We arrived in Singapore after a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong and another 3 1/2 hour flight to Singapore. It's a wonderful place, the Singapore airport. We had a five hour layover, which is not so bad there. They have a wonderful spa, where you can take a nice hot shower (well indicated after a long flight) and a foot and upper body massage. Every airport we've been to in Asia has a spa or at least a massage room. They do GREAT foot massages.
The funny thing in the Singapore airport this time was that everything was decked out in Christmas decorations. They even had Bing Crosby on the loudspeakers. This is not what I expected in Singapore. They had a little area with a big Santa, a 15 foot fake Christmas tree and these odd looking white plastic reindeer. Everyone was taking pictures of each other either by the reindeer or on Santa's sleigh. We had a wonderful noodle soup upstairs from the Singapore Air arrival area and also had a latte. But unfortunately, no PSL there (Pumpkin Spice Latte, that is).
Another three hours and we arrived in Bali, at 7 pm. It was a 27 hour flight in all, but Singapore Air makes it not so bad with their attentive service and the choice of about 60 movies. And the Singapore Air stewardesses aren't so bad to look at, either.
We arrived Thanksgiving night, so had a late supper of crispy fried duck and black rice pudding for dessert. Amy had another duck dish, cooked in banana leaves. It was fantastic.
We woke up fairly early on Friday (the sun comes up here around 5:30). Behind our hotel is a nice path through the rice paddies, so we walked for about 45 minutes to the other side of Ubud, up to Tjampuhan. From the paddies you have a great view of Bali's volcanoes, including their most sacred mountain, Ganung Agung. The rice farmers were out early tending their paddies and the ducks were very busy. Ducks are a big part of growing rice, as they are in the paddies eating the snails and fertilizing everything.
Most of Friday was spent just walking around Ubud, through some back roads and just people watching. We also window shopped, of course. By early afternoon, jet lag was starting to set in, so we went to a nice little place that serves a wonderful coffee dish...a cupuccino with almond ice cream. From the second floor of the Padi Parman, you look out onto rice paddies amd watch the ducks march around. All to the sound of gamelan on the stereo.
Since this is a big festival time (Galungan, the most important religious festival in Bali is Nov. 29th), there is all sorts of stuff going on. In the late afternoon, there was a huge gathering downtown, where people from a local temple brought out their Barong (a lion costume with two people in it) and paraded around town with about 200 local people following it.
We had a 7pm dinner date with our friends, Jerry and Ketut. They are a couple who live in Berkeley and have a Balinese art store. They offered to rent us space in their container (on the cargo ship), so we planned on shopping for furniture and large statues. We had a nice Balinese dinner at Cafe Wayan in Ubud.
This morning (Saturday), we met Jerry and Ketut at their house and set off for Sukawati, a market town about 15 miles south of Ubud. This is where they buy a lot of things for their store. It is a HUGE market. There is one giant building that is devoted JUST to wood carvings. The whole place is filled to the brim with wood carvings, some of high quality, some of not so high quality. Amy and I bought some nice wood bas reliefs. The one I got was a cremation scene that was extremely well carved. We then went to see their friend, an old lady named Ibu. She has a fabric shop. Amy and I bought temple clothes that we will where next week when we go to temple with Ketut's family on Galungan day. My outfit consists of two sarongs, an inner and an outer, the inner is multi colored, the outer is ivory color with a nice border. I also got an ivory colored shirt and an udong, which is the head scarf. Amy got a sarong, a sash and a special shirt called a cabaya. We should look very local next week with all our Balinese friends.
After a quick lunch of Balinse specialities over rice ($7 for four people!!), we headed to the stone carving village. This is marvelous, as there are many, many outdoor stores next to each other on one street. Each of these places has THOUSANDS of the most beautiful stone carvings. Jerry was bargaining hard, as he buys some amazing pieces for his store, Ring of Fire, in Berkeley. Amy and I bought some very nice pieces, including a couple of Devis (goddesses), one being a fountain. There was also a broken bas relief that the owner gave us. These will all look great in the Balinese garden we are making at home. After spending about three hours in the stone carving village, Betubalan, we headed up mountain from Ubud to see a guy who sells antique stone carvings. Here we bought another bas relief for our outdoor fence.
It's been very, very hot here in Bali, so tomorrow, Sunday, we are heading up to Pacung, a village in the mountains near lake Bratan, and it will be much cooler. We plan on spending a couple of days up there before heading back to Ubud for Galungan and the big temple festival with Ketut and Jerry.
More when we return from the mountain....
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