Bean

June 6th, 2010

Ubud - Day 3

Today is my last full day in Ubud, and Bali for that matter. Girai picked me up at 9AM, as planned on her scooter. I was a little apprehensive at first about jumping on the back of the small bike, but figured what was the worst that could happen? We toured through the rice paddies for what seemed like hours. There was some amazing scenery. Sometimes it felt like the terraces went on forever. I took some cool shots of some pretty extensive ones, eventually I'll get around to posting them.

We also visited a place called the Elephant Cave, but I felt no need to go inside, as it looked small and cramped. Outside, the rock face was carved into some pretty cool designs. It was a pretty crowded area, so I didn't stick around long. I wandered into the nearby forest and found some Banyan Trees, which have the coolest root structure. I took a few artsy pictures and wandered along the path for a while, but didn't find anything too interesting.

After vacating the crowds, I headed to the Ubud Market, to more crowds. It was so busy, wall to wall stands and people. Lots of tourists, lots of souvenirs. It always seems like there are lots of souvenirs for women and not so many for men. I spent a few hours wandering the stalls and picking out Sarongs for people, but the heat was killing me. I took off with my goodies and headed for the pool.

Finally, I ventured into the Sacred Monkey Forest. It was the best part of my entire trip. That might be an exaggeration, but honestly, there were monkeys. Lots of them. How could anything compare? I was taking pictures on a young one and I felt a tug on my backpack. Next thing I saw was a little paw through the view finder of my camera. They seemed fascinated by the lens. They could see it moving as I was focusing and zooming in, which worked in my favour, because I got a lot of shots of them looking right at the camera. I probably spent 3 hours solid in the forest and it's really not that big. They have guides there that spread food in the main area to bring the monkeys out in hoards. They climbed all over anyone who brought food into the forest, which freaked out most people. I just thought it was funny. As I was leaving, one climbed up my shoulders, so I had to wait until he decided that I really didn't have any food.

Tonight I went to the Kecak dance. It's a dance, with songs sung by a choir of all men that sit in a circle around a large fire. It tells a story of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The story is a little hard to follow, but thankfully they handed out brochures that explained it all. The chanting was mesmerizing. The guy sitting beside me was entirely too into it. I kind of thought he was going to get up and join in. The Kecak was only about 90 minutes, so I walked back to the hotel. I grabbed a drink at the bar, enjoyed the company of a Swedish guy I met the day before at the pool and headed to bed. I leave for Hong Kong tomorrow, back to reality, back to the grind.

This trip has been amazing. I can't wait to come back, hopefully next year!