Be a Tourist in Ubud

Wednesday, July 4

It was raining hard when I got up. Hm.. I planned to leave the day empty, just stay home and finish my homework. The group would be busy with massage since morning. Mariko sent me text message later, she had an idea for us to do something before noon. Fine.

I went to their hotel 10:30. It felt like home in the hotel. Been three years in and out, I know everyone including the humble owner who look after laundry every day. I sat with the group in breakfast porch enjoying was my room from afar. Time flies. Change.

I brought them to Pallava and introduced the area. We visited my batik painter neighbor opposite Pallava. We enjoyed seeing the batik making in the back of the shop. I bought two nice two-tone sarongs, it looks modern for throw or to wear. We walked to Indus restaurant to get the feeling of the area more. They really enjoyed walking. Mariko only had a limited time before picking up Seth in airport so we had a very quick bite.

After long discussion of what to do in the afternoon, the girls decided to just walk downtown and left the only man with his book in hotel. Shi and Jun kept saying that they don’t need to do shopping but they didn’t have option because museum was not one. But hm… they stopped by almost any shop selling unique things. We went to many silver shops but finally Shi spent a lot in a shop owned by Dutch silver designer, my favorite. He uses rubber in his design, very modern and unique. I had to tell myself again and again that I don’t need more jewelry but failed to stop myself from buying a Balinese sarong pants and skirt. Hm.

It’s already late when we got back in hotel after again a quick bite and coffee. The Jegog Dance we meant to watch started at 19:00. I only had 45 minutes to check email and shower. We got in Pura Dalem just in time. Jegog is special because the uses of big bamboo as gamelan. The group consists of about 12 big bamboo gamelan plus a small group with metal gamelan and kendang (drum) for the melody. The sound is magnificent, loud and deep. I liked the way they perform. Balinese are so good with rhythm, hands and body. They moved soo fast like dancing. We enjoyed it so much, the music is so beautiful. And when the dancers came out, for the first time, I felt like wanting to learn how to dance although I know I don’t have good sense of rhythm. I prefer to learn the male part then :-)

We continued the program with three-hour dinner at Lamak. I always take new people in Ubud to Lamak in the first evening. It’s an arty, modern, with Balinese touch restaurant although the menu is very Western. This time we had a great time discussing language! It’s been topic of the day. We discussed a lot since noon about English as second language. They considered me as a linguist and Mariko as a linguist-to-be, she is. It’s interesting because they also speak Japanese and Russian.

I had no energy left. I went straight to bed but only to find myself hard to fall asleep. It was really cold till morning.

Photo of us in Pallava.