Started today with Banana pancakes and fresh fruit salad again. Could get used to this life! Ketut seems to be everywhere.....he magically materializes as soon as we're outside in the morning and at the ready to make our breakfast exactly when we want it. Or every evening at 5 pm somehow our windows are all closed to make sure no mosquitos get into the room as they come out about that time. Or equally as magically there is a new fresh flower arrangement waiting for us on our patio. And somehow the water feature gets turned on as soon as we come out in the morning so we have the sound of running water to add to the birds and quiet village life noises of the morning. Yep.....kinda feeling the love for this very special place and its people.
Last night was great! We met up with Julie as planned and were off with Agud (driver) to the ARMA Museum where the cultural performance was to take place. What a venue! Honestly there is nothing I could say here that would give you a sense of the majesty of that facility. It is a combination art museum, cultural centre, hotel, 2 restaurants, a couple of private residences, a park and amazing gardens. There are three separate gates/entrances going into the property that is MASSIVE. I'm not sure but I'd say it is more than a block square. All of the buildings on site are majestic in size and there are cultural touches everywhere you look. For example one of the bridges we crossed, as we approached the open air auditorium where the performance would take place, had a hanging drum of sorts (I think it was called a kuk kuk) that is typical of the entrance to any traditional village. That "drum" was decorated with a piece of black and white checked fabric wrapped around it like a skirt. The drum would have been used as a method of communication as need arose and there were different tones and rhythms used to communicate different messages and different tones and rhythms used to differentiate between villages. For example there would be one sound if a fire broke out in a particular village to alert everyone within earshot of the kuk kuk. Or if there was a birth there would be another beat, or a death would be communicated by its own unique sound and so on. The other interesting thing about this is that there is a reason for the black and white check cloth too. Black and white are symbolic of the balance that is found in dark and light, day and night, hot and cold, life and death, etc. Balance is a key teaching in the Balinese Hindu faith so those two colours often show up in cultural practices and rituals.
Anyway....back to the performance last night. It was a group of young people (20 somethings) who had come from western New Guinea. The New Guinea tourism office is wanting to grow awareness of what that region has to offer and so they were hosted here in Ubud in support of increasing their international exposure. There were three dances in total and even though that sounds so few...the show was a full hour long. Each dance was a demonstration of physical fitness as much as an artistic statement! The first dance was a social dance that would be typical of what young people in the village might do. In it's earliest origins some elements of it would have come from war dances but when the Portugese and the Dutch arrived those type of dances were forbidden and so the social dance was born. Interestingly....there were definite similarities between this dance and the traditional dances we've seen in Mexico. Possibly the influence of Portugese and Spanish?? I think so. The second dance was the fire dance and this one was very tribal! The dancers were all painted with white designs on their skin and the men had feather headdresses, loin cloths and fire tipped spears. The women wore what looked like a traditional fabric sarong. This colourful dance was accompanied by a lone drummer and was quite dramatic in its presentation. The third dance was with the troupe wearing all their same fire dance costumes and doing their traditional dance steps in a line dance formation to modern music. I absolutely loved this dance! The smiles on the faces of the performers was wider than it had been and the way that they engaged their bodies in the pure joy of the dance was nothing short of beautiful. It was such a treat to be able to see all of them doing the same dance to the same music at the same time but each of them was uniquely themselves in their interpretation of the music and the motion. All in all it was a great show and both Lynda and I felt very lucky to have been able to attend. Julie assures us that if we liked that one we're gonna LOVE the traditional Balinese dance and performances that we will see while we're here. We're looking forward to those as well and I have no doubt that we'll see them all. There is something happening every night here in Ubud. Music and the arts are a huge part of the culture here.
Speaking of which I should add that our driver last night is actually a world famous painter and his works hang in galleries all over the world. In fact the sale of his work has in large part funded that facility we were in last night. I think it speaks volumes that he continues to work as a driver here....there seems to be no ego in the Balinese culture....they are very beautiful people.
After the performance we were all feeling a little hungry and so decided to cross the street to a restaurant called Urbana. It is another equally breathtaking venue. The restaurant has incorporated nature into the facility by eliminating walls and using majestic trees and ponds as the backdrop to their garden section. We sat our there amidst the sounds of tropical birds, water features and an eclectic blend of music. Wow! I felt like I'd "arrived" whatever that means! We had a delicious meal that kind of blew the budget as for the two of us it was the equivalent of $56 CAD. As good as it was ....I have to tell the truth and say that I think I liked our lunch at the warung a little better though and that meal was just $8 for the both of us! The meal at Urbana was delicious but just different from the one at the warung where it was definitely traditional Balinese style of food and less expensive ingredients.
After dinner Julie called to get us a ride back to our place but once again they had anticipated our potential need and already Jati was there waiting for us with the car. Yep....these guys are 1/2 magician and I like it!
Today is going to be a spa day so am going to sign off for now and head off for a little walk down the alley and around the corner to a hotel/restaurant/spa that has a gorgeous pool. There I will plan to spend the day in massage and lounging at poolside with a book. Yep....that is the only thing that is left on my 'to do' list for this day so I'm feeling pretty good about sticking with my plan for self-care on this Balinese adventure. This morning I did my meditation with the sun shining in on me, I've had a healthy breakfast, I'm going for a nice little walk and then I'm gonna get more relaxed that you can imagine under the healing hands of one of these amazing people. Oh ya...and a little dip in the pool in between massage treatments is gonna help with the self-care too. LOL! Life is good...very very good!
Till next time,
L & L
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