Bali – Leg 1 – Ubud

Our group this year was 10 people total, but we didn’t all stay in the same place at the same time. Though we kind of fluctuated a lot, we all started out together in Ubud for our first leg. Well, I guess technically those of us who rode the bus for 26 stinkin hours (as opposed to flying) ended up coming a day and a half later than the rest… Won’t be doing that again if I can help it. But anyways, Ubud is a traditional place for us to stay each Christmas. This was our third year in a row to stay at the T-Houses, located just outside of town. Basically, we love it here. Ubud has some of the best food and culture of anywhere on Bali. And if you recognize the name, it might be because it’s where Elizabeth Gilbert spent time for her whole Eat, Pray, Love deal. If you watch the movie (not a strong recommendation), you’ll see how beautiful Ubud is! In fact, Ketut Liyer, the traditional medicine man she worked with, lives just around the corner from where we stay! The only downfall is that there is no coast/beach in Ubud. This is nice around the holidays though, as it tends to keep the tourist levels down. This was our rest and relax leg. The guys did lots of yoga with an instructor they found in town. The girls spent lots of time hanging out by the pool and getting to know our neighbors from around the world who were staying in the other guest houses.  And trying our best to figure out if our neighbor was a topless woman or a very gay man in a speedo. Conclusion: he’s French!

(The house all the girls stayed in)

(One of three bedrooms in the girls house)

(My favorite part of the T-Houses – outdoor bathrooms!!)

(Note – always check to make sure nobody is harvesting coconuts before you strip down!)

Every night we got dressed up and went out to dinner together. We had some awesome Thai, Mexican, organic, Italian, and Cuban food. That last one proved interesting. In the Cuban restaurant, I was sitting with my back to the door, and halfway through the meal, a friend across the table from me casually said, “That’s Tyra Banks”. I turned around and looked, and sure enough! – Tyra Banks had just walked in the door and was making her way to a table across the room! (We googled it later and found out that she is there for some kind of spiritual retreat after her breakup with her boyfriend, someone-or-rather.) Other than one creepy stalker-ish bald guy with a camera, I was pretty impressed by how low key her being there was. (Question: How come I can’t go to the grocery store without getting my picture taken 25 times and comments, proposals, and wolf whistles thrown at me, but Tyra Banks can walk into a restaurant and nobody bats an eye?!) As we were eating, a salsa band started playing, and turns out our waiter, Karma (the name he was born with – we asked), was also a salsa dance instructor! He got everyone out on the dance floor, and we ended up staying there a good 4 or 5 hours, dancing the night away and working off all that rice and beans!

Sam, our Mexican friend (though you wouldn’t know it to look at him), left a note on the wall after we were finished. It was fun to go around and read all the other things people had written over the years! And it was nice to find that even though I can’t speak Spanish anymore, I can still read it pretty well!

 

(A sweaty Sam after hours of salsa dancing in dress clothes)

(Peco, me, and Yohanes – we have spent every New Years together in Bali for the last 4 years)

One other big thing we did in Ubud was go see a Kecak dance.

(The program for the dance, which tells the story of the Ramayana - Indonesian Romeo and Juliet, Rama and Shinta)

In case you need more information, you can read the following excerpt from the program which we all found amusing. Please pardon its French.

On Java, when they perform the Ramayana, it is accompanied by traditional Indonesian instruments called gamelan. The Balinese version is accompanied solely by voices. The 100 men *sit* in three concentric circles and kind of beatbox the rhythm of the story while the dancers act it out. There is also one guy who sings/tells parts of the story in what we think was a Balinese tribal language. There were some other minor differences in the story which were interesting to spot. A big part of why the traditional story varies between the two islands might be that Java is predominantly Muslim while Bali is almost entirely Hindu.

We had to go to a temple at night in the pitch black to see the performance. I have a few pictures, but not a whole lot.

(First step – lighting the candles in the center of the “stage”)

(The singers come out and form their concentric circles centered around the fire)

(Eventually, the singers sit down, and the dancers come out, dancing the story. The one dancer you can see above is Shinta (Juliet))

(A part of the show where there were no dancers. All the sounds you hear are voices – there are no musical instruments used in this performance. Pretty cool, no?)

And I leave you with a few more pictures of the beauty of Ubud.