our day in Ubud...

Ubud and more…

So it our first day venturing out without Steve and beyond the borders of Legian…today’s adventure: Ubud. Ubud defines Balinese culture with little streets full of local artisan shops, art galleries and cafes. I know I sound like an author of Lonely Planet, however I cannot reiterate enough the delight that this town is…Steve sets us up with his friend who we are technically hiring as our tour guide/driver for the day. Nanag picks us up at 10am as we arranged the night before and we head out of our safe zone and into the unknown. Our first stop in Ubud is a sacred temple before town. As we step out of the car, two men drape us in sarongs that go from high up on our waists down to the floor. It is peace and serene this temple. We tiptoe through the gates and begin to explore. We can hear the gitty school girls laughing behind the walls as our eyes gaze around the holy grounds. We meet an old woman weaving baskets to which the locals use to hold their offerings 5 times a day. The religious rituals are captivating and seeing the locals in prayer made us speechless in our tracks…we silently say our goodbyes without words and exit the sacred grounds…however before we set off to the next “wood carving village” in Ubud, Lacey and I need to use the little girls room…one person tells us the bathroom is one way, another man says another way…next minute we know we are being chased down the ally by the laughing school girls..their pigtails dancing in the wind…we approach them and all they can do is wave and say “hello” in perfect English…it was magical.

Now as I said, next stop, the wood carving village. We pull down another ally and stop at the doors of a large glass shop…at least 3 stories…we are instantaneously bombarded with friendliness from one of the workers of the shops. Friendliness turns to insanity and the man will NOT leave our side…we are trying to enjoy the art and every turn we make we have this dude in our face saying “you buy you buy you buy!!!” It was nice at first, his attentiveness but after 10 minutes, we couldn’t even move..we tried ditching him behind the naked wooden statues but we failed..finally we darted out the back and Nanag sees us running and the dude is CHASING US! No joke..we run into the car and he stands in front of the car handing us oranges. “no thank you” isn’t getting us far and Nanag can’t pull away..finally we just yell “GO” and we are gone…too much for us before a bintang or 8. ;)

Next stop, the monkey forest…we pull up and Lacey begins to hyper ventilate…okay I am exaggerating but a scary, vicious, blindsided monkey attack that left her hospitalized when she was a youngin’ and “ruined her ring finger” (her words) so she was indeed a little wary about entering the forest (new bad memories would soon haunt her, but not from a monkey..well..ha maybe) There are local women selling bananas at the entrance to the forest, Lacey declines, I pay 20,000 Rp (2 US dollars) for a big bunch of bananas…and we head in..2 minutes into the walk a monkey starts darting towards me..I freak out and throw the entire bunch of bananas at him…I am such a woos…but he was going to attack me I just knew it…regardless of having no more bananas we kept walking…monkeys were everywhere…I mean, babies, momma’s, the big fat daddios! They were everywhere..20 here and 20 there…it really was a monkey forest…So Lacey and I walk up the trail away from everyone else to try and see some monkeys in peace and next thing we know..we are a “miss!” to which Lacey turns around, sees an Indo with his pants at his ankles, pleasuring himself!!! We scream and start running…like running running…people are staring but we felt so violated! Nanag has the car running and once again we find ourselves fleeing like robbers from the scene of a crime.

Finally we reach a serenity..and by that I mean a village full of shopping and food. It is about 1pm so we are starving (we are up every morning by 630am and done with breakfast by 730) Nanag drops us off at the Lotus Café which has tables perched above a waterlily pond in front of a temple…once again a sight of pure beauty. We slip off our shoes and bow to our hostess before we climb up to our table where we sit Indian style and soak in our surroundings. After lunching on samosas and spring rolls we venture back into the village for some local splurging. And splurge we did…lots of shopping..lots of laughing..great afternoon.

By 4:00pm we are tired and our legs ache from the touristy day we had…Nanag drives our tired bodies back home, we say our overjoyed and truly appreciative thank yous to our new friend and slip on some nicer clothes to prepare for the exotic bumblebee dance that the local dancers were putting on at our hotel..we sip our bintangs and continue to soak in the culture dancing before us. The movements are exquisite and the songs accompanying them are dazzling. Throughout the show Lacey and I comment that we should take some private lessons before we return home…

Well the day is done…our eyes are saying goodnight before our heads even hit the pillows…tomorrow holds an even brighter future for us…we are heading to the worldwide surfing competition “Somewhere in Indo..” where exactly…we cannot say..see you on the beach.