Monkey Business

Here’s a piece of news that I am very proud of: Sam and I are 28 days into our trip with only 2 to go and we are still UNDER budget!  Of course, we put off our Balinese souvenir shopping until now so that we didn’t have to lug everything around the country, but still- our budget didn’t include our shopping!  Sam put together a whole spreadsheet while we were in Cambodia that did our conversions for us and totaled our average daily spending and grand total.  So far, so good!

Sam and I survived the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, but others were not so lucky.  We didn’t buy bananas to feed the monkeys for fear they might attempt to climb on us and we were right- several people fell victim to unwanted monkey contact.  It was hilarious, but also a little frightening to see the monkeys out free roaming around.  At one point Sam turned to me to say “There are monkeys everywhere,” and just then a large stick came down from the limbs of the tree above us, shattering on the ground just a few feet from where Sam was standing.  We decided it was better not to spend our time standing underneath the trees and moved to a more open space.

After we’d had our fill of monkey business, Sam and I started walking back up the street to our hotel.  Along the way we did some serious souvenir shopping.  I am most excited about the beautiful 3-4 foot (I’m not exactly sure how big it is) woodcarving we bought at the market this afternoon of flowers, framed by a border and stained dark.  I’m planning on hanging it over our bed when we get moved into our new apartment in July.  It’s very pretty and its more the color Sam wants for wood furniture.  Unfortunately, I was getting a little worn out (read: cranky), so Sam decided we should rest up in the room for a few hours before our big dance performance tonight. 

I bought a new book at one of the Periplus bookstores we passed so Sam and I settled down to enjoy our books, the air-conditioning in our room, and the peace away from the busy streets of Ubud.  Thank goodness the gamelan players had finished for the afternoon before we returned!

After recharging our batteries a bit, Sam and I headed back out on the streets.  He is searching for palm sugar that is drizzled on pisang goreng, desserts, and used as syrup at breakfast.  One of the gentlemen at our hotel suggested he try the market, but we arrived too late, apparently the food vendors are only there in the morning.  We’ll have to go back again.

By the time we’d wandered up and down a new street of shops, it was time to get ready for the Balinese dancing.  We got cleaned up and walked next door to the Ubud Water Palace to see 6 dances: Tari Penyambutan, Kebyar Terompong, Legong Semarandhana, Oleg Tamulilingan, Topeng Tua, and Tari Satya Brasta.  We had seen the first, second, and fourth dances at Munduk and honestly, Sam and I thought the children did it better there than the professionals here.  The third dance is a famous Balinese dance that I have wanted to see because it was mentioned often in the book I bought about the Dutch colonization of Bali.  Overall, Sam and I weren’t very impressed- we’re glad we had the experience, but the passion seemed lacking in many of the musicians who looked outright bored and the standout performer was the guy who danced in the second and fourth dances.  He was clearly very good, and I was disappointed that he didn’t have a larger part in the overall performance. 

After the show we hit Havana for dinner, which is a Cuban inspired restaurant that has great reviews no only in the Lonely Planet book, but also from the NY Times.  It was pretty spectacular, though neither Sam nor I ordered anything Balinese. I had chilies rellanos and he ordered a black bean and chorizo bowl.  They had a live band playing Santana covers (quite well I must say) and we had an after-dinner drink at the bar to sit and listen to them.  Sadly, Ubud has strict noise policies because it is a village that still functions as a home for locals unlike Kuta, which has pretty much become tourist land.  When the band quieted down we had a lovely chat with one of the waiters who was very sweet and then came home to read some more of our books.