Sun Sun Sun

So yesterday we went to Sanur to go the beach, because I really didn't want to leave Bali having not seen the ocean. We bought our tickets and it was about a 45 minute bus ride. There was some major confusion in Sanur, with some guests telling us we were in Sanur, some saying we were in Sanur but not the right part, and some saying we were in Denpasar. Plus the guys on the street were telling us it wasn't Sanur. We finally explained all we wanted to do was go to the beach. No, not Sanur Beach Hotel, just the beach. And they pointed down the street. Sure enough, 100 yards away, was the ocean.

Turns out we were in Sanur, exactly where we were supposed to be. Either way, we were happy to see sun, sand, and water. We ordered drinks at an open air restaurant and read at a table. Once a few clouds cleared, we laid out on our towels and soaked in the sun. The water was just the right temperature to cool you off but not so cold it was uncomfortable. And also not so hot it wasn't fun to swim in. We had lunch at another restaurant that didn't charge to use its lounge chairs. Yummy sandwiches and fruit for dessert. Elena finally got her Pina Colada, which she's been searching for for days.

We watched the surfers, who were a ways out because the big waves broke far from shore, and read and napped. It started to drizzle, then downpour, so we stayed on our covered lawn chairs and watched the surfers some more, many of whom came in when it started to rain. I went swimming again once the rain stopped. The water was the saltiest I think I've ever been in. It stung my eyes even when they were closed.

We had a 5pm bus to catch, so around 4:15 we started to head back. We got there a few minutes before the recommended 4:45 and found a few other people waiting for the same bus. 5pm came and went. 5:15 passed with no news. And had there not been a young boy telling us the bus was still coming, I probably would have called the company to make sure we hadn't missed our ride. At 5:45, the bus showed up down the block and we had to quickly walk to get on. The driver didn't check our ticket. It took a little more than an hour to get back this time because of the traffic.

But we did arrive just in time for dinner. We went back to the cafe we had breakfast at my first morning and ordered two different plates with samples of Balinese food to round out our time here. Delicious rice cooked in a banana leaf, potato fritters, banana mash, green salads, fried salads, tofu, and tomato sauce. For dessert, we ordered another Balinese sample plate with cooked bananas, plenty of fruit, chocolate rice pudding with coconut milk (still a favorite), and lots of coconut.

Today we both fly out. We have about 4 hours until the bus comes but have to leave the hotel, so we might head to the Buddha Bali one more time for lunch and a great place to hang out.

More to come from Malawi!!!

Puppet shows and shopping

So Christmas night we had dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Bali Buddha. It's all local/organic/natural/everything great. And it's delicious. Plus it was only a 3 minute walk away from the hotel with a puppet show we wanted to see.

We walked into the room where the puppet show would be. It was in an art museum/gallery so the walls were all white and there were paintings all around us. There were about 20 chairs set up in rows facing a sheet with a single candle flickering behind it. Almost all the chairs filled up, too, with older married couples, a mom and her daughter, and a small group of traveling college students.

So at 8(ish) the puppet show began. It started off with a huge sound from a gong behind the sheet. There was about 10 minutes of beautiful music played on traditional xylophones and some instrument that made a whirring noise. It was loud.

Balinese puppet shows themselves are called Wayang and they use shadow puppets. They're put on by a Dalang, who is essentially the puppet master. The art of being a Dalang is passed down in a family, according to the little handout we were given. The Dalang who put on the show we went to was 80 years old. The story he presented was originally from India. I couldn't believe how fast he moved. He also had two assistants who handed him the correct puppets, although he did everything that was visible to us himself. The show was put on mostly in Indonesian so we couldn't understand much of the dialogue, although there were two short sections in English that were insignificant to the plot. The basic story, again outlined in a handout, was that a demon was threatening to kill a king's entire kingdom. To appease the demon, a human sacrifice would have to be made. A man, knowing he had strength beyond any normal human, volunteered to be the sacrifice. He ended up killing all the demons so everyone was able to live happily ever after.

The puppets themselves were incredibly intricate. Their body positions were individual and spoke to their character's qualities. most had moveable hands and arms, and a few had jaws that would move when they spoke. If they didn't, the Dalang vibrated the character to know who was doing the talking. The Dalang also had used a different voice and inflection for each character. He moved between personalities so fluently during dialogues it was incredible.

My favorite puppet wasn't a person but rather anything that it needed to be. In this play, it was wind, water, thought, and movement (if I remember correctly). It was in the shape of a leaf and danced around the stage many times. With that puppet and the others, the Dalang had incredible skill moving them closer and farther from the screen to show overall outlines or the intricate details. The xylophones continued to play throughout the performance. Whenever a character walked, two wooden blocks were hit together, and the timing of this sound and the Dalang's movements was perfect.

The entire show took an hour, which was a little on the long side for uncomfortable plastic chairs, but it was beautiful nonetheless. On our walk back to the hotel, we bought some gelato. Elena said the cold almost made it feel like Christmas.

Yesterday we had a slow day. I was up early and went for a run before many people in Ubud were awake. It was great to be able to run in the road instead of on the sidewalk that has so many dips, cracks, and missing planks. When I ran by Monkey Forest, a few monkeys eyed me wearily, but none chased. I'm really not sure what I would have done.

I had breakfast at Kafe and caught up on recent world news online. Funny how a week without reading a newspaper can make one get so behind. I window shopped for the rest of the morning, looking at clothing stores and souvenir shops. And I had one of my most successful bargaining experiences ever! A lady selling paintings started at 150,000rupia for one, but I got her down to 100,000 for two. So I'm now the happy owner of two 12'x12' paintings of people working in rice fields.

Elena and I had lunch in the room and did work and relaxed on the porch until dinner. At dinner, I tried my first Bintang, the Indonesian subsidiary of Heineken, which was pretty nice. But the dessert Elena and I both had was the best part of the day. They had warmed up bananas and then mashed them up. Then they sprinkled it with cinnamon, palm sugar, and coconut shavings. It was like dessert baby food. So yummy.

We had another early night, which gets us to today. It was pouring rain at 6am, so I sat on the porch with a book. There are some incredible birds that live in and around this hotel so I've been listening to them all morning. I had breakfast: a bowl of fruit and a warm banana sandwich. Again, yum. In half an hour, Elena and I will take the bus to a beach for the day. And that's about it!