. It is very much a surfer's haunt as the reef breaks are meant to be great surf spots. We tried our hand at surfing one of the reef breaks - called Playground - supposedly OK for beginners, but it was pretty hectic - at least we came out without having impaled ourselves on the coral. The island was very quiet and the locals seemed quite aggressive. Most of
So called bridge across the gorge.
Check the sweat marks on the T-shirt! the locals farm seaweed in the waters just along the beach and I guess tourism doesn't mean anything to them and their lively hood. The rest of the locals would come to us every day offering snorkeling trips, boat trips etc etc and it became tiring having to say no several times. It is low season now so they must be pretty desperate for business. We spent 3 nights here, then decided to head back to Kuta, where we have been for the last 2 days. Yesterday we hired boards and had another go at surfing and Keith went again today whilst Lisa took a really long walk along the beach. We are both pretty exhausted from all the paddling and our shoulders are very stiff. Tomorrow we fly to Australia, and so the Asian part of our trip has come to an end. We are sad to say goodbye to SE Asia but the journey must continue and we are looking forward to what lies ahead.
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Shay
non-member comment
Beautiful
Isn't Ubud just lovley? Glad you guys are still having a wonderful time. Have a great time in Aus, you sure have earned some little luxuries (like hot water). Keep having fun, keep safe and looking after each other. Miss you guys, love Shay and Greg