Ubud

Ogoh-Ogoh - a huge effigy of evil spirits. Hundreds of these are being made around Bali and will be paraded through the streets and then burned on the day preceding Nyepi (Balinese New Year).

Bali was a great place; I wish I'd had more time to explore! I was in Ubud, which is a really nice city known for it's yoga. When I got to town, I went for lunch at a great spot overlooking rice paddies, and had my first avocado juice. I assure you, it was the first of many. I've probably had one or two a day since then - they're SO good!! Sometimes mixed with a swirl of chocolate sauce... who knew?? (Indonesians, apparently.)

After lunch I went down to Monkey Forest, which is a large conserved area of forest where the macaque monkeys are free to roam around as they please. It was great! I rounded the corner after buying my ticket and there were three monkeys hanging out on the walking path. When I walked a bit farther, I saw that those three were just the intro - there are hundreds of monkeys!! I stopped to take a few photos and met a couple of American women who were in town for a week. We took pictures of each other with the monkeys, and a minute later, one of the monkeys grabbed onto my skirt and climbed right up! It climbed around my side, up my back and sat on my neck for a minute. One of the women tried to grab my camera to capture the moment, but I'd left it on "record," so there's just an awkward, accidental video. Whoops. Anyway, about this time, the monkey (perhaps realizing that I had no food to give him?) reached around to my other side and chomped down - HARD - on my arm! Luckily, he didn't draw blood, but it left quite a tender bruise. The women I'd met gave me some antiseptic and I moved on.

The area was really pretty, and - when they weren't biting - the monkeys were super cute! There were several babies - some hanging onto their mothers as they were transported around the forest, some nursing, some trying to run off on their own to play... they were a riot to watch! As I was getting ready to leave, one of the monkey experts convinced me to buy a few bananas to feed some of the little guys... and the monkeys attacked!! (Okay, not really, but it sure felt like it!) I was suddenly surrounded by about six or seven of them, and they all came up and tried to climb on me like the first one. After my previous encounter, I ended up just tossing bananas away from me so that they'd stop climbing. One of them scratched me on his way down (not on purpose) and this time, drew blood. Thankfully, I don't seem to have rabies or ebola, so I think I'm okay. :)

Those are some serious teeth!

But really, how cute is he?!

Later that day, I was walking down the street when a man holding a chicken started talking to me. He told me about a Hindu ceremony that was taking place that night for the God of Knowledge (a four day ceremony, and the "God" is more of a "Goddess"). He put down his chicken to draw me a map and sell me a sarong (you aren't allowed into the temples unless you're wearing a sarong - this goes for men as well as women) and wished me a good night. As I was heading off to find the temple, I ran into my friends from monkeyland, told them of my plans, and they joined me for the rest of the evening. When we got to the first temple - at a holy spring - we saw women kneeling on the ground, praying. They had carried offerings (woven baskets full of food, some up to 2 meters high!) to the temple on their heads, and then sat down to pray. After the prayer, and after the offering had been blessed by the priest with holy water, the women would collect their baskets, place them back on their heads, and head back home for a family feast. The men and children came as well to pray, but as far as I could tell, they did not bring offerings. People came and went at different times, and once a good number of people had gone home, eaten and come back, the evening ceremony began. There was a group of women playing instruments somewhat similar to xylophones for quite some time, then they left and men came out. Some played the same instruments, but there were also a few drummers and someone playing a stringed instrument. After they had played for a half hour or so, the dancers came out. The music continued as women in elaborate costumes and makeup performed amazingly choreographed traditional dances. Everything was so detailed - from the costumes all the way down to the angle at which the toes were pointed and where the eyes were looking. It was fantastic to be able to see such an elaborate ceremony.

Entrance to the Elephant Cave, which has both a Hindu and a Buddhist temple.

The one near the center of the table was my offering. These are made and replaced daily, on cars, outside homes and workplaces... Anywhere people would like to have good fortune.

The next day I went on a tour (really I just wanted the transportation to a nearby city, but the price was about the same, so why not get to see some stuff along the way?) of a few temples. We stopped at a coffee plantation toward the end of the day, and I got to help roast some of the coffee beans.

Coffee beans

I also saw the luwak "cat," which is the animal that eats only the best coffee beans, then poops them out. Apparently between the luwak's discerning taste and the digestion process, the (still whole) beans that come out are the world's best. The coffee made from these beans sells for about $700/kilo! I was given free tastes of pure Balinese coffee, ginseng coffee, cocoa, and ginger tea, but I had to pay for the luwak coffee. It was GOOD! A little weird to think about where it came from, but whatever, it was tasty.

Luwak coffee beans, post-defecation, pre-cleaning-and-cracking.

Because of a misunderstanding and poor planning on my part, I ended up going back to Ubud that night. It worked out well, though, as I was able to attend a Balinese performance (complete with fire-walking), and convinced my neighbor in the guesthouse to go with me to hike Mount Batur with me the next morning. It was fun to have company, and it cut the cost of my trip in half. It's pricey to do stuff solo sometimes. I also realized - after he and I ended up hanging out over the next few days - that two to three days is apparently my limit with most people. After that, I need a break!! That said, it's perhaps a good thing that I came on my trip alone. :)