“While you were sitting in the backseat smoking that cigarette you thought was gonna be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you and I never told you ‘til just now." -Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

My new favorite thing about this place, is the way the Aussies have influenced the language. People here say, "hay mate," and one local vendor told me in broken English that he'd give me a super sunset deal on some t-shirts, just because I was "so bloody good-looking." Lies and slander.

Ubud is as laid back as Kuta is hectic. The rice fields stretch lazily in every direction from my hotel. A thousand birds call, a million crickets buzz and the awful music has been left behind. In its place, local gamelan music trickles from old, humidity-scarred speakers.




(Bamboo "xylophone" featured in Gamelan, doesn't he look pissed?)

On my way here, I stopped to drink of the various crafts that are still active in Bali. Batik, a form of weaving that involves burning the image onto cloth (silk, cotton, other fragile weaves) and sealing it with heavy wax before rinsing it dry - leaving the fabric with an ancient and burnt smell. Also, silver smithing, a laborious and delicate process that yields ornate jewelry, cutlery and sculpture. Along every road is evidence of the master stone-work and wood carving that persists. Ganesha, Hanuman and Siddartha watch stone-faced as you pass.



(Batik)

Lastly, a co-op painting studio. I bought an amazing small oil painting of folks working a field and would have shook the painter's hand, but he was napping off a headache. He woke long enough to reject my offer and ask for an extra twenty dollars. It's in a plastic tube stuffed into my backpack and why didn't I take a picture first? Damn it. It's great. You'll have to take my word.



(Instead, here's some rice)

I could only find a room for one night in Ubud, so I pressed on. I found a really interesting guy named Komang Widarsana to drive me. Komang identifies him as the third born child (Ho, Ender) so I've met maybe six Komangs so far. He's spent his whole life on Bali and he has a degree in English too, so we've talked a lot about school. It seems that in Indonesia, a degree still means something. Married and with kids, (boys, "bad boys," he calls them) his mother helped him get a car when he was younger and he started his transportation business. Now he is just starting a second job with Prudential as an insurance agent. If you come to Bali, I highly recommend him. These roads are treacherous, and it pays to have a good driver who knows them. He brought me from Kuta to Ubud, then got me the next day (after I'd perused the Enchanted Monkey Forest, holy shit) and took me deeper north. We visited a famous Buddhist temple, ate some lunch and then hit the Bali hot springs, which I have taken to calling the Bali warm springs. Sulfurous and tepid, but still, a true and honest experience.




(Komang!!)




(Buddhist temple)








(This one kept doing "speak no evil" then grinning and clapping)







(Enchanted Monkey Forest)

My back-up plan has been Sanur (basically back to Kuta) but the deeper I get the less I want to go back to Disneyland and Mickey Mouse. The people get warmer, the weather gets cooler and my brain unwinds with each kilometer north. Komang had some insurance business he could take care of and family to stay with in the area of the hot springs, so we hopped homestay to homestay until we found something with a room. I'm in said room right now after dinner at a (ready?) German-Indonesian restaurant. Yes, schnitzel and nasi goreng (fried rice) sitting next to each other. It was the best food I've had here and I broke bread next to a San Francisco ex-pat who married an Indonesian woman and is opening a massage school in Singaraja. He proposed I talk to his neighbor, who runs a foundation and teaches entry level English to local kids. She needs help organizing a grant and for someone to fill a position teaching more advanced English.

On the north end of Bali, the people are incredible. The ocean teems with life, the forest is alive with monkeys and you can rent a decent room and get a killer meal for a few dollars a night. Don't make me lie. I considered it. I'm considering it.

As he left, he said, "call me tomorrow for good places to stay around here, but if I dont hear from you tell San Francisco I said *thbbbbbbbt*," and he made the nana-nana-nana face. I like this guy. He just offered me a job. Wonders for a wandering confidence, but more importantly a solidified resolve to ditch Sanur and spend a few more days hopping homestays in the North.

Auf wiedersein.

Location:Ubud, Bali