Sunday, April 25, 2010

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia


Court and I headed to Ubud where we were met with ridiculous amounts of rain. Once that let up a little we walked down to the local market where Court was astonished at the amount of Batik fabric (hand dyed using wax to make elaborate patterns) on sale for dirt cheap. That night we discovered just how cheap you can get things at a market if you go right at closing. Everyone seemed desperate to make a final sale and were offering staggeringly low prices for all kinds of things. Makes you wonder how much the stuff is really worth and what kind of quality it is.
After a tasty meal of spring rolls and avocado chicken salad (by far the best meal I've had so far) we purchased tickets to see some traditional Balinese dancing. Unfortunately, it was horribly disappointing. The show was titled 'Kecak Fire Dancing and Trance Dance' so we were expecting fire eating and manipulation and various different dances. What we got was about 60 men sitting in a circle chanting and making noises with their hands, etc., which was cool for about 10 minutes, but then we realized that the actual beat only varied for about 3 minutes and then was repeated over and over and over. Meanwhile, two women entered the circle, danced in slow motion for maybe 10 minutes and then got chased out of the circle by some kind of monkey demon thing (man in a wooden mask). Then they yell at each other in Bahasa for a while and then continue dancing in slow motion. Needless to say, after 45 minutes of repetitive chanting, slow motion dancing and yelling in Bahasa, we snuck out.

The next day was reserved for the Monkey Sanctuary. It is suppose to be along the same lines as the rehabilitation center I visited in Malaysia, but appears to be more of a messed up zoo/tourist trap. Monkeys are wandering around the grounds and into the village (where they are chased out of stores and back into the 'sanctuary'), tourists are teasing them with food and trying to touch them and getting far closer to a unknown wild animal than any intelligent person would recommend (lots of dumb tourists sticking there faces right up next to this 20 pound monkey with half inch sharp claws and teeth the size of a tigers - literally, surprisingly huge sharp teeth). Despite the distance we were keeping, right at the entrance one of the monkeys spotted a lump in Courtney's pocket and came running. He jump up onto her, reached his hand inside her buttoned pocket and pulled out her lip gloss. He then proceeded to untwist the top and lick all the lip gloss of the applicator and then gnawed through the plastic. Meanwhile, his monkey friend has spotted him eating and has decided Court must have more treats. The only signs around the sanctuary say that if attacked drop the food and walk away, but Court doesn't have any food so when this monkey leaps up onto her and starts going through her pockets she doesn't have anything to drop! So I stand around helpless yelling at the monkey and trying to distract him while Court tried not to freak out as the monkey digs his claws through her clothing. Eventually he gives up and jumps down only to go after my bag. I was terrified he'd open it up and take off with my camera or passport so I risked it and hissed at him and stomped my foot at him. At first he looked like he might try to take me on, but then decided against it and walk away. Not a very relaxing morning.

Next we traveled to Klungklung where there is an elephant sanctuary. The sanctuary is really more of a really nice/enormous garden area with elephants romming around and horribly sad looking monkeys in empty cages (decorations I;m guessing...). Aside from the depressed looking monkeys that I attempted to cheer-up with mangosteins and oranges (the staff encouraged this of course) the place is beautiful and the elephant look pretty happy hanging out in big gaggles and munching on plants. We were assigned to Alaura, a two ton, 20 year old female who continuously snacked while she toured us around the property. Much more successful than our morning monkey journey.

1 comment:

  1. Monkeys beware --- not a good idea to piss Julie off :0) lol!

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