Days 55-61: Ubud, Bali

Ubud is the artistic center of Bali, and the skill of the artisans here is incredible. There are several towns that make up what is usually referred to as Ubud, and each town has an area of specialty, with families there practicing a craft for the last couple hundred years. Mas is devoted to woodcarving, Ubud to painting, Batubulan to stone working, Celuk to gold and silver smithing, plus assorted weavers, kite makers, and others thrown in for good measure. These artists are both skilled in the traditional artistic styles of Bali, as well as having learned from others from around the world that have traveled here. We met a very nice man by the name of Wayan Darma who turned out to be a very talented woodcarver and part of a collective of around 130 woodcarvers with a large compound just south of Ubud. He was a master level woodcarver, creating some truly amazing pieces (even by the standards of Ubud), but ended up making most of his money working as a taxi driver. We hired him as a guide since his English was good and he was very straightforward and never tried to pressure or fool us. He was a university graduate and had very in depth knowledge of all the arts, proving to be a great teacher as well.

We visited both his woodcarvers collective and a painters collective, both of which were amazing. They each had about 10 large rooms full of works, ranging from student pieces up to works of the masters. We learned a lot about the styles of Balinese art and the traditions and got to see works by some of the same artists that appeared in the Neka Art Museum, which we enjoyed greatly. It was incredible seeing the range in quality and complexity between the student and master pieces. We ended up buying some woodcarvings from him, and an amazing painting at the art gallery.

We’ve seen several Balinese dances, including the Kecak Dance (Monkey dance, with a hundred or more men doing an a cappella chant in a circle, with the dancers in the middle), the Legong Dance (with female dancers and a traditional gamelan orchestra), and the Barong Dance (Lion dance, featuring a two person lion much like those used during Chinese New Year). They’ve been amazing, featuring both very talented musicians and dancers. And being in the front row, ten feet from the dancers is pretty incredible too.

Ubud is much quieter and less hectic than Kuta, which was a welcome respite. The locals claim this is because there are fewer people from Java there, but I also got the suspicion that they blame everything bad on the people from Java.

One of my favorite things to do while walking or driving around Ubud was to watch what was being carried on the mopeds that crammed the streets. There are probably 3 or 4 mopeds for every car, and very few of them seem to be single occupant. My favorite sights include

• Two adults, three kids
• Three teenagers
• One person, one surfboard
• Two people, two surfboards
• 20 geese
• One large (8’x4’) painting
• Two fifty pound bags of concrete (sitting on them)
• Two large bushels of greenery

For Valentine’s Day we went to Mozaic, a French-Asian fusion place whose food would fit amongst the best restaurants in NYC, but whose prices are more at home in Bali. Even amongst all the great food we’ve had on the trip, this was a true standout!