Bali - Ubud and Kuta

We finally landed in Bali after a grueling day of flights from Cairns to Sydney and then on to Denpasar. Our first few nights were in Kuta, a town infamous for the bombings a few years ago. We saw everything there is to see in Kuta, from the amazing surfers on Kuta Beach to the endless shops to the many restaurants where you can have a feast for a few dollars. After a day of sightseeing and constantly being asked if we needed a Taksi or Transport every 2 seconds, we were ready to head to the quieter and more cultured part of the island in Ubud.

As soon as we got to Ubud, we hunted down a place to stay for the night (only $20!). Despite the massive size of the room, the pool and breakfast brought to our patio, you still get what you pay for. In this case, it was a mildew smell. So, we upgraded to the hotel across the street where we had an equally massive room, a bridge leading up to our patio and free breakfasts with great coffee and coconut banana crepes for a crazy $55 per night.

We spent just over a week in Ubud and spent millions....of Indonesian Rupiah ($1USD = 9100 Rupiah). Most of our days were pretty lazy with strolls up to the market to bargain for pictures and artwork, lingering over good and cheap meals and going to happy hour at Waroeng for Bintang beers and 2-for-1 Arak Madu and Arak Mojo drinks.

Some Ubud highlights:

The people: The people in Ubud were insanely pleasant and helpful. Our first experience happened one night when we went to the nearest ATM. When Kelly put her card in the slot, nothing happened. There wasn't even a prompt to enter the PIN; it just ate the card. Shit. We walked over to the hotel to see if they could help out. The bank was closed, but they assured us that this happens all of the time and we would get our card back the next day. We were a little bit leery of them being so casual about this, but they promised everything would be fine and to make sure we got a good night's sleep. The next morning, the same people called the bank for us and told us our card would be available around 2pm....and it was! They even drove us up to the main road so we didn't have to haul ass through the sweltering heat.

Monkey Forest - Just a quick walk from our hotel, there was a monkey forest. Specifically, the forest was filled with Balinese Long Tailed Macaques. You only had to walk about 10 feet into the forest to encounter loads of monkeys. Many of them were carrying their babies around while trying to get bananas from the human visitors. We bought some bananas about midway through the trails and they immediately began jumping on Billy to get them:
The Dances: We spent two nights at local dances. The first was a Legong and Barong Dance that lasted about 90 minutes. The costumes were so beautiful and the music was equally impressive. Here is a Barong:
The other dance was a Kecak dance. It was an hour long and definitely one of the weirdest things we have seen. There is no music, just chanting from about 50 men sitting in a circular pattern around the dancers in the middle that were dressed similarly to the Legong dancers from the other night. The chanting and dancing went on for about 45 minutes and then stopped. Someone then came into the middle of the room and dumped a huge bag of dried coconut shells onto the floor, poured lighter fluid all over them and then lit it until it started a massive fire only about 20 feet from us. They let it die down a bit until a man came out and started KICKING and WALKING on the fire. The flaming coconut shells spread out all over the place and landed right next to our feet. One man even had a piece land on his lap. Thankfully, he didn't catch on fire. The next day, one of the hotel workers recognized us from the night before (he was one of the men chanting) and said that the man who stomps and kicks the fire cannot feel anything because he's in a trance.

The Tours and Tour Guides: Please see separate post above

Despite all of the highlights above, we did have a few things that left a sour taste in our mouth. First were the constant calls and honking of horns for transportation. We realize they are just trying to make a living, but don't they realize that we can walk the 20 feet from our hotel to the restaurant? Second were the numerous people that claimed to be selling their original artwork, even though it was mass manufactured art that almost everyone in Bali was selling. Kelly even fell for this one time when she bought some "original art", only to see the same exact paintings down the road in at least 5 shops. She didn't get too upset by this, though, because 1) it only cost $8 and 2) it's not any worse than going to Cost Plus to buy a painting in the US. Lastly, we were a bit turned off by some tour companies that copied other tour companies' literature and ideas. We both believe that a little competition is good for everyone, but there's really no reason to copy some one's literature verbatim.

Overall, Bali turned out to be an incredible experience for us. We owe our friend Dan a ton of thanks for convincing us to stop here. The Balinese people are so kind, friendly and really eager to make you happy during your stay because their economy really depends on tourism. Kuta seemed hit hardest because of the bombings there, so if you ever head to Bali, please consider staying there at least one night there to help boost their local economy.