my first motorbike ride...and ubud...

the day after i arrived in bali, angie took me to rent a motorbike...it's only $60 for the entire month!!! it's been great to have...i have been tooling around seminyak, but earlier today i drove for a longer bit for the first time ever...i've driven motorbikes before, but never for this long...i only got lost once...well, twice...it rained, but not a lot, and not for long...thank goodness...for some reason, despite all my traveling, i've never owned a proper rainjacket...it’s on my list of things to get, eventually…

after getting to ubud, i found a place to stay, and started walking...ubud is the cultural center of bali tourism...the first time i came to ubud was 2005, then again in 2007...lets just say it's changed a lot since 2007...angie said it's gone crazy since eat pray love came out, and i completely understand her...she said the medicine man now takes credit cards...(if you've seen the movie or read the book you'll know what i mean)...i found the place i stayed in both 2005 and 2007, the price has tripled in the past four years!!! so i'm not staying there...there is a LOT of construction going on, and most of what I’ve seen is probably villas being built…apparently bali was never hit by the global recession in real estate…

I first stopped at the tourist information station…there are lots of little stands that call themselves tourist information, but those stands are all just trying to sell trips and transportation…this station is actually just for information…this one also sells tickets to the different traditional Balinese dance shows taking place all over the city each night…since ubud is the cultural part of what lonely planet calls the tourism “duopoly” it makes sense that there would be traditional dance shows each night…I’d seen a few before, and this time I was armed with a better camera…not surprisingly, prices have gone up for the shows as well…oh well…

My next stop was what is called monkey forest…so called because of the tribe of monkeys that lives there…the monkeys are almost totally dependent on tourists, and if you walk in there with any sort of food, they’ll find it and take it…these monkeys have no fear of people, which isn’t really a good thing…the signs at every entrance to monkey forest warn you not to bring plastic bags and food, but right next to those signs are people selling food specifically for you to give to the monkeys…bananas and such…it’s amusing to sit there and watch a monkey eat a banana, peeling it and everything…they’re smart enough to eat just about anything they get…I saw a couple new monkeys, still clinging to their moms…so new that they were still covered in birth gunk…both moms seemed sensitive to this, and did their best to protect the newborns…turning so that their backs were to all the cameras…there are a couple temples in the forest, and you need sashes and sarongs to go in each temple…fortunately, there are tables set up where you can borrow a sarong/sash…it’s easy to do, but not many people went in the temples…it would’ve been easy to wander around for quite a while in the forest, watching the monkeys and the people, enjoying the shade…ubud definitely doesn’t have the sea breeze of seminyak…

After wandering around the forest for a while, I walked back up monkey forest rd (I think there is a real name, but no one uses it) collecting handouts from all the spas along the way…ubud is also a place where you can spend a little or a lot at various spas, and come out feeling like a princess…some spas have packages set up, others are just a la carte…you can go for something as small as a manicure, or you can spend 5 hours being pampered…

Dinner was simple: rice, veg, tempe and a banana smoothie…

I bought a ticket for a show that was supposed to take place at the ubud palace…I’d been to a show at the palace before, and quite enjoyed it…howeva, they’ve temporarily moved it across the road, to a different pavilion, which disappointed me…oh well…it’s not as if its that much different, but somehow I was disappointed…I made sure to get there plenty early, as I wanted to be able to take photos without people’s heads or other cameras in the way…the gamelon orchestra started and then the show went…I quite liked the gamelon orchestra, their timing was quite good, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves…the dancing was impressive as always, as were the costumes…really bright, with a lot of colour, and nothing like anything you’ll ever see in the western world…the style of dance is also very different…flexed toes and fingers, using the eyes to act as well…I wonder how long it takes them to change in and out of those costumes? This particular show had 7 different dances I think…I’m pretty sure there is a story behind each of them, but I don’t remember…good show…

The next morning I got up and walked out to sit on my porch…hot water was already there, so I was able to prepare tea immediately…after a few minutes one of the family ladies came by and asked if I wanted breakfast, of course I did…(I don’t often turn down food)…a bowl of fruit (papaya, watermelon, pineapple and bananas) and a couple pieces of French toast…breakfast was included in what I was paying for my roomJ

Of course it took me longer to get going than I had planned, but that didn’t make much of a difference…I got on my motorbike and drove…the map in lonely planet made it look easy…but the actual driving wasn’t so easy…well, the driving was fine, but finding the specific roads wasn’t…I ended up turning around 3 times, and eventually reversing my plan of attack for the day…which was fine…

My first stop ended up being a place called goa gajah…translated I think it means elephant cave…the whole area is a temple, and a pretty neat one…you can borrow a sarong from the same place you buy tickets…to get to the temple you have to walk through a lot of souvenir stalls, all calling you to take a look at their stuff…annoying, but I guess they make money or they wouldn’t be there…this temple isn’t like any others…when you first enter the area, it seems quite wide open…there is a small pool of sorts in the middle of a plaza…on one side of the pool are six ladies carved out of the walls, and from them come spouts of water…you can walk down the steps of the pool and wash your face and hands…(the pool is nowhere near fully filled)…the cave itself is the most important part of the temple…normally, when I walk in a cave, it feels chilly and damp…this time, when I walked it, it felt warm and claustrophobic…there are a couple altars with offerings in the cave…if I had had a guide, I’m sure I would’ve been told what they were for, and why they are important…

Walking around the plaza area, I found a trail off the back end leading to who knows what…when I see a trail, I tend to follow it, just to see what I can see…so I walked…up and down irregular steps, tripping over roots, etc…at times the trail wasn’t always clear, but it’s still easy enough to follow…it goes through jungle and passes a couple small altars along the way…at one point, a guy came out and asked for donations to help restore the temple…I didn’t give, figuring my entry fee is supposed to take care of that…he had a book of names of people who’d donated, and how much they’d given, but I didn’t see a box in which to put money, and I’m always hesitant about handing someone cash when I don’t know what will happen to the money…I kept walking, and eventually could hear a river…the path got quite steep a few times, with the steps in bad need of repair…I still didn’t really know where I was going…eventually, I could see a small bridge crossing part of the river…it didn’t cross the whole river!! I had to cross what I could, then step off onto big rocks and cross the rest of the river that way…with my levels of coordination, not falling in the water was not a given…you, my two faithful readers, are laughing because you know exactly what I mean…there was nothing spectacular about the area after crossing the river, but I sat and enjoyed it for a few minutes…peaceful…rushing water, no one else around, in the middle of jungle…pretty awesome…by the time I got back up to the regular temple area I was dripping sweat…lovely…

I got back on the motorbike and drove a little down the road to a place called yeh pulu…it isn’t as big as goa gajah, so I don’t know why the entrance fee is the same…oh well…you walk about 300m down a path from the carpark, along the edge of a field of rice paddies…beautiful…and then you’re walking along yeh pulu, which is a carved cliff…there are a number of beautiful scenes carved into the rock…as I got torward the end, an older lady grabbed my head and led me toward a small altar…I was fine with it until she started demanding a donation…no thank you, I really don’t like demands…especially when I’ve already paid an entrance fee…I know it’s probably her way of making a small income, but I was uncomfortable with it…I know that the average Balinese makes very little money, but if I gave every time I was asked, I wouldn’t be here for more than a week…

From yeh pulu I drove to another temple…technically, everything I saw all day was a temple, and I needed a sarong for all of them…goa gajah and yeh pulu were different from other temples though, and didn’t have the same feeling to them…this temple was called pura samuan tiga…pura means temple I think…this temple didn’t have an entrance fee of any kind…nor any people around, from what I could see…but the gate was open…I had my sarong in my purse, so I put it on…the entrance gate is pretty fantastic, and the guidebook says it was created by a local guy…(long since dead…I think)…the temple is said to have held important meetings all the way back in the 11^th century…it was a large temple, and there were plenty of altars for me to see…I loved it, especially because I was the only person there…these sorts of experiences are always my favourite, being all alone in a place…

Driving up the road, my next temple was called pura kebo edan…which the book says is translated to crazy buffalo temple…this one didn’t have a specific entrance fee, but there were people sitting at a table, taking donations…when I declined, they said I couldn’t go in…which frustrated me…they said it was the same as an entrance ticket, but when I asked for the ticket, they said they didn’t have one…I don’t mind paying entrance fees (most of the time) but call it what it is…if I have to pay it, then it’s a fee…if I choose to give it, then it’s a donation…I found small change, and “donated”…they complimented my sarong…this temple was a LOT smaller than the one I’d just seen…far fewer altars, not much to see…the book said that the temple was famous for a statue about 3m high, thought to be 300 years old…from what I could see, it wasn’t very interesting at all…and far from the tallest thing in the place…it didn’t look like a buffalo, I’m not sure what it was supposed to be…again, I was the only person in there, I wonder how many people visit these temples…

The next temple was called pura pusering jagat…which translates to navel of the world temple…the gates to the temple are on a track off the main road…easy to find, as long as you know that…again, no one was around…there didn’t seem to be a parking area either, so I pulled the motorbike as far off the road as possible, put on my sarong, and went in…this one had a greener area in the middle of all the altars…allegedly this temple was the center of the old (really really really old) pejeng kingdom…(all these temples I’m mentioning right now are in the village of pejeng)…according to the book, young couples come here to pray to the yoni and the lingam…(hoping for fertility)…I did no such thing…

The next temple was further down the road…(not such a long road, there just happen to be a lot of temples on it…I’m fascinated by such things, most people think they’re boring)…pura penataran sasih…this one had an entrance fee, and I was happy to pay…and as with all but goa gajah and yeh pulu, I was again alone as I explored…except for the guy following me around who seemed determined to tell me all about the temple…these kinds of people make themselves into your tour guides whether you want it or not, then often demand a payment as you leave…I wasn’t keen on this, and did my best to ignore him…I liked this temple as well…there is a big drum way up on an altar toward the back,  it’s said to be the largest single piece cast drum in the world…(who figures this stuff?)…it’s pretty high up, so you can’t really see much detail…it’s called the moon of pejeng…this temple was the state temple of the kingdom I mentioned earlier…(what’s the difference between the state temple and the center of the kingdom temple?)…according to the guy following/leading me around, there were two older temples in the same complex…if I was walking by myself, I wouldn’t have recognized them as older, they looked the same to me…I loved this temple in general…

Then I started to make my way back to central ubud…along the way, I saw another temple…since I’d just seen four traditional temples, normally I would’ve driven right past it…but I could see that it was fabulously decorated, and I could see guys carrying pieces of a gamelon orchestra out of it…I pulled over, parked, and put on my sarong…the guys taking out the orchestra pieces smiled at me, complimented me on my sarong, and indicated I could go on in…it appeared the temple had been involved in a ceremony of some sort, the whole place had a lot of extra colour…awesome…as I walked around, I realized a bunch of guys were busy taking down all the extra colour, so I guess I just missed the ceremony, whateva it was…I have no idea what this temple was, but it seemed to be as big as what I’d seen earlier in the day…and I loved seeing all the locals around…

On the way back to ubud, I figured out where I’d gone wrong earlier that morning…I’d missed just one turn…argh…oh well…I dropped my sarong off in my room, had a cup of tea (there was another thermos with hot water waiting for meJ) and made my way to a spa…the night before, while waiting for the show to start, I read through all the brochures I’d collected, and figured out which spa had the package I wanted…I wanted a facial, a massage, and an intensive hair treatment…almost three hours later I came back out of the spa, feeling wonderful…the hair treatment included a head massage, LOVE IT!! And I almost fell asleep during the facial…I guess I was relaxed…

After dinner that night I went to another performance…this one was at a temple toward the edge of ubud…the kecak dance, and fire dance…there are no instruments in this one, only mens voices…they create an interesting combination of sounds, and I loved it…there was a single torch lit in the middle of the plaza area, the men sat in circles around that…most of the dancing took place in this area…because the torch was the only light, pictures didn’t turn out well…(if you’re in the shadows at night, even the best cameras can’t do much)…there was a storyline, but I didn’t pay much attention to that…I loved the dancing, the way the singers were also somewhat involved in the story, and the singers in general…after this part of the show was over, the torch was put out, and taken away…a wheelbarrow full of coconut skins was dumped in the middle, and lit on fire…after a little while, a man wearing a horse (look at the picture) came through and started his fire dance…wow…he’d kick the coconut skins, and dance through them…after a little while, my neighbor pointed out that his eyes were closed…WOW…he was doing the whole thing by feel…each time he kicked the skins, and danced through them, a couple of the singers pushed them back into a pile in the middle…a few times when he kicked them, they came really close to members of the audience…after he was done dancing, a holy man offered something, and then the night was over…awesome…

The next morning I drove to the bukit peninsula…