C & C globetrotting around the world…

From Brunei, we flew to Bali, connecting in KL again. Our first stop on Bali is Ubud, the cultural and artistic heart of the island. This is also where the last part of “Eat, Pray, Love” plays and the place gained even more fame because of it. One hears so much about this tropical paradise, we were excited to discover it for ourselves.

We slept in and got served breakfast on the terrace when we woke up. We walked around Ubud, taking in the atmosphere. There are lots of art galleries, shops overflowing with all kinds of artifacts and souvenirs and the streets are lined with cafes and restaurants. In between there are plenty of spas the never-ending touts trying to sell you tours and taxis. The architecture is beautiful and everything is so wonderfully green, it’s a pleasure to walk around. After a delicious lunch (curry and Soto Ayam soup), we went back to our guesthouse. It was pouring and there were puddles in the alleyway, so we took off our flip-flops so as not to slip and started running. It was pretty fun and we were laughing like kids. Our guesthouse, Jati Homestay, is wonderfully located. We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beautiful terrace facing the lush green rice paddies and reading. It is a very calming and pretty sight! We had dinner at a small restaurant and then headed for a Balinese Dance show. The shows used to be performed to entertain the kings of Ubud and featured many different scenes. We enjoyed most the “Bumblebee Dance”, depicting the courtship ritual from a famous traditional love story. The main characteristic of all the dances is that the women adopt postures that seem unnatural for us, with their bums protruding. The “dance” consists of them moving their hands and eyes, thereby telling a story. The show was interesting to see, but not really to our liking. We will definitely not send our kids to Balinese dance lessons, :).

The next day we wondered through the streets, being careful not to step on the flower offerings lining them. These offerings are little baskets made of young palm leaves filled with flowers and sometimes a bit of rice. They are for the gods and the Balinese put out at least one or two of these offerings per day. They are also available to be bought at the market, but Balinese women usually spend a lot of time preparing these colourful baskets and offering them to the gods in a little ritual where they sprinkle water everywhere, a symbol of purification. We then found the way leading up to the rice paddies and walked for a while, admiring the various shades of green and the lush paddies beautifully lined with coconuts. The water system is also remarkable and the entire sight was breathtaking. For lunch we stopped at Sari Organic, an organic farm and restaurant amidst the paddies. The location, beautiful presentation and the great taste were a pleasure for the senses. After lunch we hung around, waiting for the rain to pass, while taking in the serenity of the surroundings. We then continued our walk, coming across ducks and birds feasting on the little snails in the paddies’ mud. The contrast of the immaculate white animals against the intense green of the rice plants was magnificent and Cecilia kept on saying how beautiful it all was. There was also a painter there and one can imagine how inspiring the landscape here is. We walked for quite some time, along the ridge of the Ayung river and eventually found a way out of the rice fields. We walked back towards Ubud through some villages.

After our trip to Lombok and Padangbai, we returned to Ubud for 3 more days. Besides a tour we did, we spent some time soaking up the atmosphere, buying some souvenirs, watching movies, relaxing and having good food. Cecilia would have liked to go to the medicine man from “Eat, Pray, Love” (he actually exists), but he charges $25 for a visit and we read that since he has become so popular, he doesn’t really take it seriously anymore, instead he tells people the same thing. That would be a waste of money, so we skipped it. Next time to Bali, Cecilia wants to do a Yoga Retreat, as there are lots on offer. Most of them are for a week or so and include healthy food, so it would be fun to do.

There is so much beautiful art in Ubud, we wanted to take some home. We walked to a street lined with workshops and stores in quest of souvenirs. It was nice to see some artisans at work and some really interesting pieces being created. We saw many beautiful lamps and vases, but unfortunately they are too big or fragile to bring home. Later we met up with Viviana, a Romanian girl we had met the previous day, and together we went to the Monkey Forest, a nice shady monkey sanctuary. The macaques are funny creatures, eating, playing and sitting around. There were even some cute babies, tightly clinging to their mommies’ fur. We then went to Cinta Bar with Viviana and had 2 for 1 mojitos. We had really interesting talks about Afghanistan and Angola, where she worked for 8 years. We talked only in Romanian and Christoph understood everything, which surprised him and made Cecilia very proud. Later in the evening, it started pouring and the power went out due to the heavy storm and rain. We were given a candle by the staff and finally got to use our matches that we’ve been carrying around for the last 7 months.

The next morning, the weather was sunny. We had read that there is a ceremony going on at a temple, so we went to check it out. Whenever there is a temple festival, men dress in white to attend and women prepare huge offerings of flowers and fruit, which they care to the temple on their heads. There were also some musicians and an older “wise” man, so it was nice to see. Initially we had wanted to go on another tour to see more temples, lakes and sunsets, but decided against it. Since it was our last day in Bali, we pampered ourselves and got a relaxing shiatsu massage. It felt really good, especially since we have a tiring night ahead of us (at the airport). We spent the afternoon on the breezy roof-top terrace in a restaurant with excellent food, coffee and cake.