time out in Bali

Bali is not somewhere I’ve ever felt a need to visit, but it seemed a suitable place to spend a few spare weeks between more important trips.  Ubud - described somewhere as a more 'spiritual' place than the coastal resorts - sounded like somewhere I could rest, and gather my thoughts, without spending too much money.

& so it proved to be, in some respects at least.  £4.50 (US$5.75) a night for a comfy bed in a hostel dorm, including breakfast and unlimited water/tea/coffee.  But the karaoke bar next door didn’t help me to rest, and the conversations with other travellers – whilst welcome (and one of the great benefits of staying in hostels) – did not leave me as much time as I expected to gather my thoughts! Nor did the two books in the hostel collection which I read from cover to cover.  But it was a good break.

I’m not too sure what I think of Bali.  On the surface it is over-commercialised and far too full of motorbikes.  You can’t walk more than a few steps along the streets of Ubud (avoiding the motorbikes parked all across the pavements…) without hearing “Hello, taxi?”, “Hello, massage?” or “Hello, moto?”.  But it didn’t take me too long to discover a few quieter backstreets, and at least the locals were pleasant, even if it was only in the hope of making a sale.  & perhaps if I’d been more generous with myself and gone into one of the cafes for one of those organic, vegan, ethically-sourced drinks with added chia seeds, I would have enjoyed it (I’m sure I would have).  Perhaps if I’d taken a cooking class, a yoga class, an art class … (no, forget that one – really not my thing!)  But I enjoyed my time there, anyway.

I had a couple of long days out – to Teggalalang Rice Terraces where I managed to avoid the Instagram selfie-taking hordes posing on the swings, and found some peaceful (and beautiful) corners, and to the Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets followed by the Sumampan Waterfall.  Both quite far (the first a 23.5km round trip, the second only slightly shorter at 21km.)  So I kept myself healthy, with those walks plus all the mango, papaya, watermelon and banana I consumed.

I also visited the Sacred Monkey Forest on the edge of the town, full of tourists but also full of Balinese long-tailed macaque monkeys, mostly sitting around grooming each other, whilst watching the tourists out of the corner of their eyes in case anyone got any food or drink out of their bags.  There was also a cage, for those monkeys who had disabilities or injuries that meant they could not survive in the wild; this was in a remote corner where no other tourists seem to go, and I spent fifteen minutes or so talking gently to a nearly blind monkey (his eyes damaged by snake venom) as he gently held one of my fingers with a hand he’d extended out of his cage.  I believe you're not supposed to touch the monkeys, but this was a really wonderful experience.

I saw a few birds, two of which really stood out – the Javan Kingfisher, and the Chestnut-breasted Malkoha, an unreal looking large blueish bird with an  enormous pale turquoise upper mandible.  I also saw a nice black-and-yellow monitor lizard sunbathing on a rock near the waterfall, the back half of a snake slithering into the grass, plantain squirrels, and a couple of rather cool Golden Orb Weaver spiders the size of my hand.

& on my last evening I decided I ought to see one of the temple performances always advertised around the town.  So I saw Kecak (pronounced Kechak] Ramayana, the Death of Kumbakarna.  I quote, “Kecak is a secular art form which embodies the spiritual and aesthetic elements of ancient and modern Balinese cultural traditions.  Kecah integrates vocal music, dance and drama, but the ultimate artistic beauty of Kecak lies in its intricate vocal chanting.  The complex and multi-layered sound of “cak cak cak” chanted by the chorus in various rhythmic patterns is at once the essence and soul of Kecak”.  Those chanting represent monkeys, this being the sound they make to eachother.  The very impressive performance of this was followed by a Sanghyang Trance Dance, where a dancer kicks hot embers of a fire around the stage area.