Wonderful Ubud - Rice Paddies, Monkies and gorgeous scenery

Ubud is a very special place. It's clearly a tourist destination, but just beyond the event horizon of this tourist singularity lies  a country side that reflects the heart of Bali's agriculture breadbasket: rice paddies; terraces stepping down hillsides like the cascading flow of a champagne fountain. Though Bali is currently in its dry season, water is everywhere - rice requires a flood of water in order to provide the plant the nutrients needed to grow, with the important side effect of killing off weeds that would impede ideal yields.


Outside the controlled chaos of central Ubud lie mazes of countryside lanes and narrow, under maintained roads. Often lined with tall coconut palms, swaying in the light breezes, a journey through the countryside is broken up by small villages of homes, in front of which are an endless display of the last phases of rice production at work - tarpaulin lining the roads upon which countless grains of rice are left in the sun to dry. Children everywhere at play, timeless elders walking slowly, carrying the various tools of their lifelong work: sickles and  threshing baskets. In Bali, there is no retirement; one works until his dying breath.

Rice Paddies

Laborious task of planting rice

Primarily a Hindu culture, these villages often organize ceremonies to celebrate various stages of life - there are 13 different rituals covering life from conception . Weddings, funerals (apparently, June-August are auspicious months to die). The dead are celebrated, then cremated. Offerings to the variety of Hindu gods (the more well known are Visnu and Brahma) are integral part of Balinese Hindu life.  Traffic becomes snarled as the men and women of the town dress in traditional garb, carry ornamental paraphernalia, fly enormous kites (ten feet wide and twenty feet long!), and play traditional music, featuring various sizes of bamboo and bronze xylophones. The music is unique, but to my western ear, it quickly becomes monotonous and repetitive (and quite frankly, annoying).

Faces of Ubud

Unlike the north of Bali, which lies in the rain shadow of the volcanos that cross north-central of the island, and unlike the southern Kuta peninsula, a relatively flat mass of land across which large puffy clouds and the occasional squall rush unimpeded, pushed by the eastern trade winds, Ubud lies in an area between - a place where clouds are more likely to gather and produce the occasional cloudburst, even in the winter dry season.

During our time in Ubud, we experienced periods of torrential rains, which muddied the unpaved roads, filled the gullies supplying water to the rice paddies, and cleared the air of burning rubbish, the common way to do away with trash.

Our hotel, the Bisma Komaneka, a lovely boutique resort nestled behind the city of Ubud, but surrounded by rice paddies and hills lush with jungle vegetation. Our rooms, adjacent on the third floor of the hotel, overlooked the paddies below, and on the rare clear morning we enjoyed during our five night stay, the tops of the volcanos to the north peaked out over the rich, green hills. My favorite time was at night, when the jungle erupted with a symphony of nocturnal wildlife. The sounds of frogs, crickets, cicadas, and god knows what else would rise into the star filled skies, through the closed sliding doors of our rooms, and into my dreams.

Hotel Entrance



Hotel Room

Daily breakfast on our connecting verandas

Typical breakfast spread

View from our room

Next door to the hotel was a small spa, offering outrageously affordable prices for a wide variety of spa services. Our first full day in Ubud, given that the skies where dark with off and on showers all day, we decided to book the four of us for a 3.5 hour spa package that included a facial, a massage, a pedi, mani and some sort of milk hair rinse and head massage. The services ended up lasting almost five hours, and frankly, I was happy to be done at the end. The girls loved it, I just thought it was tedious after the first few hours. However, the price was right. $130US for the four of us for five hours of spa services. Outside of the resorts, the prices for spa services were incredibly inexpensive. Sure, the facilities didn't have the expensive accoutrements of resort spas, but at the end of the day, it's the quality of the service that matters.

Lily and Liam waiting for spa services

Leslie about to receive her hair rinse

The hotel was within walking distance of 'downtown' Ubud, and I took the stroll many times. A couple of trips to the apotek - Indonesian for pharmacy - to buy antibiotics and ear drops for Lily whose ear infection was hitting its worst. A few trips, using a shortcut across narrow, rocky and nearly impassable lanes leading directly to the Monkey Forest - the home to hundreds of the rascally creatures. From there, it's a leisurely stroll up one of two main roads, each a mile in length, lined with all sorts of tourism commerce. Restaurants, hostels, low end spas, traditional Bali souvenir shops, high end stores (which are more than often really just retail fronts for exporting businesses), tour shops offering a wide variety of local excursions, art galleries and several mini-marts.

The ubiquitous scooter

Downtown Ubud



Monkeys will do anything for a banana

Climbing up Liam for a banana

Lots of momma monkeys with their babies

Monkey

Westerners are everywhere. Mostly European and Australian, all sporting the common uniform of a trip to Ubud - shorts, t-shirts and sandals/flip-flops. Good wine is hard to find; rather, it's very expensive due to the high excise taxes levied against alcohol in Muslim dominated Indonesia. Only the locally produced Balinese wines are exempt from the high taxes; however, the contents of these reds and white wines could probably fuel a trip across the island - they are that bad.

On a beautiful sunny day, Leslie, Liam and I (Lily stayed back at the hotel, sick with her ear infection) booked an excursion that took us, by van, to the rim of the Batur volcano, where we saddled up on mountain bikes, and started a 40km, downhill journey through the beautiful countryside of central Bali. Kids along the route waved, yelled 'hello, hello!' as we passed, and one beautiful vista after another rolled by as we made our way back south to the Ubud area.

Mt Batur

On our bike tour



Leslie and I

Liam and Leslie

Ubud is a place never to be forgotten: its natural beauty, its wonderful people, and the spirit of the place is something that will always hold an a special place in my heart.