Adventure Chronicles™

05.18.01 - A Little Dancing and a Lot of Pampering
Denpasar (Bali), Indonesia - Ubud

We arrived in Bali a few days ago, and are loving it so far. We flew into the capital, Denpasar, but quickly bee-lined for Ubud, the art and culture center of the island. We found a nice, quiet place to stay in the center of town for a bargain price of only $5.00 per night. Ubud has a nice, relaxed pace and the people are very friendly. A little too eager to sell you souveniers or "transport" some times, but given the small number of tourists right now, that's understandable.

We spent our first day exploring the town and deciding what we wanted to see and do while in Bali. We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant - The Lotus Cafe - which was set on the edge of a large lotus pond and garden. Definitely a must visit if you ever go to Bali. Very relaxing and romantic. After dinner we went to a traditional Balinese dance performance. Bali is known throughout Asia for its many native dances, and now we know why. We saw two dances performed that night - the Legong and Barong. The performance was held at Ubud Temple, which is a very old Hindu temple in the center of town. Picture an old stone temple (no roof) filled with detailed carvings, and decorated with flowers and candles, with the stars overhead. Very surreal. The dances were performed to traditional music as well. There was an "orchestra" of flute, drum and bell players all around the dance stage. The dancer's costumes were stunning - very bright and elaborate, as was their makeup.

The performance was totally intoxicating. When put together, the stage, dancers, costumes and music painted an amazing picture. Very different from anything I've ever seen. In the Barong dance especially, it wasn't difficult to see the story being told, and I found my heartbeat increasing with the swells in the music and the story. The movement of the dancers was unreal - it was like each part of their body was a separate entity. Every point of a finger, shift of their hips and wink of an eye seemed to mean something different. I've never seen so many degrees of a smile. Hopefully, we can take in another show while we are here.

We spent yesterday exploring several of the town's many shops and galleries. The art here is impressive. Sculpture, beautiful wood carvings, paintings, pottery etc.

I decided to give myself a little treat and spent all morning today in one of Ubud's health spas. Definitely a good call on my part. The surroundings were simple, but I left feeling like a new person. I had an hour long massage, followed by a body scrub of Javanese herbs and spices. After a milk rinse, I soaked in a warm tub FILLED with tropical flowers. Then it was on to a facial, followed by a haircut and style. It was my first contact with a hairdryer since February. I forgot - I have decent looking hair! I made Jay take my picture that afternoon, to make up for all of the bad hair photos I've endured. I would have paid them anything they wanted for the experience, but believe it or not, the whole thing cost me less than $17.00.

This afternoon, we visited one of Bali's Monkey Forest Sanctuaries, which is home to a large Hindu temple and thousands of monkeys (we don't know what kind yet). I made the mistake of buying some bananas as we entered the park. I expected the monkeys to come running to get some, but they went absoluty mad for them! I would hand one banana to a monkey and he would hold up his other hand for another one, and chase me until I gave him one. Some were even crawling up my legs to try and grab the whole bunch. I was worried they would bite or scratch me (probably unintentionally), so I got rid of the bananas quickly. The last thing I need is rabies shots! After the feeding session we had a nice walk through the forest and looked at the monkeys from a little further away. Jay stopped to take a picture of a female sleeping with a baby on her tummy, and as he crouched down, what I think was an adolescent jumped on his head and started to bite his baseball cap. I was laughing so hard that the picture I took probably won't be good, but it was too funny.

Tomorrow we head for Lovina, a black sand beach on north Bali. I'm ready to get back to the beach and catch up with the dolphins that are rumoured to live there. More details to come...

Want to contact Jay and Lisa?

william.gibson@airtreks.com