Off to Ubud for 4 nights. Booking over the internet is interesting. What one person thinks is brilliant accommodation may be for them, but not for you. We booked ahead at Tegal Sari for two nights but could not get the room we wanted there for the first two nights of our Ubud stay so I booked into Ketut's Place which I found on the Internet for those nights, and we were disappointed.
Tuesday - KETUT'S PLACE
Okay, this 'family-run guest house' (www.indo.com/hotels/ketut-place) turned out to be a home stay, but suffice to say we felt the standard double room, for US$35 night (about 342,000 rupiah), was way over-priced for what it was. We felt like we were in a school camp cabin. The toilet and shower worked okay. Ketut told us that it is cheaper to contact the hotel to book personally, but the only site we found on the net for this place directed us to Indo.com booking service. The paths and trees are nice, but the rampant growth of the foliage, which no doubt provides welcome shade, also made it feel gloomy. The website spoke of a Balinese buffet dinner on the Wednesday night, which I had really looked forward to, but the blackboard in the office area when we arrived on the Tuesday said 'Next Balinese Dinner - Friday night' - so we just ate elsewhere. We ate breakfast there as it was included in the price, but discovered we were supposed to have ticked what we wanted on a breakfast order the night before (who knows what they want to have for breakfast the night before?!). Bruce had scrambled eggs -arrived with dry toast, no butter, no salt and pepper, no fork.I had a banana pancake, no fork. Used small fork from fruit platter in the end. Had to ask for milk for coffee. I think when our daughter and our driver came to collect us on checkout morning that they could see we were glad to be moving on to Tegal Sari Bungalows. (We had Made drive us back to Kuta/Legian to do some errands before we dropped Anna off where she was staying, and fronted up at TS, so they had time to clean rooms etc before we arrived).Picked up Bruce's glasses and bought some sunglasses for me at another shop in Jalan Legian. As somehow I had lost mine. Have to tell you about this! Walked into Mithras, a sunglasses shop opposite Mini Seafood Restaurant (near the New Bounty) and as I walked in one of the two assistants looked up and just handed me a pair of sunglasses. They looked good so I tried them on. Really liked them but decided to try on some others as well. Did not find any I liked as much as the first pair. 'How did you know these were the glasses for me?' I asked. She smiled gently and said 'This is my job, I do this all day.' Wow! By the way, they cost 390,000 rph and yes, they are good quality!
Thursday
TEGAL SARI BUNGALOWS
Last year we stayed in Room 17, the furtherest away room beyond the pool and at ground level. This year that room was already booked so we decided to pay the extra (from 350,000 night for Room 17, to 450,000 for a new super deluxe wooden room) and stay in the newly built accommodation. Oh wow! It was amazing. Absolutely stunning view. We thought the upstairs rooms even better than the downstairs rooms. What they have done is create a walkway that extends along the perimeter of the ricefield, beyond the furthermost room on the far side of the pool. At right angles (and facing out into the rice fields) they have built three two-storey villas. The construction standards are brilliant,even for Bali. Staff are wonderful, good english and nothing a problem. We watched the process of the women harvesting some of the rice fields by hand! Mini bar prices very good. Coffee(bali kopi)/tea making facilities, but you would have to ask for milk. Do not be alarmed if you find little bugs like black ladybirds on your deck in the morning as they seem to be tiny night beetles, perhaps from the new rattan roof fibres or the rice fields, and nothing more sinister. We could not work out why there was straw over our deck till some floated down while we sat there. The little birds had started building nests in the spine of the roof above us! If you eat there in the evening do try their Nasi Campur...best I have had in Bali! Our upstairs room had a big bed on upper platform...very regal and verry verry comfortable. Aircon (or nets if you prefer) and room safe, fridge and lovely deep bath. Shower has two settings..fixed shower rose overhead and one at shoulder height you can lift off and use in your hand. Shampoo and liquid soap in dispensers in the shower. Little bottles beside the bath. Toilet very flash but a bit weird - one of those ones that seems to alarmingly float the contents halfway up the bowl before they suddenly drain away. Electric mozzie thingy for in the room. We used the spiral coil supplied also on the balcony when we sat out there. Bruce sat one afternoon watching fascinated as the hard-working women in the field harvested the rice while the men pretty much stood around. He was blown away to see three women lift one huge rice sack onto another woman's head and then she walked out of the field with it. I had been nosy and wandered into the field to look at the sacks and the thresher, and honestly, the sacks were at least 50kg...much bigger than a thick pillow. Later Bruce saw a man try to lift one of the sacks and he could not do it! After the row of women cut the rice they put it through a portable petrol/diesel-drive thresher, then bag it up. (It will be dried out and not eaten for about three months, I gather). Two old ladies went through the straw then, hand-winnowing the rest in large shallow baskets. That night the pile of straw was burned to create ash and the next day the farmers put the ducks into the field to get the fallen rice grains - very happy ducks! We could hear them quacking away excitedly.The rice fields in your vast view are all at different stages of growth so there is always a good view here. Normally a village farmer growing the newer rice (that can be sown three times a year) will give each field a rest by planting a different crop, but a guy who works at the hotel said the land we were looking at was just re-sown again in rice. I guess they must be using fertiliser instead.
WHILE IN UBUD
We had lunch one day at Gaia on Jalan Dewi Sita (runs from Jalan Hanoman to Monkey Forest Road along one side of the soccer field). Very nice food and good toilet. This street also has a little shop that sells handmade/painted paper cards I have not seen elsewhere. Another little shop in this street (closer to Jalan Hanoman) has a fantastic range of really individual teapots - modern as well as traditional shapes. We also ate at Tutmak's in this street. Wonderful food and good toilets. Opposite Tutmak's is a silver shop, Hari Ini Silver - it has large clay faces outside the store windows and display cases. Some very interesting items in the store..good range.
Went to Nomad in the road that runs past the palace twice for happy hour drinkies. Fantastic service-(could teach some other establishments about good service), cold beer!
We also ate at Bumbu Bali twice at the bottom of Jalan Sweta, by the palace. Fantastic food there. Had a meal at Cafe Lotus too as daughter had not seen the lotus ponds there before. One place alongside the soccer field - access from Jalan Dewi Sita - was called Deli Cat and was fascinating. Guy who runs it is Icelandic so you get a recipe for Icelandic lamb stew on the menu as well as options like choosing a plate of delicatessen cheese/meat/bread/garnish delights to suit your fancy.
Buying paintings in Ubud.
I wanted to buy several paintings while in Bali. Last year I went to Neka art museum and I had bought a painting in Legian last year so I knew what I was looking for -and it was basically not the mass-produced stuff I was seeing everywhere. I found some places in Ubud that blew me away (and one in Sanur I will mention when I get to that part of my JBRs).
A good kilometre or so up Jalan Suweta(by the palace) is a gallery called Arka Gallery. From the street it just looks like some paintings hung in a garage. Deceptive. Go in...The guy who owns this has filled many rooms in his family compound with pictures...and basically has his own huge art gallery, displaying the work of artists from other villages too. Some of the pictures are huge! You will walk through the family compound past gorgeously decorated buildings to a big room at the back of the section. (Smile and greet grandma Ibu on the way). Inside the large gallery they can switch on lights and you walk around a large gallery of the most fantastic traditional paintings, as well as some modern ones. We did not buy here, but assured the owner that we would be happy to 'promotion' him as we thought it was fantastic.
Almost at the top of Monkey Forest Road is a gallery with a sign out the front advertising the work of G A Suartini. This is Gusti Ayu Suartini and I met her when I first visited. She is one of the renowned women artists of Ubud and also displays work by other artists. But it was her work that amazed me. Her husband teaches English and he has written explanations for the meaning of many of her works. They are based on the structure and responsibilities of family and women, and balinese moral fables. Her work reminded me of the work of my artist friends back here who share their reverence of the Goddess in their painting. Her style is quite unique and I greatly admired her talent. One painting had me amused. It spoke of the creativity of women and showed the back view of a woman sitting cross-legged breastfeeding a child while she painted a picture and in the background was a temple offering and a fire burning merrily with the food bubbling away in a pot. I told her that women in New Zealand also had this creativity and we sometimes called it multi-tasking! I was embarrassed to then choose a painting that was not one of hers, but I fell in love with it. White orchids growing on branches of a tree with an irridescent background. Then I discovered her husband had painted it, so was happy the $$$ were going to her family. I paid 320,000 rupiah for it.
In the Ubud market there is a lane that runs off the main area and it has quite a few art shops in it. I wanted to buy a painting there of Dewi Saraswati but they wanted 2 million for it and bartering did not get them down to what I could afford. Further along, though, I saw a picture of a man shepherding ducks home along a village street. Decided to come back and buy it the next day if I did not find anything else I liked. Next day I went back and it looked a bit different..more square, different shade of cream, and thought maybe it was just because they had moved it from the back of the shop and hung it up high. Paid 320,000 for it. Walked into next shop along and there at the back was the same painting...only this was the one I had really liked and the quality was so much better! Stood there and felt like a real idiot. Decided I would never forgive myself if I did not get the right one so I bought the second one as well...same price. Decided could give the other as a gift. Next day I decided that was stupid as taste in art is so individual. Took the first duck painting back to the shop and asked if I could swap it for another. You guessed it...for a price! Cost me another 100,000 but I swapped it for a lovely picture of a dancer sitting waiting quietly 'backstage'. I just tell myself that the dancer picture cost 420,000!
I love Ubud! There are people in temple clothes every night as there is a dance somewhere every night. There is this fascinating man who sells little carved bone creatures over the road from the palace. I sat and chatted to him for ages. Bought a little white frog he carved. I saw him later chatting to other people. I think he has a good sales pitch, but it probably helps that the creatures he makes are so realistic. The gecko even had a little dragonfly poking out of its mouth. I paid 30,000 for my little frog. The man in the upstairs part of the Ubud market who sells quilts and other items (beside the lovely lady in the corner stall who also sells quilts) is still there. His manner is very rude. He waylays you, standing right in front of you and practically pushes you into his shop. I had to be quite abrupt, and speak in Indonesian so he knew I was not going to be intimidated into buyng something, to get him to step aside and let me out. The nice lady in the corner I am sure makes many sales because of him (we bought two quilts from her last year) as people are so relieved to get past him and find someone who does not give them the 'hard-sell'.
Okay, time to sign off for now and write up the next step of our journey. On to Lovina in the morning after our four nights in Ubud.