For Jueun and me Bali is a place that came up in one of our first ever conversations. Very early in our relationship, we discovered we shared an interest in travel and Bali was one of the first places we talked about. It took awhile for us to go but 19 years later we finally managed to make it.
Going to Bali, it was hard to not think about Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" and the final place, where in the movie, Julia Roberts went on her incredible journey in search for self fulfillment.
Now, I know the story is obviously aimed at women but I have to admit I enjoyed parts of it. After all, it is a travel memoir that included some amazing places and some great messages. A couple of quotes that stand out in my mind are, "I want to go somewhere where I can marvel at something" and "I am loyal and constant in my love of travel. I just don't care what it puts me through because I adore it, because it is mine."
Ubud is the cultural capital of Bali, and if I were to pick three words to describe Ubud, it would be artsy, cultural and beautiful. A visit to Ubud and its surroundings is a real must when visiting Bali.
Ubud is probably the place on Bali that has preserved its Balinese culture the most, and you can see and get a feel for the real soul of Bali here and I guess that is why the Balinese are so proud of it.
We arrived in Bali on Wednesday, February 22nd. Made, the homestay owner, picked us up at the airport in Denpasar and drove us back to his Homestay in Ubud. When we arrived at the Nirwa Homestay it was pitch black. His wife, Ayu and other members of the family met us with flash lights at the road and helped guide us along a narrow path about 150 meters through the rice fields back to their place.
Although we couldn't see much of anything that night, when the sun came up in the morning we could see the beautiful lush surroundings we were now in.
Ubud was somewhere we really wanted to do yoga together. I have been hearing about the benefits of yoga for years and it is something Jueun has been suggesting I try. I figured what better place to jump on the yoga bandwagon than Ubud, Bali.
On Thursday, we walked over to the Ubud Yoga House and made arrangements to start our program. This yoga studio overlooking the rice terraces was in a beautiful location and just a short walk from our homestay.
In the first class we learned that practicing yoga helps bring together the body and mind. It also helps manage stress, increases flexibility, muscle strength and body tone along with improving one's respiration, energy and vitality. It all sounds good to me; however, it's not that simple. The stretching, balancing and breathing is harder than it looks. Although I am not very good at it now I understand that these things take time. Like everything in life, it comes with time and practice. No pain, no gain...
Anyway we met some great people from all over the world at the Ubud Yoga house and have some good and humorous memories from our time there. After a couple of introductory classes we felt we were ready to practice on our own and we have been trying to keep it up ever since.
One day we walked to what is known as the Sacred Monkey forest which houses three holy temples and a band of gray long tailed Balinese Macaque. In certain areas the temples have a real Indiana Jones feel about them. Dr. Jones would have felt very much at home here.
We had fun wandering around this cool, dense jungle area. During our time there we saw a malay water monitor that looked about the size of a crocodile along with what seemed like no end of monkeys.
These monkeys may look cute but they can be pretty rough on each other and pretty sneaky with unexpecting tourists. At our homestay we were told that sometimes they fight with each other and the loser monkeys are banished from the area and are forced into exile in surrounding areas. These areas include the trees around our homestay. Like all refugees, I guess it is a hotly debated issue on what to do with them.
Anyway, we spent part of our time in the forest helping one guy look for the contents of his wallet. A quick acting monkey grabbed it out of his bag when he was getting something out and next thing he was tearing it apart as he jumped from tree to tree. In the end the guy managed to retrieve most of his important stuff except for one credit card. I wonder how he felt explaining that story to his credit card company.
We enjoyed two evenings of Balinese dance performances at open air venues with huge stone backdrops. The beautiful settings are nice; however, all attention was placed on the dancers' rythematic and robotic movements from their eyeballs to their tip toes, once the music started.
Along with the wild eyed Balinese dancers there was also a performance that included Barong, Bali's good monster. This half lion, half shaggy dog is both mischievous and fun loving. Barong is a sacred creature in Bali and his image can be seen everywhere. He is known to be a protecter of villages and with his huge eyes and mouth, that moves to the beat of the music, he is also a very entertaining performer.
On Sunday, February 26th, we took a drive along the West coast to Pura Tanah Lot. It is one of the most famous sea temples in Bali. During low tide it is possible to walk over to the Temple however that wasn't the case when we were there.
On Wednesday, March 1st, we took another excursion to the central mountains region near the centre of Bali. Here we visited Pura Ulan Danu Bratan. This important Hindu Buddhist temple, which goes back to the 17th century, is dedicated to the goddess of water and is built on an island in lake Bratan.
A view of this temple is one of the iconic images of Bali and it graces the cover of the Bali Lonely Planet.
We also went to the Jatiluwih Rice fields. These century old rice terraces are both beautiful to see and fascinating to learn about.
We walked along some of the paths to see the terraces close up and learn a little about the amazing ancient irrigation system. We could see up close how the water runs through interconnected channels and bamboo pipes from one field level to the next.
We also stopped by a huge waterfall where we could practically stand underneath. It was a spectacular sight and by far the most refreshing part of another stifling hot day in Bali.
Other than those few excursions and yoga we spent most of our time in Ubud close to our homestay just wandering around the rice field area where were staying.
The food was great and we found the unique flavour was a nice change for us. The barbecue chicken, pork ribs and satay along with the spicy sambal sauce had us coming back for more and more.
There was one place, located in the rice fields where the food was so delicious and the sunsets so spectacular we were almost able to accept the snakes, bats and river rats that hung out in the area.
We tried our best to be at ease with the local wildlife and took note of how comfortable the Balinese were within their natural environment.
We quickly noticed the daily offerings prepared with pride. This Balinese Hindu practice called "Canang" is carried out all over Bali. Crafted out of natural materials, a simple offering might be a few inches of a banana leaf holding a small amount of rice.
Other offerings may be small, square, woven baskets made from coconut leaves and filled with flowers and an assortment of gifts for the Gods and topped with a single smouldering stick of incense. Once the incense goes out, an offering returns to being an earthly object - and becomes a snack for everything from monkeys to ants.
Each night we slept well under our mosquito net as we listened to what seemed like an orchestra of creatures, including birds, geckos, frogs and crickets. In my mind they were all singing in unison the praises of this Canang offering system.
We planned to stay in Ubud for a week but couldn't tear ourselves away that soon. We knew we were somewhere we could marvel at things and we extended our time here. We finally said thanks and reluctantly said good bye to Made, Ayu and the rest of our homestay family early in the morning on Friday, March 3rd.
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