September 16, 2010
Ubud, Bali
Kevin and Phil arrived just before bed time last night. All are here. We were all up before seven this morning. Kevin couldn't get into the pool fast enough (and is even, as this is written, splashing about while the afternoon's rain allotment comes down.)
Wayon (eldest brother) brought out his artwork after breakfast and made a nifty profit off of the world weary tourists. Beautiful pictures, and Tom is thinking about t-shirts for selected family member X-mas gifts.
Then it was off to the actual city off Ubud. Jess, our driver, gave us a quick car tour to help us get our bearings and then dropped us off. We walked the entire downtown. We stopped at a couple of shops, too nervous and too scared to engage in the local bargaining ritual.
All of the attempted haggling wore us to the point of hunger. We stopped at a beautiful restaurant called Wardini's. Unlike most of the places we saw it was situated in a large lush garden. The food was great and almost as good, they had free wifi so I was able to "reconnect" and send some pictures out.
After lunch we finished our route around the town. We walked by, but did not go into, the famous monkey forest park.
Mark and Ed broke the seal on the bargaining experience, picking up a few items from a local street stall. Eventually we wound our way to the very large, very dark (electricity is at a premium here), and very dank city market. There we met a woman with sarongs (we need them for temple visits) and I got down to some hard edged back and forth. I think I got her down below half of her original asking price, so I'm feeling pretty full of myself.
Finally we hiked our way across a bridge that would have been condemned back home, up the hill and back to the bungalow where the pool, and the beer, were waiting.
Post dinner saw us at a local cultural dance performance. There were many highlights of the show. The Japanese tourists armed with giant cameras and tripods running back and forth in front of the stage trying to get the ultimate shot were entertaining. My favorite was that 20 minutes into the show the sky opened up and it started to pour. The cast scattered from the open air stage, leaving the covered audience to wonder what was up. Then the manager came out and ushered us all next door to the completely covered pavilion. Within minutes everything was set, and the show went on. A great performance capped by a fire dance involving a midget, a bottle of kerosene, a big pile of coconut husks and the violation of every fire code known to mankind. Believe me when I tell you, I had preplanned my way out through a carefully thought out route of small, old, and weak individuals that I was sure I could easily climb over (or on top of) if it all went up in flames.
A great day, and I still can't believe how far away from home we are.
