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
Art Gallery
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
Kaceck singers
Tiny dancers
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!
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
Procession of kids
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.
whats that Im pointing at?
GIANT SPIDER!!
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
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
Little girl from our guesthouse
(ka)Check out the rest of Ubud pics in Picasa!
Post a Comment