BP1.2: Bali -- Ubud
If there's a San Luis Obispo [link] of Bali, then Ubud (OOH'-BOOD) is it. Definitely, as advertised, it is the artistic, intellectual and cultural capital of Bali. And like SLO, it's a tourist's paradise, but all in all still a real town where locals live, work, play and generally do their thing. Ok -- it's a bit more touristy than SLO, but much more artsy and cultural as well.
This last week turned out to be the kind of travel that I somehow thought I'd always wanted to do. In or around Ubud, you can walk, hike, river-raft, arrange dive trips, take yoga and cooking classes, see art galeries galore, and shop-till-you drop. I did none of these things. And loved it. Ok, I did partake in a massage or two, discovered some great places to eat, cool night spots and got took in as many of the cultural dance shows at night in the temple as I could stand. But otherwise, I just hung out. Actually got some work done, got to know some locals and some tourists, made peace w/ the local traffic (and enemies w/ the dogs). All in all, I stayed put on one street for 9 days, staying in 3 different places. But I still feel like I got to see a *lot* of Bali, just in a different way.
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Thursday, October 29, 2004 : Day 6
Ubud
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Larmbert's Place on Jl. Kajeng
I met Lambert in Kuta when I needed help w/ the wireless connection at Poppies.
He mentioned that he was opening a homestay in Ubud, so I went there on my first night.
We ended up going out to Sushi and, well, he felt like he "lectured" too much, but to be honest he ended up being, asside from a really nice and interesting guy, sort of a travel mentor in a few areas that I much needed. The next day I was posting home a 10 lb pack of stuff (middle pic) that I either really wouldn't need or could replace with something lighter or something bought on the spot and then tossed. Lambert's originally from Germany but has done computer-consulting and other stuff in a lot of different places. Several years ago, he originally came to Bali for 2 days, and now is opening up a villa with his wife (she's from Bali). In talking w/ him (and another guy who dropped by, Ven) I got some great (and entertaining) insights into a lot of Balinese culture, especially in terms of trying to do business there.
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No, Emily, I held on to the book
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Poppies on Jl. Kajeng
Chuck, fiddler from SLO, said that I needed to stay at a place called Gusti's.
Lambert's place was actually still being finished off (he opens in a month or two). I looked all over town for Gustis. The lonely planet was fooled by another place with the same name, and otherwise it seemed to be a secret. So it turned out that I stumbled across the *real* Gusti's just a few doors up from Lambert's place. This is a $10/night hidden gem. There were 12 units in all. Nice open air bathroom (not all rooms had this). It turned out that it was pretty rare when I met someone who spoke English -- mostly French folks.
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Friday, October 30, 2004 : Day 7
Night Life
The Jazz Cafe
It's amazing how little you can do here and still feel like you've had a completely full and busy day.
I saw that guy Ven
on the street. He was sitting on the curb watching people eat at the Cafe
that he reconstructed (see Saura's below). I have to say that every table was full. We chatted
a bit and then he said that I really *should* go down to "The Jazz Cafe" and
that I would meet friends there. So I went. The place was half full and
there was a band starting. I hadn't eaten yet, so I got a table right in
front of the band and did the dinner alone thing.
T h e b a n d t o t a l l y b l e w m y m i n d.
Anything like this at LO or Strawberry would have stolen the show.
I just haven't seen anyone play guitar like that in a long
time. It was Balise-Jazz fusion. The guitar player and bass player were a
machine w/ the guitar player mostly playing Stanly Jordan style, both hands
up the neck. Fast like lightning and smooth like butter -- up there with the best I've ever seen.
On the songs, he'd revert to jazz for the solos or sometimes even some Bach. All through
a midi setup, so with the two-handed tapping and the piano (or sax or whatever) midi sound, and Balinese backdrop, it
was all pretty amazing. Along side of him he had a guy playing rhythm and then Jazz
leads on a trad Balinese marimba-like thing [find name]. All very easily
comparable to Balanese meets Bela Fleck meets Stanley Jordan. I
bought a CD. #(#%#( -- I swore I wouldn't buy anything. [As so often happens, the CD sucks compared to the live performace. It's old. I went back and heard them a second time just to double check]
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Each night there are dance performances at the temples downtown, as well as in nearby towns.
Balinese music sounds really odd. I should have gotten a recording, but maybe I can find a link. The scale is strange (1,3, 5, 6#, 7 I think). I have to say that after hearing recordings in shops, coming out of cars, etc, none of it made sense until I saw it peformed live. The Lagong dance is graceful yet frenetic and as much of the dance seems to be done with the face as well as the body, with stark changes of facial expression. Simply put, I just didn't get any good pictures, but I did find the little movie function that my camera had, actually by accident. Click on the dance pictures and see what happens.
The Kachek dance was very different. Performed entirely by men (with hard bodies which I'm sure the women really appreciated) and all very tribal. Things start out in a circle with chanting "Ka-chek-ka-chek" very fast and tight in a way that gets some really complex rhythms going. Then things degrade into the pyrotechnics shown here (they're actually kicking around a burning ball w/ bare feet and sometimes grab it w/ their hands) ...
[here's a good link to more on this that photo and write about it better than I can here]
[maybe find a link]
The instruments are mostly these marimba-like-things with tapping (or hammering) on steel ringers positioned over hollow bamboo tubes. Also drums, wind and other instruments, but the "clanging" is mostly what you hear. At a museum, I got too close to one of these things and ended up getting a 1hr lesson. Yoman (lots of people w/ that name) tried teaching me a tune, which went ok but I think he figured out that we could get more attention from the other museum goers if he gave me a simple part to play over and over (which was actually really hard) and then he played a melody over it. When I did it right, the two actually went together quite well.
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Sunday, Oct 31, 2004 : Day 9
Around Ubud
Buhtan
On Sunday, Ven invited me on a tour up to the top of one of the volcanos.
At Lambert's I met another man named Ven. A slow-spoken, scary-smart India-borne-(Brahmen)-but-lives in Canada and is spending 6 months in Bali. His interest is to "invest" in family-run "warungs" (local restaurants), and turn them around into something sustainable that tourists would want to patronize. His investment is really just a donation -- his part of contributing to the third-world. He could usually be found at Saura's (his latest "creation") and I have to say that it *is* a nice little place with *incredible* traditional Balinese cuisine. It's always fun meeting other people who are into music, cooking, math, etc. He was really camera shy, so this is the only picture I got of him. Ven is actually a writer and maybe I can find something on him in the net and post the link here.
Ven was gracious enough to invite me on a day-tour up to the Volcano along with {Inyoman (sp?)) and [damn I forget his name], but the Owner and [not sure what his relation was] of Saura's. We drove up the mountain, visted temples, and then drove down into the outer caldera of the volcano (it's actually a double caldera w/ one crater inside of a larger one. At the top of the rim of the outer caldera was (yet another) large temple.
I just have to comment on the panorama maker that came w/ the camera. It put this together automatically from 7 photos (about 180 degree view). The mountains to the right ring around as the outer caldera about 14km across. The mountain to the left is the actual central cone. You can hike up, but you have to start around 3am or so.
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Monday, November 1, 2004 : Day 10
Riding around Ubud in Traffic
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I had my first motorcycle lesson today.
I challenge you to find the biggest, toughest Harley guy you can and drop
him and his bike on a road here and he'd be on the side of the road in 5
minutes whimpering "mama."
Ok -- it's actually a lot more than a moped and a lot less than what you or
I would think of as a motorcycle. But this was actually a pretty big deal.
I think one of the most foreign things to me since I've been here is the
traffic. I mean human begins just don't drive the way these people drive
over here. The idea of driving a car here is unimaginable and even just
walking out into the street is -- well, just really really foreign and
different in a life-threatening way.
The streets and roads are narrow. And they're pretty much fair
game for anything whether it's people hauling big baskets, wood, kids
playing games, chickens, piles of sand or, spreading out big tarps and
drying rice. Second there aren't that many cars here, but these little
motorcycles *everywhere*. You can look one way and then the other and then when you go
to cross, someone has magically appeared from the first direction and you
find yourself jumping back to the curb. Also,
here there is no sense of personal space when it comes to driving. The
proximity within which they are willing to pass other vehicles or
pedestrians is hard to imagine until you experience it. I was told that a
"Bali kiss" is having some part of your body actually brushed by the bumper
of a passing car.
Ok -- given that these motorcycles can be rented for about $4/day, I was
really hoping to be able to ride one. I think Lambert may have well saved
my life when he said that I absolutely had to rent a bicycle and try to
learn the "reactions of other drivers" or else I'd really get into trouble.
So I did. I think I may owe Lambert my life. The next day got the nerve up
and asked this Balinese guy hanging out with the guy renting motorbikes to
take me out and give me a lesson -- not just on the bike, but on dealing
with traffic. It was really really great. At the end of about two hours I
was doing pretty well (but still have a long way to go).
So I think I can safely say after being here a little bit is that learning
to drive here is a pretty *huge* insight into the culture. There's no idea
of being on a road, driving in certain lanes in any kind of predictable way.
And if you are heading towards a busy intersection w/ a truck on one side, a
pile of sand on the other, children playing and a ball rolling across the
road -- there's no reason to slow down. Just don't run into anything.
Reading the other drivers and also putting a huge amount of trust in them
that they are going to do as good of a job of not actually colliding with
you as you are with them. What's behind you doesn't really matter -- you
don't think about it too much.
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And what ever is bigger has right of way,
regardless of the intersection, turns or what ever (actually in the motor
laws). And honking is good. Since what's behind you doesn't matter, you
honk when ever you come up on anyone else, vehicle or pedestrian. And you
honk when you are going into any blind curve or when going around a truck,
because there may be someone just standing in the road, or more likely
someone coming the other way driving on the wrong side of the road. Yes
really. Even on roads w/ lines down the middle. It's funny to go around
honking like crazy at people and then be smiling and waving and having them
do the same...
I'm not an expert yet, but I'm going to work on it. Driving here is like
being in an intense video game with things buzzing by from behind, in front,
the sides, in ways that just don't match up with what you normally think of
as reality. Very game like. This was a big deal for me because I was soooo
scared of the traffic and it so much just made this place seem like Mars.
After my "lesson" crossing the street is completely different -- I've got a
good sense of what to expect and what they're expecting.
One other little post-script here. I rode up to the top of the local volcano (Bhutan)
at a strategic location of the road connecting the two sides of the island, I came
across the local law enforcement personelle parked on the side of the road, along
with some other motorists and one of them was waving me over. I had my 100K rupee bribe
(a bit over $10) ready as a surrogate for my "international drivers license" which I was
too stupid to get. I was good, polite and went right to asking can I "pay the ticket now,
right here, to you?" Jeez -- of course I could. But the guy went on and on about what
a serious violation it was and finally how they'd impound the motorcycle and I'd have to spend
days in court. "Can I just pay the fine here?" Finally, he took the money and said I could ride
on that road for the next 24 hrs. On the way back
down I stupidly took a larger road and around the corner .... not again! They were arguing w/
some German tourists. "No International License! No driver's license! Big, big offense!!!!" I took the guy asside and said that I'd already been stopped by "the other police" and that I'd "paid the ticket there" and they had all of my money (not exactly true). I described exactly where and the guy just smiled and waived me through to the chagrin of the Germans who, in my opinion were taking the whole thing way to seriously.
Tuesday, November 2, 2004 : Day 11
Monkey Forrest
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In honor of the risk of Bush getting re-elected, here's some photos of The Sacred Monkey Forrest, just south of town:
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Wednesday, November 3, 2004 : Day 12
Anjin Satay
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[a Satay is *any* meat sliced into small pieces (or ground) and put on the end of a small stick and set on a BBQ. It's usually dipped in some sauce. Guys walk around w/ BBQ carts and will cook and serve a while and then on to the next spot. You can guess what Anjin means in Indonesian]
Ok dog and animal lovers,
You guys all know that I prefer my dog in small pieces, roasting on the end
of a short stick on one of those long, narrow, portable Asian street
barbeques. And I know that you guys all feel differently.
Last night I had a particularly traumatic dog experience, late at night in a
large, but completely deserted intersection (the main one of town actually).
I stumbled across another bar w/ great Jazz and some fun people and managed
to stay out way too late. 12:30ish -- they seem to roll up the sidewalks around 11.
First one dog barking. Then a couple of more come running up from one
street. Then more and finally about 7 or 8 all being pretty territorial
(over what I don't know) and aggressive. I just kept walking but surrounded
on one side and behind. Then one started being really aggressive and
getting really close -- about 1' and barking loudly. At that point I turned
around and yelled as loud as I could and that seemed to work and he backed
off. I then just turned around and started walking quickly and didn't look
back, escaping with quite the adrenaline rush (remember I was attacked by a
dog pretty nastily when I was in 1'st grade).
So what I want to know from you animal people is ... what's the secret? Is
there a trick? Did I do the right thing? Are they really likely to bite?
Should I have got on my knees and said, "Cmeeer, pupppieeee." Should I go
invest in one of these cross-bow sets that they are selling to the tourists?
Seriously -- Some things your supposed to back away from and others be
aggressive towards. What's the skinny?
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Thursday, November 4, 2004 : Day 13
The Art Business
Friday, November 5, 2004 : Day 14
Religion
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Today I head out on a flight to Bangkok, overnight there and then the flight to Kolkata. To the right are some pictures of the "upscale" hotel I moved to in want of some air-con. It was $25/night.
Indonesia has the 2n'd largest Muslim population in the world, but Bali is almost entirely Hindu. Hinduism came here a long time ago, spreading down through what is now Thailand and Malaysia and merged with the animistic religions that existed here. The extent to which these people practice their religion is hard to belive until you really see it. Every house has a small temple / shrine in it and every village, even very small ones have several -- apparently one for each of the principal Hindu gods [I'll learn and get the names at some point], the creator, preserver and destroyer respectively.
The Balinese are constantly -- several times a day from what I can tell -- creating these little offerings and putting them on the ground, for the bad spirits, and then in the shrine for the good ones. The offerings are very ornate and usually consist of some flowers and bits of food, although you never know what you'll see. I managed to get a photo of the one w/ wine and cigarrettes, but not of some w/ a beer, candy and other things (not sure what).
And it's constant -- everywhere. In front of houses, stores, curbs, sidewalks, street corners. Everywhere. Which is maybe why there are so few underfed dogs running around. Accompanying the "offerings" is usually burning incense, and often 5 or 6 sticks at a time, or sometimes this other bark-like substance that they burn which generates a *lot* of smoke. So the place really does end up being like this south-pacific-martha-stuart-fantasy-land with pretty things and nice smells everywhere you go.
I'll note that much of this offering preparation and making seems to be done by the women (although here at Gustis I've seen the men do it). On the full moon (last Weds) and other occasions, women create really large offerings w/ fruit and other items, place them in a large container and bring them to the temple (on their heads of course).
Based on conversations w/ folks here, it's not all so magical. The Balinese have experienced the same sort of escalation in their religious practices that Americans have w/ Christmas over the last 40 years or so. It's not uncommon for a family to spend 25-30% of their income on these offerings, ceremonies, and especially weddings and funerals. Sometimes poperty has to be sold (usually to foreigners) and families loose land that they've had for generations because they've spent so much money on offerings, etc. (Actually propety can't be "sold" to foreigners, but there are ways around that here). And like the first world, there seems to be a trend of people getting more and more out of touch w/ the spritual side and reason that they are practicing these things.
Speaking of the martha-stuart factor, I'll also note that these people can be real neat freaks. Walking around in the early morning you'll find them sweeping the street and sidewalks in front of their houses and shops and then washing the area down w/ water. There are a few places in the first world that could stand some of that.
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