Ubud-alicious

Greetings from Siem Reap, Cambodia!

Laura and I arrived yesterday early morning and have already had two full days of temples, cheap eats, and a floating village. I think that I will wait until the end of our third day here to sum up what's been going on so I can catch up on the rest of our time in Bali. First I'll finish Lovina and then rewind to Ubud.

Our second day in Lovina was a good one. We got up early (around 5 AM) to go on the dolphin watch but soon found out that the water was "no good for dolphins. Come back tomorrow." So we went back to bed and got up a couple hours later to go snorkeling. We drove about an hour and a half west and then took a boat to Menjangan Island, one of Indonesia's national parks. The rest of the people on our boat were diving, but Laura and I spent our day on the white sands of this undeveloped island, watching boatloads of traditionally dressed Balinese come to make their offerings at the temple on the hill, which we were not appropriately dressed to go see. The highlight of our snorkeling was swimming out (once we got past the surprising amount of litter in the water) to the coral shelf. That's where we found schools of fish and a brilliantly colored display of coral that must have gone down at least 20 meters. Hard to say since we were obviously confined to the surface.

I was walking in the shallows to return to shore, Laura about 10 feet in front of me, when I saw a giant snake swim by. I think my brain instinctively knew what it was before I could actually process it. I must have made a bit of a noise because Laura, who is deathly afraid of snakes, said, "What is it?" Again, without really having internalized it yet, it all happened so quickly, I just said, "Keep walking. Just keep walking." She saw the shadow and knew not to question me. A few minutes later there was quite a commotion on one of the boats. When we asked what was going on, they kept saying, "Snake! Snake!" Apparently, the same snake, a python, had managed to get on the boat and now three or four grown men were trying to figure out a way to safely get it into a net. I wish this computer's connection was fast enough that I could upload the photos. At one point, the smallest of the men was in front with a stick, while the others kind of cowered behind him, but stretched enough to get a good look. Eventually they got the snake, at least a meter in length and 3 inches in diameter (hard to say since I didn't get too close), into a net. We're still not sure of the reptile's final fate. Once everyone calmed down and the divers went out for their second dive after lunch, more people came to go to temple, but the only thing Laura and I were worshipping was the sun. And I paid for it. More sunburn, despite my best efforts at keeping up with the SPF.

That evening, we had dinner with two really lovely French women, Nora and Sophie, that we had met on the boat. They both insisted we come see them in Paris sometime. I guess that will have to be my next adventure.

The next morning we made a second attempt at the dolphin watch before getting our bus back to the airport. The boat was able to get past the surf, but then our rutter fell off and we couldn't start the engine back up once we retrieved it. Eventually we got motoring again, but 2 hours later, when we returned to shore, we still hadn't seen any dolphins. Let's just say that the time I spent in the outrigged boat not much wider than my hips with just 3 other people was not the most exciting time I've had this trip.

We got back just in time to catch our bus to the airport and flew to Kuala Lumpur where we spent the night before flying out the next morning to Cambodia.

So, back to Ubud. I probably won't go into as much detail as I would have if I'd written in a timely manner because I don't want to lose you half way through.

Our first stop was to go see the traditional Barong and Kris dance, a play that represents the eternal fight between the good (Barong) and evil (Rangda) spirits. Still not sure what kris is. Elaborate costumes and beautiful Balinese music made this a great way to start the day. From there we stopped at a silversmith where we saw what detail and intensive work goes into making each piece of jewelry. Laura and I bought matching bracelets to remember our trip together. It has three balls on it and we told Mario that the one in the middle represents him with each of us flanking.

A stop at a traditional Balinese house exposed some of the poverty of this beautiful island. We also learned that every family has their own temple in the back. It's all very striking, but a bit difficult when you stop to think that this is where these kind people spend their days, making their offerings, and trying to get by. Later on, when we saw Mario's house, we saw that not everyone lives in grass-roofed homes, but rather quite substantial accomodations.

From there we moved on to the painting cooperative where we saw a range of artwork from traditional Balinese to more modern work, done by people of all ages. Young painters are trained in the ways of flora and faunta paintings, using the bold colors and simple designs that are easy to come by in the art stalls throughout town. It seems like a great place for young people to be able to go when they're not in school and builds skills and confidence.

We went back to the Ubud Inn to pick up our new friend, Ben, who had just arrived. He joined us for a trip to a beautiful rice terrace, the volcano, a scenic lunch, and then to a Hindu temple. The rain stopped just in time for us to make a trip to a local coffee farm where we sampled chocolate coffee, fresh ginger tea, fresh hot cocoa, and the gourmet mongoose poop coffee. Don't be alarmed, we weren't drinking mongoose poop. But as some of you might know, mongoose will snack on the ripest of the coffee beans, but are unable to digest them. Upon excretion, they are harvested and used to make the best brew.

Finally, we made a stop at a wood carving shop where we saw stunning solid wood sculptures, but left our tour guide a bit disappointed when we did not purchase anything. Mario had reassured us that we didn't need to and to not feel pressured. He just wanted us to see all of these things so we could see all that Bali had to offer.

Before heading back, we made one more stop to schedule our beauty treatments with Wayan, the traditional healer featured in Eat, Pray, Love. We soon learned that we had to let go our our western ways of thinking about time and realized that we would not have time for the treatment and rafting, so we bagged the rafting in favor of a cleansing and healing few hours the next morning.

That night we went to see another traditional dance, this time Kecak dancing. Ben had heard about it from a movie he saw called Baraka. About 75 men sit in a circle and do a kind of chanting that is hard to describe. To get a rough sense of it, check out the song Liquid Dance on the Slumdog Millioniare soundtrack. Think of that song as kecak remix. While this is going on, another story is told through dance. This was the story of Rama and Sita from the Ramayana epic. Two more dances featured 2 girls in a trance, and a man dancing ON fire. Not kidding. After dinner, Ben, Laura, and I stayed out pretty late, but that did not stop us from getting up and getting to Wayan's by 11 AM. Again, letting go of our western way of thinking about time, we were not bothered when we had to wait over an hour for Wayan to return.

We started with a medicinal herbal tumeric drink made right in front of us from fresh tumeric. Then, one by one, Wayan performed a body reading on each of us and told us of our vitamin deficiencies and ailments. I went first. My Vitamin E is low, as is my calcium. I worry too much, and I need to cut back on my sweets. Then the palm reading...apparently I am 4th generation reincarnation from my paternal line. On top of that, I will have three part time jobs at once, and 2 marriages. I've decided to take it all with a grain of salt. Mario clarified later that "marriage" could be interpreted loosely. After the palm reading I changed into a sarong, was scrubbed down with beetle leaves (from the tree of the beetle nut), and then had the longest and most intensive spa treatment ever. The three of us were all in the same room, so, again, we had to let go of some of our western ideas, this time about massage and privacy. A couple hours of scrubs, massage, rinses, and mysterious healing practices by Wayan and her apprentices left all of us feeling rather zoned, yet relaxed. We finished it all with a vitamin lunch and a walk home.

I think that pretty much sums it all up. Laura and I are quite hungry, so I'm going to post this without much of a read through, so please forgive any major editing problems (same goes for most of these posts while I'm traveling). If you got this far, thanks, as always, for reading. I'll see you in Phnom Penh.