(this was written July 24th... but I'm just now getting around to posting it :0/... let's just say... there's room for improvement in the internet category here in bali...)
well....here I am in Ubud. Sitting at “Juice Ja Cafe” near my cheapy hotel Sania. I have had the most incredible day! I’m so glad I decided to come here!
I arrived around 1pm and checked into my room (yes, I came alone, its a long story...but I HAD to get away from Sanur and I felt my bahasa was sufficient enough to get me through a weekend alone). Its a modest...well...skimpy place really. A queen bed and a twin... both with oddly damp sheets and small closet. However it features a small patio and pond to myself, with a bathroom with a shower and flushing toilet. No hot water however, but I don’t plan to shower there. Maybe I can steal a shower at one of the spas tomorrow. It’s nestled right behind the main the shopping center here in Ubud and my rooms goes for $15 a night. I will crash there and hopefully rise early to get meditation or yoga classes. After checking in I walked to Monkey Forest Road. I found a hip lounge called Buddha Bar I spotted on the drive in with Kadek (one of the hired Balinese drivers for my program...). By the way, Kadek was awesome! He drove me in on a moment’s notice, let me use his map book to understand the route here and called three or four hotels for me to see if there were vacancies. We stopped and viewed two and chose this one...regretting it now. Its on a more secluded street than I thought it would be on. But I’ll manage. Gotta face my fears sometime.
So anyway, I called the place that lonely planet said gave cooking classes, but their classes were full until Wednesday! So I decided to stroll and see what was what here in town. I saw “cooking classes” offered a restaurant called ____ and stopped in to inquire. The staff was very friendly and there were impressed with my broken bahasa. I beleived it helped. They found me a spot in the 4 o'clock class with 2 other people. It was only $35 too. So I had an hour, so I jumped on the wifi at Buddha Bar and chatted with Scott. We laughed and caught up a bit then I returned to get my chef on! I met the nicest tour guide. He arranged trips for clients and acted as their guide. He was also born in Sanur. Great guy. I ordered some tea and before I knew it, a car was there to drive us to our lessons. We left central Ubud and entered a beautiful sleepy banjar (neighborhood) called Nyuh Kuning. It was breath taking. The restaurant we arrived at was classy! Rice paddies, thatch roofs, small bungaloos for private eating. We walked around the tables to an open kitchen with a table covered in a variety of ingredients and seasonings. Our teacher, Purong, showed us all the ingredients we would use, one by one. We were brought papaya juice and water and we got started. It was amazing. 2 hours or so later we had prepared a 4 course meal! I have the menu and the memories ( I hope ) will stay with me for life. The food was delicious and I even made some more Aussie friends who might send me pictures. They were kind enough to show me their room at the Ubud Village Hotel afterwards. I am definitely booking there next time. :0)
Around 7:30 I caught a dance performance for $7.50. It was quite nice and a bit mystical. I really got the sense that asian art and culture is vastly different from Western types. “Duh” you might say, but I am amazed at the range of creativity that we humans are capable of. The style of dance, the movements, the music, the costumes...all completely different from anything I’ve ever experienced before. Even the singing was utterly original. It was all very beautiful. I found myself thinking about performance in general. Coming from a theater background, I find comfort in the fact that humans universally seek entertainment in the form dance, movement, storytelling, and music. That is truly universal. But I think (and I’m happy about the fact that) it stops there.
I’m excited about what tomorrow will bring. There is so much to do here! And so far it’s quite easy to try it all here. I almost signed up for an all day cycling trip from Batur....but I think I’d rather relax the “Ubud way” tomorrow. Maybe another weekend I will journey up here for the cycling trip.
My soul is smiling. Finally; it’s been awhile. Scuba diving on Friday probably helped quite a bit too. We ( me and the University of Queensland crew I met staying in Rama) did three dives in a small cove near Nusa Penida, Lombogan and another smaller island. On our first dive we saw 2 mola molas !!!! It was incredible! There they were, sitting hauntingly still at their cleaning station. We got close enough to take pictures and to be truely be awestruck. Then a giant boat came by and spooked them. And just like that, it turned , swam toward me at an alarming speed and darted off the right into the blue water. It was something like seeing a unicorn....
We did two more dives...I saw diodontidae, arothron and many canthigasters. But there were sooo many types of fish and schools of tiny neon orange, pink, and aqua blue that I felt like a kid in candy store. On our last dive, we were quite tired, so we stayed close to a giant mushroom shaped coral head. It was like looking into a city. So many tiny sponges and tubes, anemones...you name it. Even saw a frog fish. I could have stayed there until my tank hit empty. There was so much ecology going on! Oh, i forgot! On, our first dive, we also so a Marble Sting Ray at around 85-88 feet near the mola mola cleaning station. Friday was a wonderful day....
Selamat Malam! 
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