Ubud

Peter and Catherine leave the hotel in Sanur early in the morning to fly back home at the end of their holiday and I am left on my own to enjoy the last half day of luxury in the hotel before reverting to my solitary backpacker existence. I have to remember how to make decisions for myself! I decide to travel inland to Ubud, which is the art and culture centre of Bali and now also famous as the ‘love’ part of the book and film, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. Making the last possible use of the hotel facilities, I ask the hotel concierge to book the bus trip and the cheapest room I can find in the Lonely Planet guide book. I catch the bus to Ubud which only takes 40 minutes and check into my guest house which is down a narrow back street and has 4 individual rooms to rent. The door to my room is ornately decorated with red and gold and I have a balcony which overlooks the family compound, containing the family temple.

My balcony

View from my balcony including family temple

Traditional family houses in Bali are built within a compound wall, inside which are various buildings, or open-sided pavilions which serve as sleeping accommodation and areas for the family activities. There will always be a temple in the north east corner. The way the whole thing is laid out has strict rules and is oriented on a mountain/sea axis. The design is to keep the evil spirits out and appease the ancestral Gods.

I take a walk around Ubud. It has a large market which is busy in the very early morning with locals buying fruit, vegetables and the necessary items for offerings and tourists later in the day. The main streets are busy with traffic of cars and motor bikes and have the usual temples, tourist shops and restaurants; but there are also some very upmarket clothes and jewellery shops, organic health food restaurants and art galleries.  I go into an English bookshop and buy a map of Bali, a copy of ‘Eat, pray, love’ and a Bahasa Indonesian phrase book. All along the streets there are men sitting on the pavement and in doorways, who call out hopefully, ‘Transport?’, or, ‘Taxi madame?’  and do a little driving mime with their hands. I reply in my best Bahasa Indonesian, ‘Jalan jalan’, which means, ‘I’m walking’.

Ubud and the surrounding area has several art museums. I visit one in the main town which exhibits paintings to show the history of Balinese painting. It only takes me about ½ an hour to walk around and that’s because I feel that taking any less time might seem rude and I realise I’m not very interested in the history of Balinese painting - hummmm, maybe it's all art really! I don’t think I’ll bother searching out the other local museum and gallery options.

Not far outside the town it is possible to get away from the hustle and bustle and walk into the countryside through rice fields and neighbouring villages.

Countryside and rice fields around Ubud

Ubud is also a good place to see Balinese dance, of which there are many forms. I go to a show one evening of Barong and Ranga dance, which tells the age-old tale of good versus evil. It is rather like a pantomime, with elaborate costumes and even a ‘he’s behind you’ episode. In many ways it is very similar to the dance I saw in India.

Scenes from the Barong and Ranga dance

The performance is accompanied by a percussion orchestra, called a gamelan. The musicians sit cross-legged on low stools. The main instrument is the xylophone-like gangsa, which they play with what looks like a little wooden pick axe. The speed, volume and intensity of their playing reflects the action on the stage.

Gangsa players