Bali (Day Two)

I was crazy enough to set my alarm clock at 5:30am, just so I could catch the sunrise, and perhaps take a few pictures of our accomodations. Unfortunately, when I woke up, the skies were still dark and I could see nothing as I laid in bed pondering if I should get out of bed. I kept pressing the snooze button on my Nokia phone, and peered out the windows to see if there were signs of light. Five minutes, followed by another, and another, and finally I reset my alarm clock to an hour later. In the end, I did crawled out of bed when there was some light, but the sunrise was not to be. It was drizzling lightly and hazy outside, and there goes all hope of an orange sky lighting up the green padi fields behind us.

It was breakfast in the room, which sadly was below expectations. But like my wife said, it felt good that we could sit down together for breakfast, without turning on the television and without the Internet which has silently taken over our lives. No TV in Ubud for the next few days, OMG!

Green Field Bungalows is situated in Ubud, a nice little place with just a few bungalows, a salt-water pool and a view that overlooks a stretch of padi fields. We had to shift to another room this morning because the (cheaper) room we wanted was not available on the first night. So I went around and took some photos of the room, as you can see from the photo where we messed up the bed… okay too much info

It just happened that the king of Ubud passed away in March 2008, and his cremation was being prepared these fews days. Hence, the streets leading to Ubud center were crowded with people and huge structures were being built by the locals for his cremation. The good thing was that the cremation was an interesting event for tourists like us, but the bad thing was that the traffic jam it caused was a real problem in the single-lane one-way streets of Ubud.

It was raining sporadically, with sudden downpours that once forced us to seek shelter in a small ATM booth. I hoped no one thought we were robbing the ATM, but I could not see any CCTV in the booth. As we walked along the streets, mostly doing window shopping, every few steps people kept asking us if we wanted taxi. I almost wanted to hang a sign around my neck that says, “No I don’t want a taxi!”. The local women were fascinating though. They could balance anything on their heads, from plates of food, baskets of fruits, to small tables with what-have-you on top of the table!

For lunch, we seeked out the famous Ibu Orka whose roasted pork is very much sought after by locals and tourists alike. Took us a while to finally locate the restaurant, but it was worth the trip. I cannot tell you exactly what is inside this sumptous meal, but we ordered the pisah which had a mixture of stuff in it. On hindsight, I will recommend just taking the normal pig skin and pork meat with nasi putih, because those are the best. Oh, and don’t eat all the mangosteens just because it is on the table, because you are charged for each one you take and they cost quite a fair bit for a fruit we can easily get in Geylang.

In the afternoon, we walked around some more in Ubud market, not buying anything much, then seeked out massage and spas to ease our aching muscles from all the walking. We tried a cheap one situated in a corner of a small street… hmm… a little strange with sparse facilities. Certains parts of the massage tickled me and I almost died from trying not to laugh, but it was an alright massage I guess. My wife then did her pedicure at the same shop, while I went out to search for photo subjects. I think the lady who did her pedicure was quite tickled too that I refused to have my feet done.

Dinner was at a fascinating little place called Naughty Nuri’s Warung, where the tasty BBQ pork ribs were the specialties. This place is definitely popular amongst tourists, as most of the tables where taken by foreigners. A dash of margarita with finger-licking pork ribs… yum yum! I think my wife did not noticed, but the house lizards were huge over there, and once, a huge rat scampered across the beam overhead. It is ok… food has been digested without any complications…

While waiting for our driver from the bungalows to fetch us, we caught sight of a lamp just outside Nuri’s. I took a picture of it just for my buddy Wilfrid, whose fascinaton with house lizards caused him to write a full blog about the subject. So here it is… cute… just stay in that lamp scaly thing.