Catching up

Hello dear readers. It's time to get caught up on my blog. It's Tuesday today. I last wrote, on Sunday night, about Saturday and included a photo from our Mexican restaurant experience that night. There really isn't much else to say about Sunday. We walked a lot in the blazing heat, ultimately ending up at a department store where we bought a big, I'm talking big, suitcase. We love our Rick Steve's carryon type bag, but this, we decided, is an emergency, as we have only begun to shop.

Monday, on the other hand, was a bit more interesting. Let's begin with breakfast. Here are James and Glynn, two guys from the Green Lake area of Seattle who were staying at Artini 3 in Ubud and whom we got to know over breakfast.

They design and sell jewelry and are also more and more buying jewelry in Asia and reselling it. They are great guys and we hope to get together in Seattle, perhaps with the guys across the street who also are constantly traveling. It'll be a challenge to find a time. If it happens it will be yet one more time when Nancy feels somewhat left out, because despite the fact we've invited couples for dinner everyone there, except for her, is male.

We also had fun chatting with a couple from Santa Fe who are planning on living in Bali. They're young with a young daughter. He's landscaping and has worked, as it turns out, with Bern's son-in-law (well, Bern and Diane weren't actually married, but you get the idea). The wife of the couple went to Evergreen State College in Washington which, if you know anything about Evergreen, makes perfect sense.

At 11:00 our driver, Mr. Big again, picked us up for our trip to the east coast via a temple or two and a couple of view locations. This was a good thing for Mr. B because he lives in the area to which we were going. It would be a chance for him to see his kids whom he hadn't seen in over 10 days.

Off we went toward Candidasa via the scenic route. I apologize for not posting maps. You're just going to have to deal with that yourselves. Our first stop was Klungkung Palace, once the site of the highest court in Bali and also the site of the Klungkung massacre in which, in 1908, Dutch troops slaughtered the Klungkung aristocracy, men women and children, who had come out armed with ceremonial daggers in a suicidal gesture against the Dutch. In the museum on the grounds hangs this painting purporting to show the event.

The grounds are lovely.

Then it was back on the road, up into the mountains, as we headed toward the east coast. We stopped along the way to take in the view

Eventually we arrived at a lovely place for lunch. We were still in the mountains, with a gorgeous view over the terraced rice paddies.

As you might surmise from the photo, things were about to get very interesting.

The venue was lovely and the food delicious, but it began to rain. No, it began to RAIN! It was like a Michigan thunderstorm but with more water, and it went on and on. We're talking major rain, here.

Good thing Ganesh has his little parasol, although I'm not sure it did him much good. The rain wasn't going to stop so we made a run for it

and started off again. No more sightseeing for us on this drive!

Now the drive became much more interesting. The road was in the mountains and not all that great in the first place. Torrents of water rushing down it did not improve the situation. I took these photos from the car. Here's huge rock in the middle of the road.

With water totally covering the road it's hard to tell where the edge is when you're trying to not get hit by huge trucks.

That light in the distance is a motorbike passing a van. The water spray is us plowing though.

I'm sure you get the idea. Mr. B was definitely earning the $30 or so he would be paid for all this driving.

Eventually we arrived at Candidassa and, as Mr. B had predicted, the sun came out. We found a very adequate place for $35 a night with a lovely garden

and a sort of beach.

I say "sort of" because the beach is a strip of sand behind a seawall. Apparently, in an effort to make cement locally for the building boom that followed the discovery of the beautiful beach that used to be here, people dynamited the reef that was keeping the sand there in the first place. Now there's a seawall to hold the sand and breakwater to protect the seawall.

There is a spot for a few fishing boats,

that's all blown up coral underneath them. And there was a spot for a girl to photograph her friend doing yoga moves,

while avoiding the surf.

And so ended Monday. More adventures to follow.

A Sunday Drive on a Saturday

I need to catch up on my blog posts. It's now 10:17 on Sunday night. I actually finished Friday's post this morning and now will try to get Saturday's done. We're heading to East Bali tomorrow where internet access might be a bit more problematic making it more urgent to get caught up. Thank goodness we didn't do much today, although we just got back from a late supper at a Mexican restaurant. It was highly recommended by a couple of guys from Seattle who are staying here. The food was, I think, as good as any I've ever had. Also, we had a long chat with the owner, a young man from a very poor background who learned Mexican cooking in the states and is very ambitious and competent. An amazing guy.

But, I digress. Back to Saturday.

On Saturday we went for a ride. The brother of one of the young men who works here picked us up at 10:00 a.m. and drove us around central Bali until 6:00 p.m. His story is like so many we hear i.e. sad. In his case his wife was bitten by a dog and thought nothing of it. Three months later she had rabies and, of course, died leaving him with three young children. On Saturday he had been away from his kids for 10 days, leaving them in the care of his sister back in the village. We were happy to be able to give him something to do that we could pay him for.

We went first to a silver working village. In Bali, various villages are known for various crafts: painting, woodworking, silver working, etc. So, we went to a silver working village. We learned all about how the silver is worked, how glue is made from the berries of a local tree, lots of details. Nancy, having taken a course in jewelry making a few months ago, found it all both fascinating and familiar.

While Nancy was looking at jewelry to buy

I entertained myself by taking photos of the son of one of the women who worked there. I love taking photos of these delightful children.

Next we went to a temple. We went, ultimately, to three on our drive. In all of them sarongs are mandatory, but are provided when you give your contribution, which is also mandatory. Here we are in our sarongs.

And here's a view of the entrance to the temple.

It was very large and impressive.

Next, we were off to a coffee plantation. This was similar to the one we visited on our eco-bike tour, but that was ok because Nancy wanted to do some buying she hadn't done the first time around. Everyone there was delightful.

Here's a picture of our driver, Mr. Big. That's what he asked us to call him.

Next it was time for lunch. Mr. Big took us up to a restaurant high in the mountains. It was a venue similar to the one where we had breakfast on our bike tour. This was, if anything, even more spectacular in that we sat on the edge of and looking our over the precipice.

I'm afraid the photo doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.

Then, off to two more temples. The first was still rather high on the mountain. It was very old and nearly deserted.

We were shown around by a man who introduced himself as the keeper of the temple.

He not only showed us around but took several photos of us. There are those sarongs again.

The final temple was close to Ubud, thank goodness. It was the most spectacular of all. Notice the huge tree.

Parts of it date back to the 11th century. Here I am washing my face in the holy fountain "for good luck" our guide told us.

Parts of the temple were destroyed in an earthquake, such as these temple ruins

and these pieces of an ancient stone Buddha, now lying in a stream.

There's even the elephant cave

where, according to our accommodating guide, monks used to meditate after having carved it out by hand.

This tree was fascinating

and the rice fields of the priests were beautiful.

By the time we got back we were hot and tired. We'd had a very full day.

And I've had a very full day today. It's now midnight, and Nancy is long ago asleep. I have to do these blog entries outdoors in the cafe where the internet connection is active, and I've been nibbled on by mosquitoes ever since I got here. All in the service of my art, I guess. And, although we've really had very good weather, all in all, it just started to rain, yet again. But it's warm!

Friday in Ubud

I'm writing this Saturday morning as I was simply too tired last night to do anything productive. The only problem with that is we're to leave in an hour and a half for a day long tour of the major sights of the island. We'll see how much I get done before we leave (and after we get back).

We got a ride into the center of Ubud and went first to the market. It was the typical riot of voices, colors, and smells.

Some of the smells were worse than others.

Where to go next?

We decided to visit the former compound and current museum of the artist Antonio Blanco. We walked and walked.

Finally, there we were.

It was really quite amazing. Blanco was from Catalan but married a Balinese dancer and fell utterly in love with Bali. He was great friends with Sukarno with whom, according to what I read, he shared a love of art and women. His paintings tend toward sexual themes but with a sense of humor. Also, he designed his own frames which are whimsical and fascinating. No photos allowed.

The compound/museum grounds are extensive (a gift from Sukarno). With some beautiful birds.

I saw someone feeding the birds, calling to them, and went over to chat. Turned out it was the son of Antonio Blanco, Marco. He's an artist in his own right and a photographer. He recognized my Leica. I showed it to him, and we had a nice chat about cameras.

I couldn't take photos of Blanco's art, in the museum, but did get some of his studio.

We loved it. Next, it was time for lunch. We'd read about the place with the best roast suckling pig in Bali, so off we went. In a cab this time.

It's a bit hard to read, but above the entrance the banner read "Merry Christmas." I have no idea why and, I expect, neither do they.

The pig sculpture/fountain was more to the point (that's Ganesh, the elephant god, in the background).

The food was great!

From there we walked through Monkey Forest

where there were lots and lots of . . . monkeys.

That night, we went to a kecak dance and fire dance.

Next to us was a lovely Norwegian/Swedish family with two darling little girls and an eight month old baby. For being eight months old, the baby was pretty friendly and gave us just a bit of Evynne loss compensation.

The only light is fire -- a photographic nightmare. Here the lamps are being lit.

Both the Kecak and the fire dances have no gamelan for musical accompaniment but rather a chorus of men chanting.

The kecak was eerie and strangely alluring. Again, I would love to know the story being told.

The fire dance was not only eerie but a bit scary. A fire was built on the floor, the men chanted and a man who looked like a horse ran through the fire, kicking it and sending embers flying. He had bare feet, incomprehensibly, but that didn't reassure Nancy when those burning embers came within inches of her sandaled feet!

We've seen some amazing things!