Shadow puppets and a honey-scrub
The following day was indeed, very quiet. We confined ourselves to the hotel, and it rained a good part of the day too (which was fine - we've had our share of blazing sunshine and a real tropical downpour is still a novelty for us). The hotel had taken the approach of keeping a full staff during the day but shutting down for the evening to observe the Nyepi holiday. Predictably, just before the restaurant's scheduled 5pm closing time, the entire hotel ordered an early dinner which quickly swamped the kitchen which apparently had not anticipated this surge and was running out of food. The club sandwich was no longer available so we ordered spaghetti - but an hour later it appeared that that order had disappeared and now they only had french fries. Next they ran out of cooking gas (I felt so sorry for the staff who were dealing with all these desperate guests) for the deep-fryer. Eventually, we ended up with toast and scrambled eggs for dinner.
The day after Nyepi we explored a bit more, although a lot of shops were still shut. In our long search for an internet cafe we passed the memorial for the first Bali bombing (Oct. 2002) and finally found one next door to a gutted building at the site of the second bombing (Oct 2005). It definitely makes you a bit edgy.
We caught a minibus up to the town of Ubud, which I vaguely remember being a few houses and restaurants amongst the paddy fields. The main street down to the monkey forest is now chock full of fancy shops and spas and elegant bungalows.
We met a fellow at the intersection where we were dropped off and ended up staying at his bungalows, which are set in a beautifully garden with a swimming pool.
Our first afternoon we walked down to the monkey sanctuary to hang out with the monkeys and feed them bananas. They were pretty well fed, and therefore well behaved, but that didn't stop them trying to climb up and grab the entire bunch from your hand.
That night we went to see a shadow-puppet show. This is a backstage shot showing the intricate puppets and the lantern that casts the shadow onto the screen during the performance. Since it's all in Balinese and Indonesian, you don't understand much of what is going on, but it's interesting to watch.
Kuta wasn't teeming with tourists as I'm sure it used to be, but it was reasonably busy. By comparison, Ubud was almost deserted. It was all the more striking since in addition to its attractive old-school wooden buildings with beautiful carved beams and roofs, it was full of exquisitely designed upmarket restaurants and spas, complete with gurgling waterfalls into lily ponds, marbled floors and sumptuous tropical gardens - and all of these places were open for business and generally completely empty.
I think the owners have deep enough pockets to soldier on in the face of the current economic situation (it has been like this since the bombing last October), but it's quite a sad sight. The upside for us was that you could get some very good deals on accommodation and very reasonable restaurant prices at places we would normally consider to be out of our range.
We went on a pretty hike along a ridge outside town which took us into rice fields and a landscape that reminded me more of what the town had looked liked during my childhood visit.
Afterwards, we took a dip in the pool and then we treated ourselves to a honey-scrub massage and soak at one of the spas. This was fabulous, except for the fact that after we walked into the room, the nice lady told us we should get undressed and put on 'this' and handed us each an identical pair of stetchy, black mesh, disposable granny-panties (the idea being that you don't want your own underwear covered in sticky honey massage oil).
I would have preferred to be stark naked to be honest, but didn't want to upset anyone. So with Katie giggling hysterically (a big help), I gathered all my reserves of fortitude and masculinity, and did what I had to do.
The massage was great and the soak in the hot, flower-petal bath looking out over the paddy fields was sublime.
The day after Nyepi we explored a bit more, although a lot of shops were still shut. In our long search for an internet cafe we passed the memorial for the first Bali bombing (Oct. 2002) and finally found one next door to a gutted building at the site of the second bombing (Oct 2005). It definitely makes you a bit edgy.
We caught a minibus up to the town of Ubud, which I vaguely remember being a few houses and restaurants amongst the paddy fields. The main street down to the monkey forest is now chock full of fancy shops and spas and elegant bungalows.
We met a fellow at the intersection where we were dropped off and ended up staying at his bungalows, which are set in a beautifully garden with a swimming pool.
Our first afternoon we walked down to the monkey sanctuary to hang out with the monkeys and feed them bananas. They were pretty well fed, and therefore well behaved, but that didn't stop them trying to climb up and grab the entire bunch from your hand.
That night we went to see a shadow-puppet show. This is a backstage shot showing the intricate puppets and the lantern that casts the shadow onto the screen during the performance. Since it's all in Balinese and Indonesian, you don't understand much of what is going on, but it's interesting to watch.
Kuta wasn't teeming with tourists as I'm sure it used to be, but it was reasonably busy. By comparison, Ubud was almost deserted. It was all the more striking since in addition to its attractive old-school wooden buildings with beautiful carved beams and roofs, it was full of exquisitely designed upmarket restaurants and spas, complete with gurgling waterfalls into lily ponds, marbled floors and sumptuous tropical gardens - and all of these places were open for business and generally completely empty.
I think the owners have deep enough pockets to soldier on in the face of the current economic situation (it has been like this since the bombing last October), but it's quite a sad sight. The upside for us was that you could get some very good deals on accommodation and very reasonable restaurant prices at places we would normally consider to be out of our range.
We went on a pretty hike along a ridge outside town which took us into rice fields and a landscape that reminded me more of what the town had looked liked during my childhood visit.
Afterwards, we took a dip in the pool and then we treated ourselves to a honey-scrub massage and soak at one of the spas. This was fabulous, except for the fact that after we walked into the room, the nice lady told us we should get undressed and put on 'this' and handed us each an identical pair of stetchy, black mesh, disposable granny-panties (the idea being that you don't want your own underwear covered in sticky honey massage oil).
I would have preferred to be stark naked to be honest, but didn't want to upset anyone. So with Katie giggling hysterically (a big help), I gathered all my reserves of fortitude and masculinity, and did what I had to do.
The massage was great and the soak in the hot, flower-petal bath looking out over the paddy fields was sublime.
1 Comments:
wonderful story, michael, and i love the photo of you with the mesh granny panties! perfect!
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