Our next stop was a traditional Balinese dance show. Kind of. The show, The Barong and Kris Dance presents "Jambe Budaya", was one of the more interesting cultural experiences we have seen thus far... kind of...
Here is what I can tell you about the show:
- It involves the interplay between good and evil.
- There was a man who had his nose bitten off by a monkey.
- There is a witch who appears at the most inopportune times and possesses people so they do terrible things.
- People change into animals at will.
- In the end no one wins.
The story involves kings and prime ministers, tigers, monkeys, dancers, mythical animals, and lots of people who inevitably die. I wish I could tell you more than that...but honestly that's all I got.
After the show we hopped in the taxi and explored a bunch of artisan markets along the way to our next stop. First we visited a silversmith. We watched a woman painstakingly handmaking pendants for necklaces, which involved placing SUPER tiny silver balls onto a flower. They told us that the silver they work with is actually 95% silver and 5% copper because silver itself is too weak, so they have to strengthen it with copper (but too much copper and it isn't malleable to work with). Next we visted a painter and explored his workshop. Lastly, we visited a wood carving station where a whole family was involved in the woodworking process: the older men carved these BEAUTIFUL, ornate pieces, which the women then sanded. The pieces were then handed off to the younger men who further sanded and polished them until they shined. We have been to tons of places with wood carvings, but I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like these pieces. They had some that were 7 feet tall that had taken a whole YEAR to create (sold for $20,000 US (before negotiations...). Just crazy! Everything was made out of one piece of wood and SO detailed. Gods with lifelike faces, fishing nets with fish inside them - absolutely beautiful (unfortunately no pictures because...we didn't buy anything lol).
Our next stop was a Hindu temple, Penguman. It was the first modern Hindu temple we had been to and quite different than others we had seen. Instead of one main altar, there were a multitude, each dedicated to different Hindu gods.
Additionally, everyone had to dress modestly to enter, so both of us were given clothing to wear over our own. We looked good.
From there we went to the Holy Spring Temple (the Tirta Temple). I have honestly NEVER seen anything like it at all. When natives found a natural spring in the middle of a forest, they decided placing a temple around it was the perfect way to honor the gods. The temple was built in such a way that the water flows from the natural spring through a system of water ways through ornamental concrete pipes into an established pool where bathers can pray.
As soon as we got there I knew I needed to enter the pool to partake in the process. I borrowed clothes from the temple (for a small fee) and proceeded to get on line to enter the water. For the next 20 minutes, I submerged myself in the water pouring from the fountains along with those who were praying in the water.
The spring from which the water flows
It was quite an interesting (and cold!) experience and DEFINITELY not what I thought I would be doing today! Such a cool experience!
After the temple we got back in the taxi and headed to a beautiful Indonesian restaurant for lunch. Each table was situated under its own little pagoda in the middle of a field. We were given a bell to ring when we were ready to order and also for when we needed anything. It was such a nice relaxing location for lunch, feeling simultaneously like a restaurant and also like sitting on your own back patio eating delicious food :).
From lunch we got back on the road to head to our next location, a rice paddy to see what rice looks like growing along the side of a mountain.
Next we headed to the Mandala Suci Wenara Wana, aka the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. The sanctuary is located right outside of Ubud, Bali, and is FILLED with wild Balinese Long-Tailed Monkeys! So fun!
There are about 600 monkeys which roam freely around the grounds of the three 14th century temples (Pura Dalem Agung, Pura Beji, and Pura Prajapati). They are EVERYWHERE. We saw them happily accepting bananas from tourists, but also climbing on tourists and hoping to get some other goodies from them as well (we even saw one stealing a water bottle from one of the guards!) It was quite fun to spend an hour with them and watch them play. There was even one mama who kept nursing her baby - they were so cute!
From there we headed into the center of Ubud (FINALLY where I wanted to go for the day...) to go to the market. After allllllll that, we basically ended up at the same kind of market that is right outside of our hotel. Not quite where I wanted to go, but it was where we went in Ubud. I'm pretty sure Ubud is one of those places you really need to spend time in and around, instead of just spending an hour there (it's pretty well known for its hikes). Oh well, we got to see the town and drive around a little bit after the market before heading back to the hotel.
While driving back to the hotel, we started to see the sun setting and it was pretty beautiful...MUCH better than any other sunset (or sunrise!) that we had seen up til that point...and MAN was I excited to see it from our rooftop! As soon as we got back to the hotel we paid for our tour and RACED to the top of our hotel so we could watch the sunset.
Anndddddd then it was kind of another dud. Not TERRIBLE, but not great.
After the sunset, we went back to our room, showered, and then went out to dinner for more delicious Indonesian food :).
Jess' and Jon's highlight of the day: the monkey temple
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