Monday, April 23, 2012

Ubud

We arrived in Bali about 8:45pm and went straight to Ubud, the area made famous in the book Eat, Pray, Love. When we arrived at the hotel we were seated in the lobby and brought a welcome drink, guava lemonade, that was perfectly refreshing. At this time we started to get the idea that we were not in a normal hotel. Our travel agent made the arrangements for us, and somehow I don't think she stayed within our budget. We were escorted to our room by one of the bellhops. It was a walk through narrow streets and walled compounds. When we arrived at a padlocked gate he told us this was our room. He opened the gate and inside there was a wall with a sign, "Welcome Bruce/Katerina/Michaela Dehning to your private villa." Behind the wall was a huge covered chaise lounge and our swimming pool. Not the hotel pool, our swimming pool. At this point we were already a little in shock, and then we went into our villa. As Katka said, it is hard to describe-just imagine a movie. The villa is in the style of a thatched roof hut, with a very high ceiling, except the walls are all glass. There is a nook for the couch in one wall, and a large desk at the head of the bed. The villa is divided in two, in the back half are the sinks, shower, and toilet room. Outside there is another shower and the bathtub. The indoor shower is in a room the size of a large walk-in closet. It is a little hard to get used to taking a shower in a glass room with no curtains on the outside windows, but the only things outside that can see you are the frogs in the pond because there is a wall around each villa making them a self-contained compound. Around the back of the villa where the toilet, tub, and showers are located is ponds instead of sidewalks so no one can go there. After a tour of the villa Misa was sort of freaking out, almost not able to believe it. I was just happy it was already paid for.

Our second day in Ubud we stayed in the resort until evening. First we slept in, then we went for breakfast. This also gave us our first view of the resort in the daylight. The hotel sits right in the middle of a huge terrced rice field. The resort is shaped sort of like a bowl. On one rim of the bowl is the building with the lobby and on the opposite rim the restaurant building. On the right side of the bowl is the pool and spa area. The villas sit on the sides of the bowl with a park at the bottom of the bowl. The park has rice paddies, a small creek with a bridge over it, and a lake area. Despite the resort being quite large there are only 28 villas and two more under construction. I would estimate that there are about two employees for every guest. The space between the villas and buildings has the feeling of an ancient town and temple area, sort of like something from an Indiana Jones movie. One thing I had heard about Bali is that people come here for two reasons, it is cheap and the people are amazingly nice. I'd say that is an understatement. The Balinese are the nicest people we have met so far, easily eclipsing Tasmania and New Zealand. While walking to breakfast the first morning by myself I passed about 15 hotel employees. Every single one smiled and greeted me. OK, I thought, of course they are nice, we are paying the hotel a lot of money for the employees to be nice to us. But when we went into town it was the same way, people smile and nod or say hello.

After breakfast we went for a swim in our pool, then we had a meeting with Paul, a representative from the tour company. After the meeting we went for a swim in the large hotel pool. We were the only ones there. We ate lunch in the pool. Not by the pool, but at the swim up bar in the pool.

From 4-5 in the afternoon the hotel has "tea," or for Katka and I, "supper." In addition to tea or coffee they have a buffet with a few small entrees like chicken strips, mini pizzas, chicken wings, fried sweet potatoes, or fried bananas. Then they have sweets such as sticky rice with coconut and brown sugar, brownies, sticky rice with coconut cream, and warm apple pieces cooked in cinnamon. After tea we went into Ubud Village to the Ubud Palace to watch a traditional dance. First they had an instrumental number, then they demonstrated two types of traditional dance, and then they put on a four act "epic" which I would describe as an opera, but with dance instead of singing. It definitely was not ballet, but much heavier and more dramatic. It was very interesting, but not necessarily very enjoyable. A couple of the dances were nice, but the unusual music and costumes made it difficult to enjoy. I am glad we went, but I don't need to go again during my time here, on earth.

Breakfast on Friday was so good I ordered the same breakfast on Saturday. The waiter said, "oh yes, like yesterday." Katka and Misa stayed in the resort for the day while I went out on a tour of Ubud with Paul. First we went to the monkey forest where I tried to get a picture with a monkey sitting on me. Except when the small monkey did hop on me he grabbed the banana and ran away too fast for a photo. Then the big monkeys starting coming for the bananas and they scared me so I gave them all of my bananas and told them I didn't have any more. I guess they believed me because they left me alone. The woman selling the bananas kept the monkeys from stealing her bananas by shooting them with a slingshot when they got close. It was actually very entertaining to see the monkeys, and I was only scared once when a large monkey grabbed my shorts and I pulled away, causing him to show me his teeth and fangs. I was happy to give him a banana.

After the monkey forest we went to Paul's house to pick up his two sons. Paul showed me around his family compound where he lives with his wife, two sons, and his mother. In total it is about the size of the land we had in New Hampshire, maybe a third of an acre or a bit more. There are six buildings on the compound, each serving as a living area, kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom. Behind the buildings they have chickens and a pig pen, where there was a 300 pound pig very pregnant. Paul's mom cooks every morning and that is the only time they cook each day. The kitchen has a wood stove, and they have a small two burner gas stove that they use for boiling water or heating things up. Water comes from a 40 foot deep well. Appliances included a refrigerator, TV, computer, and the stove. Paul got the compound from his parents because he was the oldest son. His older sister is married and lives in her husband's family compound. Paul's wife was painting little wooden cats and she gave me a pack of four, each painted a different color.

After Paul's house we visited three villages, each specializing in a different art form, painting, woodcarving, and silver. The whole time we were driving Paul was telling me about Balinese culture and customs. I learned all about rice farming, Hinduism, art, family life, and education. We stopped for photos of rice paddies and a waterfall and then we went for lunch. The restaurant was open air, and right next to a large rice paddy. I tried traditional smoked duck with a coconut sauce, it was very good. After lunch we visited a spice and coffee farm, where I learned how they make a special coffee here called Luwak. First a mongoose eats the coffee berries and digests the skin. The coffee bean passes through whole, where it is collected and cleaned. Then they dry the beans, peel them, roast them, and grind them. After walking through the garden and seeing all of the spices growing in their natural form we sat down for tea and coffee tasting. They brought me 12 small cups, 5 teas and 7 coffees to taste. The tea was very good, my favorite was perhaps the lemon grass, and my favorite coffee of course the mocha. Then I tried the famous Luwak coffee harvested by the mongoose. It was very good, but the roast was a bit dark for me. They say the mongoose knows the best coffee beans and only eats the fruit with the best beans inside. I bought some Luwak coffee and lemon grass tea to take back to the US.

We made it back to the hotel in time for tea, so I said goodbye to Paul and went for tea with Katka and Misa. After tea Katka and Misa had an appointment at the spa for a massage, scrub, and soak. It has not been hard to adapt to the lifestyle here. While the girls were at the spa I caught up on my email and started writing this update. When they got back we ordered a late night snack from room service and went to sleep. At least once or twice a night a large frog that lives in the pond next to the villa lets out a big croak and wakes us up, and loud enough that we cannot believe he isn't in the room with us.

Sunday morning we met Paul for a trip to see Ketut Liyer, the medicine man from Eat, Pray, Love. He was doing palm readings but there were quite a few people waiting so we did not have our palms read. We did watch him for a while and got a photo. He is quite a character. After Ketut's house we went to the monkey forest. There were so many funny monkeys there. The best was a monkey that found a rock to play with. It was passing it back and forth on the ground between its hands and feet, pushing it back and forth as if it was grinding some grain, and rolling it around. At one point its baby monkey came and sat on is lap to nurse and it didn't even pay it any attention, it just kept playing with the rock. There were lots of baby monkeys, some just a little larger than my hand. After just observing for a while we decided to buy some bananas and try to get some pictures. We all got photos with monkeys climbing on us, sitting on our heads, on our laps, and hanging from our arms and legs. At first Katka and Misa were scared, but the man selling the bananas helped us sit and feed them first so they could just sit on us and not have to climb us. One little one crawled up in Misa's lap and just sat there. Then one sat on her head. You have to be careful though, because they like to steal your purse, hat, map, sunglasses, or anything else you have on you. We watched one little monkey sneak up behind a boy that was sitting down, jump on his head to grab his hat, and then run away. The poor boy's father never was able to get the hat back. Any time people sat down the monkeys would come over and try to open their purse or backpack, they were not shy at all. We did see one sad sight, a mother monkey carrying around her dead baby.  It looked like maybe the baby had fallen and broken its neck. We were told that the moms will often continue to carry around the dead baby. There are three monkey forests in Bali, and about 300 monkeys live in the one in Ubud.