9/26 Ubud: Macaques, Balinese Art & Kecak Dancers

As great as the tours were the last few days, it was wonderful being lazy on our first free day in Ubud and not have to rush anywhere.

As our hotel was located on Jalan (i.e. stret) Monkey Forest, we only needed to walk a couple of hundred yards down to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary which is Ubud’s best known tourist attraction. 

Our bungalow in the light of day.

Street scenes on the walk to Monkey Forest Sanctuary:

Even Steven smiled reading these - phew!

Photos from the Monkey Forest Sanctuary:

We figured we'd better read the rules before entering the park so we knew what to expect in case one of the monkeys landed on us.

It sure was a haven for tourists but it was intriguing seeing some of the resident troupe of over 300 reportedly malevolent but very photogenic long-tailed macaques swiftly hunt out any food or drink anyone was carrying or had supposedly hidden in a pocket.

There were lots of sanctuary staff available, generally making sure the animals didn’t misbehave by being aggressive toward the tourists AND also ensuring the tourists followed the park rules by not squealing or running away if a monkey landed on them somewhere. That never happened to us so it’s hard to predict how we each would have reacted but there sure were a fair number of adults, not kids, who came pretty unglued when it happened to them. When that did occur, park staff immediately responded gently but firmly with the tourists. 

Funny seeing a staff member taking bananas from a locked cage meant for the monkeys.

Fascinating seeing how very human-like the monkeys appeared: a female monkey carefully parting the fur bit by bit on another as if looking for bugs;

A female lovingly caressing a male macaque,
 then having ‘wild monkey sex’ with him a moment later;

A baby dipping its face ever so gently into the pond to cool off, to drink water – I don’t know exactly; and monkeys expertly peeling bananas. Wonder how many they eat a day!

I was entranced with the monkeys and could have watched them for a lot longer while Steven had had enough after a few minutes. He patiently waited for me while I took a few more photos and then we walked on.

Five minutes into the forest sanctuary, we came to Pura Dalem Agung Padang Tegal, the cremation temple of the dead for the people of the banjar (neighborhood).

The English name is Holy Spring Temple.

 Saw men ‘mowing’ the grass by the cemetery. 

I bet they’re glad they don’t have a yard your size to do, Mindy!

We could only look at the Temple through the gate.

It was so utterly peaceful in this part of the Sanctuary.

Returning to the main area, we saw numerous cart attendants selling tiny bunches of bananas to tourists who would then hold them, one at a time, above their heads hoping to entice monkeys to land on their necks or heads to then peel and eat the banana – what wonderful photo opps!

We took a short boardwalk trail through the forest where we saw more of the macaques in a seemingly, more natural environment with no staff nearby feeding them.

Photos from our forest walk:

This macaque appeared to be the oldest one we saw. 

On the Dragon Bridge.

Always love trees like these.

Saw a number of the monkeys attempting to get items out of people’s pockets

and remove bracelets and necklaces – what cheeky monkeys!

No monkey got any closer to me than this one did; not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed!

We wandered back to the hotel to grab a bite, relax by the pool, etc before walking up the other end of Monkey Forest Rd toward Ubud Market at 3ish. 

Shopping 101 in Bali:

It is one of the hardest things to gauge when traveling in countries, where bargaining is an inherent part of the culture as it is in Indonesia and will be for the other Asian nations we’re visiting, to know what the ‘going rate’ is for any particular item. In the markets and on the streets, no prices are affixed to an item. So, if you’re interested in an item you ask the price but without touching it, we were advised. Once the initial price is given, then the foreign customer (there’s a 2 tiered pricing system for almost everything: for locals and tourists) responds with a price 30-40% of the asking price. ‘Normally’ in this situation, the seller responds with a much higher price and the haggling goes back and forth once or twice more til both parties are happy.

The basic rule of thumb is a tourist never haggles unless he/she really intends to buy the item as otherwise it’s a complete waste of time for the seller. Likewise, if the price you offer is accepted you ‘must’ buy it.

That system works fine and dandy for most of the transactions but there’s sometimes a  wrinkle that occurs with bargaining. What do you do when the seller asks YOU to name an initial price? Not so easy to be in that situation and that’s exactly where the seller wants you to be, namely to likely offer a price way too high which the seller will immediately accept and you’re obligated to then buy.

What made it different at Ubud Market was that we found some sellers not even responding with a counter offer. You know their offer is ridiculously high BUT not always by how much – that’s the ‘crux' of the problem. Not really a problem of course in any real sense of the word but it does make it tough to shop not knowing what the price should be or is.

Only once the last couple of days while traveling through much of Bali with Wi, we had seen an Indonesian artist painting and we had both been very impressed with his work. Wi kept reassuring us he would take us to markets where we could see other paintings but that never happened because our days with him were busy from morning til nighttime. So looking at small paintings at the market was our priority.

We ended up buying 3 we really liked that represent much of Balinese art to us. The price we settled on was one third the original asking price. We achieved that almost immediately from the heavily inflated initial offer. We have found out it’s better to buy a few items from one seller rather than just one each from several whenever possible as volume pricing counts.

I always get overwhelmed at/with Asian markets as I find it so hard to jump into the fray despite what you think you know of me! It’s much easier to say ‘No, thank you’ than commence the shopping song and dance!

There are 2 famous Balinese dances performed almost nightly in Ubud: the kecak and the  legong. We had known before arriving we wanted to see one of them and chose to buy tickets right outside the market for the 7:30 kecak fire and dance show that night.

We had some time to spare so beetled over (channeling you, Suellen!) to the Museum Pura Lukisan located almost right across the street from the market.We got there about an hour before it closed (at 6, not at 5 luckily as we arrived at 4:45!). It has a decent collection of twentieth C. Balinese paintings and carvings as well as works by European artists who lived in Bali.

Photos from Museum Puri/a Lukisan:

In front of just one of the 4 separate buildings that comprised the Museum.

 

We really enjoyed having a chance to learn a bit about Balinese art while wandering through the museum's extensive collections. An added bonus was that there were only 3 other tourists, and no guards at all in all 4 buildings! We saw one guard locking up each building as we left it as we literally closed down the place.

What stunning gardens and statuary too as we moved from one building to another.

'Rice Harvest' painted in 1962.

Titled 'Balinese Stone Craftsmen Working' from 1957.

Onto another building through such peaceful gardens right
in the middle of very busy Ubud at rush hour. That seemed like a world away.

Onto the third wing of the museum next. Loved the transitions from building to building.

Steven and I both loved this painting of herons.

Titled 'Flora and Fauna'

'Bird Life'

Above and below all done using 'Fabric and Balinese paint.'

After leaving the museum and on the way to get some dinner before the dance, we happened to notice this small sign for the Rice Fields located 50m down the alley so we walked down. Problem was that the narrow alley kept going and going with no rice fields in sight. Finally saw the fields which were beautiful as the sun set.

Photos from walk to and of the Rice Fields:

We figured the actual distance was probably in excess of 500 meters!

A combined walking and biking path we discovered when 2 cyclists passed us.

Burning garbage in any open space is very common.

Dinnertime at last at the packed Tropical Restaurant on Ubud's main street: I had the Indonesian dish and Steven the fish and chips. He's had to be more careful than normal eating in Indonesia because of the widespread use of peanut butter in satay dishes, a product he is very allergic to.

We were so fortunate that our diner came quickly as we had little time by eat and dawdle. We then had to walk a fair piece over to the open air theater and choose seats for the 7:30 Kecak Dance performance.
Photos of Kecak Dance:

There are 2 very different Balinese dance performances people can see when visiting Ubud: the Legong and Kecak. We attended the latter which is one of the most well known but also unusual dances because it does not have the traditional gamelan or traditional orchestra accompaniment. Instead the background is provided by a chanting ‘choir’ of men who provide the ‘chak-a-chak-a-chak” noise that distinguishes the dance.

These doors were opened during the show to allow the many cast members to enter.

Throughout the Kecak dance, the circle of men were all bare chested and wore checked cloth around their waists. They provide a nonstop accompaniment that rises to a crescendo as the dance continues.

Above concluded the dance part of the evening's entertainment. Steven enjoyed the Kecak dance more than I did as I found the nonstop chak-a-chak sound very discordant after the first 30 minutes or so. The costumes were stunning as were the exquisitely feminine hand and foot gestures. If I hadn't felt like an ungraceful dancer before this show, I sure did afterward!

For the last 15 minutes of the show, after a barricade was put up to safeguard those in attendance, a man danced in the fire and firewalked through it several times. An interesting show with lots of oohs and aahs from the audience but I didn't see the correlation between the previous dance and his performance. 

The embers were repeatedly raked into a large pile
 after the firewalker had gone through so he could repeat his show.

Time to get back to our bungalow and get ready for another day touring Bali with Wi from Be Balinese Tours tomorrow.

Posted on 10/5 from Jogja, Java, Indonesia.