Triphopopotamus

So my avid readers (what? there might be a few!). Fear not, I haven't dropped off the face of the the Earth. I have in fact dropped right into Middle-Earth or "New Zealand" as it's known amongst non-Hobbit folk.

Saying farwell to the land of smiles was like that moment when you have to say goodbye to new friends you've shared an experience with , you've had a great time, you hope you'll see them again, but then you can't really make promises...but at least you'll always have the memories! So with glum faces we board our plane in balmy Bangkok. Alien garments like long sleeved tops, trousers and socks are at the ready in our hand luggage to brave the climate that awaits us. After a brief stopover in a cold and rainy Sydney we arrive into a similarly cold and rainy Christchurch, New Zealand, but even with our "warm" clothes on we weren’t quite prepared for the drop from 40 degrees to 8 degrees. Brrr!

Ellie's brother Cathal and his friend Paul met us at the airport so fortunately we didn’t have to stand around in the cold figuring out where to go next! They asked us did we want to Queenstown- and mentioned “by the way it’s a 6-7 hour drive”! Great, that’s just what you want after 17 hours of flying! Really we didn’t mind too much though, as long as we could attempt to catch some zzz’s in the back of the car. It’s pretty cloudy and rainy for most of the car trip down, a far cry from our lovely Thai sunshine, and yet there is something homely about the rolling green hills (and obviously the lashing rain). About half way to Queenstown it gets dark so we can't really appreciate the surroundings although we can tell by the towering jagged silhouettes that we are passing by some pretty spectacular scenery. We arrive in Queenstown and not really being too sure what to expect, we are suprised to find a bitesize little lakeside town that is the self professed adrenalin sports capital of the world. (Clearly they've never been on a Thai minibus)

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Town founder and his lovely wife:

From Queenstown- the first encounter

After checking into the hostel we head out and see what Queenstown has to offer in the way of nightlife. After drinking some shots from a teapot in World bar and doing some people watching of folk on the "Big night out" organised pub crawl and I start to hope that we are not too old for Queenstown! Cathal doesn't have this issue as his date of birth seems to change quite miraculously!

We spend 2 more nights in Queenstown exploring the pretty little streets,wearing every item of clothing in our possession and trying to adjust to the temperature. We invest in some wooly hats and gloves to help us along.

A trip up the gondola to the Skyline complex on Bob's peak gives us an incredible view over Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the imaginatively named “Remarkables” mountain range. We muse over the pioneers naming process :
"Wow look at those mountains-remarkable- what should we call them?!"

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Despite it being a miserable day we still enjoy the views. We pop inside the visitor center to the bar and order some Irish coffees to warm up…Oh dear- it seems they needed us more in Queenstown than they know. They are pretty terrible. We potter around the giftshop and Ellie buys some giant fleecy socks which will also double up as her gloves for the day!! And we emerge from the giftshop to find the 2 boys squeezed into the seats of a car-racing arcade game, as some children look on- probably waiting for their turn. Later we make our back down the mountain and go to the- again imaginatively named- Irish bar Pog Mahones for some real irish coffees though we decide to skip the coffee part and just have a couple of hot ports and whiskeys!

From Queenstown- the first encounter

The next day we consider going on a wine tasting tour but a little deterred by the cold weather we instead find a wine shop that does tastings without even having to leave the town. Excellent. We each get a little card and will be charged at the end for the wines we drink. There are different sections for different wines and you just put your card in choose a wine and it comes out into your glass, similar to a soft drink machine.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Then you do your best attempt at looking fancy. Ellie teaches me all the important parts smell it, swirl it around, smell it again, say something terribly witty to the old chaps, take a swig, let some air into your mouth, try and taste the flavours, say “ooh fruity little number” and talk about the investment opportunities in the middle east as you puff on your cigar. Well... she told me to do some of those things, the rest I took for granted!

We taste some delicious wines, and the lads buy a cheese board to share. At least I hope they bought it to share because we all tuck in regardless. It looks delicious 4 different cheeses, crackers, chutney, little pieces of ciabatta bread, an oil dip and herbs. Mmm delicious! Paul has never eaten cheese with wine before and whether he is in taste heaven or is just a little tipsy from all the wine is unclear but he is on a journey of self discovery through the medium of cheese and can’t stop telling us all how amazing this is! Cathal buys a pot of jam/chutney that came with the cheese and later locks it in the safe for fear we wake up to find a guilty looking Paul with jam all over his face!!

From Queenstown- the first encounter

After 3 fun, relaxing days in Queenstown we head back to Christchurch to see a little of the city we landed in. Although at this point we have already decided that we will try our best to get work and stay in Queenstown,I make a mental list from bungy to snowboarding of all the adrenalin inducing activities I want to try when we get back.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

The drive back is in daylight this time and we see some stunning scenery. This is such a beautiful country. Its a bit like someone has taken Ireland and put it under a magnifying glass so everything is much bigger and then sprinkled a little icing sugar on top of the hills for presentation! Even though we are still missing the Asian heat, we're excited about the adventures that await us in our new home.

From Queenstown- the first encounter

From Queenstown- the first encounter

Ubud is a beautiful town about 2 hours north of Kuta and the perfect escape from the latter. Art galleries, art museums, pottery shops, cafes, temples and guesthouses take the place of neon signs, Pizza huts and Ripcurl shops. Where Kuta had an overwhelming busyness and was packed to the rafters with Australian holiday makers, Ubud is bustling with a mixture of locals, ex-pats and tourists from all over the world. Rice terraces cascade down to the edges of the town where almost every building has been made in a traditional Balinese style. The stone arches, wooden doors and statues at the entrances to these buildings are so perfectly carved and decorated it is actually difficult to tell the difference between the entrance to a guesthouse and the entrance to a temple.
Our brilliant guesthouse- Nuriani

From Ubud, Bali

Art Gallery

From Ubud, Bali

Ubud is a popular settling place for westerners who fancy themselves as artists or go to "find themselves". In fact I believe there is a Julia Roberts movie about Bali with that very theme, that is currently working it's way towards your local cinema! The ex-pat/hippyish influence is also noticeable in the town and there are nice do-gooder features such as doggie hospitals, recycling centres, ecological programs as well as more art galleries and museums than you could shake a stick at and that’s before you even count the fully homegrown attractions.

One such attraction is the famous Balinese Kaceck dance. Ellie and I attend a performance of this in one of the local courtyards. It’s a story told through song and dance. A choir of men sits around and chant the kaceck song (sounds like checkidy checkidy check!) while actors act and dance out a story by fire light. I can't honestly say we followed the story completely but there were some good guys, a princess, a big fat baddy, an evil monkey and possibly a good monkey. From what I could make out the guy got the girl and the baddies got their comeuppance. After marveling at how petite and graceful the female dancers were we gasp as after the next part of the show two miniscule girls come out to start dancing. We think ‘wow I thought the last girls were petite but these ones are seriously tiny’! So...we didn't realise at first because of the heavy makeup, but in fact the reason they are so small is because they are about 12. We breathe a sigh of relief and feel a little less like giants.
Dancer

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Kaceck singers

From Ubud, Bali

Tiny dancers

From Ubud, Bali

This dance is followed by a fire- trance dancer. And no that's not someone called Anto who got too close to a bonfire at a rave, but rather a man who's been put in a trance meaning he can dance on burning coconut embers...and kick them a bit too close for us for our comfort. By the end of it I wonder how effective his trance was because he’s sitting on the ground with his feet looking destroyed and he himself looking pretty unhappy!

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

I notice that people in Ubud have clearly been educated on what their selling point is and almost every Balinese person we meet is overly eager to point out that "this is the real Bali". However if I lived a short drive from Kuta I'd be defensive too. It’s a bit like telling people you’re not from Dublin all the time I suppose!!

We are in Ubud during a 10 day festival of the dead that comes around twice a year. Children parade the streets playing gamelan gongs and bells in perfect clanging harmonies and wearing traditional dress, 2 or 3 kids operate a lion costume swaying from side to side while a few others don scary masks. They go into courtyards of restaurants in a bid to make a few bob, and the masked ones try to scare younger kids- all the while warding off evil spirits of course!
Girl praying

From Ubud, Bali

Procession of kids

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Simply walking around the town of Ubud is a feast for the senses in itself but one day we go a little outside the town and take a walk on a trail that goes through the rice terraces where people are out harvesting the rice. Along the path are mini art shops, stalls selling organic food and a sweet smell of vanilla pods and cinnamon drying in the sun. We also come across a huge black and yellow spider on our walk! Now, Irish people who run out of the bathroom screaming because they've seen a "massive" spider need to see this guy. Leg span included it was about the size of my hand and its body about the size of the spoony part of a teaspoon! So after trying to aggravate it for a while and poking it with our fingers we decide it is either lazy or doesn't like want to eat people so we leave it alone and wander onward down the path.

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

whats that Im pointing at?

From Ubud, Bali

GIANT SPIDER!!

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

From Ubud, Bali

Our guesthouse owner had told us it was impossible to stray from the trail, but this just sounded like a challenge to me, and sure enough we manage to get a lost! After a bit of hemming and hawing and some pleas for help from the locals we figure the way back to town. Ellie heads on home and I decide to check out the art museum and monkey forest. The art museum was full of local art- a lot of it based on traditional stories which are written out beside the painting or sculpture. Museum pieces with tags /explanations made a welcome difference from similar things in Thailand! Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside the museum buildings, it didn’t stop a few cheeky tourists. I however, was in a rule abiding mood that day. (Ellie must be rubbing off on me!).
Museum

From Ubud, Bali

My excursion to the museum means that I arrived at monkey forest too late and the gates are closed. Damn cultural trip, I wanted to see some monkeys!

All too soon our Ubud experience must come to an end and we catch a bus back to Kuta- a little more ready for the madness. Whereas Kuta definitely doesn’t make my list of places to see again, Ubud and the rest of “the real” Bali are definitely on my re-visit list- maybe next time I'll even get to see some monkeys!
Daily offerings are placed along the pavements

From Ubud, Bali

Little girl from our guesthouse

From Ubud, Bali

(ka)Check out the rest of Ubud pics in Picasa!

Ubud, Bali