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| Bali view from our plane |
Smart thinking on J's part, asking our tour guide from Bali Surf Advisor to pick us up directly from the airport and diving straight into our tour for the day. Saved us some money we would've spent for a taxi! Our tour guide, Made (pronounced "Mah-dey"), and driver Wayan, picked us up and off we went to start our Ubud Village Tour.
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| Bali: Land of Dinky! (APV) |
Ubud is a town in Bali that is considered one of the main arts and culture centers. Our tour started off by visiting batik makers (I usually like buying a scarf/shawl as a souvenir, but in this case, J & I though USD 25 was a bit steep (kuripot alert)! Solution: have them batik-ify (?) the shirt I was already wearing mwahaha!), a silver factory and showroom (where J bought me my first opals!), and local painters.
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| Artsy fartsy |
It was lovely seeing the locals produce such beautiful things that showcased their identity and culture as a people and at the same time, brought pride and recognition to their town. J & I, throughout the tour, would exclaim how we could totally do the same thing! How great would it be if our unique Filipino traditions also attract tourists from all over? Very world-class!
One of our must-do items on our travel itinerary was to eat Babi Guling at Ibu Oka in Ubud. From my research, Bali seems to be known for two dishes: babi guling, or suckling pig, and crispy duck. Since we didn't have breakfast on the plane and chose to sleep, we were getting kind of hungry and asked Made if we could stop by somewhere to eat. J mentioned our desire to try babi guling so they took us to Ibu Oka (this was not the branch in front of Ubud Palace though where Anthony Bourdain ate - I'm hoping the taste is the same). Babi guling is basically pig stuffed with a lot of herbs and vegetables like turmeric, lemongrass, kaffir, chilis, cassava leaves, among others. They even threw in what looked like chicharon bulaklak and a small piece of black sausage that I think was something offal-y (I ate it all, by the way). It was spicy and savoury, but coming from the Philippines where we have lechon, it didn't feel very new to me.
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| Merienda...don't judge! :-D |
Our next agenda was a visit to the Monkey Forest, where our tour guide said there are three different monkey clans (gangs, more like!) who get into fights whenever trespassing occurs. I wouldn't want to be there when that happens! As it were, there were no gang wars while we were there, but it was common to hear a sudden shriek from a female tourist, followed by frantic walking/running to get away from an overly friendly/curious monkey. There was also some pilfering of water bottles (they even drink from it immediately, as if to say "haha LOSER") and one monkey jumped on an unlucky tourist's backpack to swipe his sunscreen (when he decided he didn't like the taste of it, he proceeded to unscrew the cap and merrily splatter the contents on the pavement. Tsk tsk). Setting my past experience with monkeys aside - I'm looking at you, monkeys from Phuket's Monkey Island!, I didn't think there was anything spectacular about the Monkey Forest in Ubud, although I did think the inner temple was pretty. Maybe if you're REALLY into monkeys.
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| Warning sign in front, look at that monkey fly (mini heart attack), passing by a group of monkeys, inner area |
Next up was the Ubud Palace. When we arrived, there was a flurry of activity, according to Made, because of preparations being done for the death of the king's relative. Locals were there, gathering bamboo, cutting out colorful paper, and performing all sorts of carpentry to ready what looked like a wooden stairway to heaven (of sorts hehe!). Made said the dead relative, I assume in some sort of coffin, will be raised up and burned! Imagine that!
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| Ubud Palace |
All throughout our drive that day, and finally in Ubud Palace, I noticed that a lot of statues were wrapped in black and white checkered cloths. Apparently, the black and white represents the balance between or co-existence of good and evil.
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Will fit right in!
Source: Google Images
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The final stop on our day tour was the Tegalalang Rice Terrace. I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't been to any of our local rice terraces, but somehow, I feel that what we have is more beautiful and breathtaking than the one we saw in Ubud (it's more fun in the Philippines!). J, being the mountain goat that he is, went on to explore Tegalalang, even trekking all the way behind the facade facing the restaurant/tourist standing point (nothing to see there as that part wasn't as well maintained). I stayed behind and chatted with a local woman selling batik bedsheets and little knick-knacks carved out of cow bone.
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| Colors + green |
An interesting tidbit we learned during our first day in Bali concerns the naming convention they practise. They receive a name based on birth order. Firstborns are named Wayan, second Made, third is Nyoman, and fourth is Ketut. If you happen to be fifth, you go back to being called Wayan and the process continues! Also, there is no distinction between male and female - there could be a girl Wayan and a boy Wayan! Sometimes, they add I Wayan to refer to a male and Ni Wayan for a female. Shout-outs to my brother Wayan and sister Nyoman haha!
Separate post to follow on our hotel! ^_^
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