In Reply to: Living in Bali posted by Dutchie on Friday, 23. December 2005 at 14:08 Bali Time:
... obviously there are many many motorcyle shops in Bali, but not sure exactly what type of shop you're talking about, a repair shop, a sales shop? Anyway, I remember just before I left Ubud about 5 weeks ago that I passed a motorcycle shop one night in Ubud (I THINK it was on Hanoman Street) where I saw a foreign guy working on a quite flash motorcycle - for some reason it just appeared to me that it was actually his own shop - he certainly seemed very at home doing his thing. Ubud or near Ubud is almost assuredly your best bet for meeting all of your requirements (art supplies, motorcycle shop, cheap accomodation for 6 months) - so if you do go there, you'd probably be able to find the shop I'm talking about pretty easily if you ask around, and could possibly get all the information you need from that guy or whoever owns the shop.
If you want to know in detail about cheap accomodation in Ubud, I can give you a lot of information - we were there for 2 months and on a tight budget, and I checked a lot of places out, including long-term houses and such. As an example, you can get a 2-storey villa with 2 double beds for $10 a night in the Tjampuhan area. For longer term, you should be able to find something for $150-$300 per month very very easily, and probably for less, especially if you have your own transport and don't mind staying away from the main centers. But even in the middle of Ubud area you can get cheap long-term accomodation if you figure out how to find it (try the bookshop next to Bali Buddha restaurant for instance - the owner has a house right off Monkey Forest Road that he rents out quite cheaply)
As for meeting artists - that's about the easiest thing to do in and around Ubud! There are so many artists, young and old, traditional and modern. Just walk in to any studio of any artists that interest you and they'll usually be quite happy and able to help you out, with information anyway.