Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

Ubud is SUCH an amazing , spiritual place.  I have never experienced anything like it.  It’s not just for the tourists either, it is just engrained in their existence.  Every morning women and children sit on their porches weaving little baskets out of palm fronds so they can put little rice and flower offerings to the gods.  Everywhere you walk there are little baskets with incense and offerings…in fine restaurants, shops, sidewalks and back alley ways.  Its VERY BEAUTIFUL.   There are temples from thousands of years ago mixed in with more modern structures and people have shrines in all of their houses.  The town is divided into art districts like the Painting district, wood carving district, silver, egg painting, batik…you name it.  There are artist colonies in each section where artists live and just create art ALL day long.  There is SO much art being generated on a daily basis that it is just OVERWHELMING really. So much talent, discipline and hard work and we find ourselves haggling down prices for mere dollars less.  I splurged and bought a painting of Pura Tanah Lot the sea temple painted on banana leaves and canvas.  I have NEVER spent hundreds of dollars on art, but it was SO beautiful I could not refuse.  I ALSO have been splurging on massages, food, and TONS of Christmas presents for all of my friends and family.  They DEFINITELY were right when they said “Shop till you drop in UBUD”.  Since we have been here we have gone to lunch over looking the mountains and rice patties, visited Silver, woodworking, Batik and painting communes, done yoga, visited the sacred Monkey Forest, wrestled with a baby komodo dragon and played with the Parrots at the Bali Bird Park, prayed at and visited numerous temples and MY favorite so far was the famous and traditional Kecak Dance.  It happens every night and it is SO beautiful.  It is named for the sound “KE-CHAK” that the men chant the whole time while the women danced.  The Balinesian dancing is SO graceful, complicated and difficult.  They had two young girls like 7 years old (virgin girls) dancing in a trance for 20 minutes, COMPLETELY in unison with their eyes closed the entire time….SO incredible!  Then another man, in a trance as well, danced with his eyes closed barefoot in a fire of coconut shell cinders…..BEAUTIFUL.

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The nearby village had a huge full moon ceremony and our drivers who are locals took us even though us white folk aren’t really allowed to go.  They dressed us in their traditional sarong outfits and let us be blessed by their priests with rice and water…We were in the middle of the jungle at a temple with a few thousand other people and drums and other ceremonial instruments…It was like we were back in time in some tribe…a well dressed tribe.  They made all of these food offerings to the gods on these tall golden fruit covered platters that the women balanced on their heads.  I took some amazing photos.  It was a very special thing to be a part of…We also visited the VERY SAME medicine man, Ketut Liyer, from “Eat Pray Love”….HOW RAD IS THAT? He was VERY spiritual and cool.  He told me I was VERY LUCKY and had strong karma.  Apparently I have been reincarnated 5 times already and that I am spiritually more advanced than most.  He said that I tend to be impatient and that people tend to follow me and that I am an artist.  He also said that I would live to 100 years old have great health in my life and have two children and that the man I am with is ” A VERY VERY GOOD MAN”:)  I agreed. OH….and he said I had a good nose!!  SO between the yoga, my nap, the medicine man, the village full moon ceremony and my sitting down to write…I feel like a TOTAL hippie today. LOL…a Very spiritual day indeed.  I prayed for happiness, health, and laughter in the New Year for everyone!

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We have had our “bodyguards” Ketut and his brother Wayan with us EVERYWHERE, mainly because your drivers don’t JUST drive you everywhere, they wait for you like a loyal servant NIGHT AND DAY and come along with you like bodyguards until you retire at night to your hotel room.  At first it was VERY strange to us.  We would walk outside of the restaurant from dinner hours later and THERE they are waiting for you….or every morning when we leave our hotel, THERE they are waiting for you.  They have now become our great friends and their “bodyguardness” comes in handy when we go out.  The first night we went to a total local bar where we were the only people dancing to this insane jungle techno.  During the night, someone managed to go into my purse and steal ALL of my money.  I noticed it later and told our drivers.  They PERSONALLY frisked and searched EVERYONE at the bar and ACTUALLY FOUND THE THIEF!!!  He had my money stashed in his crotch (gross! We sprayed it with anti-bacterial stuff LOL)  and although he denied it at first, the ATM receipt was even MORE proof of his lie.   It was SUCH a huge deal.  IN their culture dishonesty and stealing is THE WORST thing you can do other than kill someone.  Ketut our driver held my arms down when the shamed man came over to apologize and give me my money back, like I was going to go CRAZY and attack him or something.  LOL. Apparently, I had the right to hit him if I wanted to, but I refused.  It was SUCH a fun night, blemished by the theft, but ended well miraculously!  It taught me to be even MORE careful even around the spiritually, warm people of Ubud.  Also, last night, we had SUCH a fun night.  We had Mexican food, the FIRST time Ketut and Wayan EVER tried it in their lives and then went out dancing next door.  They had a band there covering American music and we were the ONLY people there when we first arrived,so they let us go on stage and sing with them like it was karaoke…SO fun!  Then more and more people started showing up.  NO ONE bothered us the whole night, because our bodyguards stood watch from a back table, guarding our purses after the incident from the other night.  For three girls, it’s actually quite nice to have an entourage.  I could get used to this☺  but after last night, we NEEDED a detox day like today to recenter ourselves.

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We girls have declared it “Pampering Day” (not like this ENTIRE trip hasn’t already been “Pampering Day”) and we are starting the day off with the morning traditional dance ceremony called the Barong Dance, then we  are going to the Mango Tree Spa for a 4 hour package of massage and scrubs in the middle of a jungle up in a tree!!  This is one of the things I have been looking forward to for months!!!, THEN, we are having dinner at the famed restaurant, MOSAIC, which is like a 6 star French Restaurant, rumored to be one of the BEST restaurants in the world.  It’s expensive…for here that is, like $50 per person!!! LOL, again I can get used to the prices here and the $15 massages.  Then we are going to just CHILLLLLL……….  I think it will be a perfect way to end our Ubud experience, but the BEST part is that we still have Munduk (in the mountains) and then Seminyak (by the beach/nightlife) left to enjoy on this trip.  It’s like 5 vacations in one!done

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