wasn't going to write this at all b/c there wasn't a lot to tell just about how we relaxed and then...it's like topsy, it's just grown...
the background
this was to be a very special trip for us (Denis & Scilla) christmas/new year in ubud. originally planned to go in june 2003 after the first bomb to show terrorists they don't win, but had to postpone because of work and then all sorts of things happened in 2004 to stop us going then so this year we decided to go for christmas/new year (just the 2 of us and, with no family here, so nice to be away from being the observers of other people's family stuff happening!). booked in sept, 2 weeks later bomb goes off; we're still going; then ap go bust; we're still going; book with garuda (and credit card reimburses us on 22/12 - great). I'm still thinking something bad will happen at some stage (though not really worried about bombs; what will be, will be) as our last Bali visit (staying Kuta/Legian area, never again!) was in 1998 and got back to find my sister diagnosed with cancer; she died 2001 and her husband 2004 (hence no trip to bali in 2004)
hotel
arrived ubud 24/12 after an ok flight and pick up by hotel (ubud village) from the airport; expensive but saved the hassle; drove languorously through twisting country roads calming us down into a peaceful way of life as we drove to the hotel. at the hotel they upgraded us free of charge to a delightful room with courtyard (with visiting frog during the rain) and outdoor bathroom. bit run down overall and not super clean (eg mould on sidewall of shower) but not worried by this as otherwise everything was fine and we didn't need to touch the walls. clean towels and bedlinen everyday. 2 showers, one bath hose type and one open air one. at first thought the open air one was only cold and that's what reception staff said. however on third day left water running for 2-3 mins and it was beautifully hot and so much nicer to shower with a palm leaf as a soap dish and the occasional cat walking across the roof top above us. wish I could have a bathroom like that at home (if it was warm enough in winter). Could have done with mozzie nets though - the mozzie coils we bought did not work properly. hotel is in such a beautiful setting with lots of trees and plants, and places to sit and contemplate. unsure if breakfast was included in the price - we only ate it on 3 days b/c coffee was yuck (glad we took our own kettle and coffee as recommended on btf) and we're not great breakfast eaters; final bill included cost of breakfast for one day but didn't bother to query this. the reason for upgrade is very sad for Bali - hotel was probably only 1/3 full (at most) at any time as we were often only ones around the pool and very few in the restaurant at breakfast/other times. Only met one Oz family in our 10 days there, rest were French, German, Scandinavian, English, American, Canadian. (Also heard very few Aussie voices at all - there seemed to be very few of them around Ubud.) Staff all very friendly, smiling and ready to help. Met the operations manager (American) for the ubud village resort as we were checking out. She told us that they are having a ‘soft' opening there at the moment until the official opening in march/april so people can stay there for ‘as little'(??) as U$175 a night currently; still doing final landscaping etc there at the moment apparently - not sure what the price will be after that.....
shopping
ubud itself also very quiet, found costs higher than those quoted here - ?if b/c it was ubud or ?b/c we're not great hagglers or ?b/c prices have gone up; still significantly less than Oz, though, and we didn't do a lot of shopping anyway, though i did a fair bit of browsing; shops and stalls desperate for trade; sellers often almost begging for a sale, - even when i said 'only looking' - and saying they had made no sale for 2 days - possibly sales talk, but given the number of tourists in relation to number of shops/stall, very likely true.
food
restaurants often had only 2-3 other tables occupied; visited lots of different restaurants, no remarkable meals but loved cafe lotus and bebek bengil for their settings; also went to a simpler café, can't remember name (visible from monkey forest road) that was in the middle of a paddy field too, with ducks criss-crossing the fields beside us as we ate.
highlights
cooking class with ketut at bumbu bali 2 - great teacher: excellent english, funny; only 4 in the class - 2 canadians and us; given a recipe book and apron as part of the cost
batik class - with kedak in monkey forest road; i was only one in the class so individual tuition! had the option of drawing my own design or using an old one (some of kedak's but mostly personalised ones from other tourists); knowing my artistic (lack of) skills, I chose one of Kedak's; he showed me how to trace it and then cant it with wax. then left it for an hour to dry and when I came back kedak had also cleaned up the wax drips i'd made! then I painted it and left it till the next day by which time it had dried and kedak had fixed the colours. i impressed myself with how well it turned out!
monkey forest - best part was when we sat down and a monkey came up, grabbed our water bottle out of denis' hand, quickly unscrewed the top and took a drink then screeched noisily at us as if to say he was used to better (probably more stagnant!); decided we no longer wanted any more water from that bottle thank you, and a couple of minutes later another monkey came along and picked up the bottle and drained it. Obviously he was not so fussy.
elephant park - in brochure this was listed as U$68 each with transport so thought we'd hire a driver and pay entry, but got there and discovered it was U$53 (!!!) entry each so would probably have been cheaper to take the package deal as that included lunch; however, great experience wandering through the woods on an elephant, with frequent stops for food as they eat 250kg a day; elephants are obviously well trained to perform but did not look too unhappy. Our mahout had come from Sumatra with his elephant - said he was not married as he did not need a girlfriend as he already had one!
dance - went to a special event which was a combination of contemporary dance including some traditional aspects (eg hand, foot and eye movements) and also traditional and contemporary music (using traditional instruments) both as an accompaniment and as music only; the players looked as they were having great fun, especially the gamelan metallaphone players - seemed to be competing with each other to see who could be the fastest and yet keep the sounds pure. all very colourful. Originally this was supposed to have been in front of the temple at the Café Lotus but b/c of rain unfortunately it had to be held inside.
Incidentally, had really heavy rain one day from about 3pm till the following day and again for about 4-5 hours on the night of the dance but otherwise showers lasted 2 hrs max. and hotel supplied umbrellas
otherwise we just relaxed - walked, swam, read, wrote, visited putra bar as it is close to ubud village and got to know abud (javanese but has been in ubud for 10 years as bar staff at the Putra bar). his wife tina works at milano salon which is next to the soccer field so went there a couple of times for a massage - soooo relaxing, especially the one with the body scrub followed by a bath in scented flowers at the end.
summary - this was a totally peaceful, magical, timeless, place to be; had no security concerns the whole time we were there - even though little security evident except on new year's eve and even then it was minimal - because it felt so like another world and impossible to believe anything bad could happen in this little piece of heaven. Been back a week now, and started back at work today but this beautiful memory is still alive in my head and keeping the stress levels down (for now anyway!).