Beautiful Bali: Seminyak and Ubud

Hello!

Hope you are all having a cheery Monday morning! Sorry I haven't been in touch for a week or so we have been a bit busy. But before I update you, Abby has had her baby! A beautiful baby girl named Florence Eva! I have heard from Abby that she's a diddy little one but doing well so that's brilliant news. Looking forward to getting down to st just when we are home for cuddles!  We flew to Bali last Monday morning (12th) and by the time our heads hit the pillow that evening we were so in love! I think it almost knocks Cornwall off the top spot of being my favourite place ever. Note to my Cornish friends I said almost ;) during the flight we had some wonderful views of Indonesia's volcanoes and mountains poking through the clouds which made the flight much more interesting! We started off in seminyak near the airport. We stayed here for two nights in a friends hotel which was lovely. Seminyak is known for being touristy so we hadn't planned on staying long. We had visions of it being a bit like the Balinese Tenerife ; full of chavvy tourists and tower blocks. We were quite wrong. The government have put a height restriction on buildings to protect the coastline so even though the main street is full of hotels and restaurants there isn't a tower block in sight! What's more is that they are all unique little boutiques rather than the chains you see on the British high streets and all had beautiful architecture or quirky shop designs. It really is a shopping paradise although we noticed most of it didn't look local which was a shame. I bought some gorgeous batik fabric to make cushions when I am home though! we visited a temple here too which I believe is quite an important one and in a series of temples along thw coast. Unfortunately the weather wasnt right for John to go surfing. This made me secretly happy as it meant i could resist going on a surf board for another day :-) ha! After a day and a half in seminyak we were ready to move on to ubud. There aren't really buses or public transport here so you need to get private taxis from town to town but it wasn't expensive and very much appreciated having your own private car after so many journeys with sick looking people.

We arrived in ubud on Wednesday afternoon. The drive in was interesting as we passed a lot of areas that are unique for making certain things. One area for kites (spectacular huge kites here) , one for traditional stonework, one for wood carving and so on. We arrived at the hotel and we were blown away. The entrance was all traditional Balinese architecture and stone work which is beautiful. The hotel was like a little maze of alley ways down a hill to a secluded type lagoon pool set at the back of the local rice paddies. Agoda didn't disappoint us once again!! The staff were lovely too and our room had a balcony with views of the rice paddies over the back of the hotel. After a little explore of Ubud it was obvious that the guide books don't do it justice. It is full of tiny shops with local crafted goodies such as batik sarongs and scarves, Balinese puppets and giant kites. There are a lot of restaurants too but all lovely looking and reasonably priced. Thursday was my birthday and John had arranged a surprise- I had been pestering for weeks to know what it was but he wouldn't tell me. It turned out he had organised for us to go and make jewellery! As I said Ubud has a lot of crafty things which I love and there are many jewellers specialising in silver. The one we went to had a friendly silver smith called Ketut who spent three hours with us teaching us to make our own silver jewellery! It was so much fun. I got to use the blow torch and everything! I made a ring and John made a necklace (photo of my ring attached) which both started out as sheets of plain silver so I hope youre impressed! We ended the day with a delicious dinner at a place called nomad. Definitely a must go for anyone visiting Ubud anytime soon the food was fantastic. I think Bali is the cheapest place we have been so far and for the quality of things too. We had a meal which you would struggle to find in Europe for less than £40 for the both and it was £9! 

Friday and Saturday we sort of mooched around Ubud looking at art galleries and in shops. We visited a museum that show cases traditional Balinese art a really unique style - have a Google its quite interesting . Turns out a couple of European artists one German and one dutch came to Bali in the early 20th century and loved it so much they didn't leave and they built the museum. Its called the puri lukisan. A stunning set of buildings with quaint little gardens and a Balinese man playing a bamboo xylophone. Quite idyllic! One of the things that has really stood out in Bali so far is the culture and architecture. Some houses are in the traditional architecture as are the temples. They have the large temples but also small temples inside courtyards for each family and small community and also even smaller ones on the street. Everyone puts out offerings to the gods. These consist of trays (some square, some very ornate and delicate) made from palm leaves and filled with flowers, crackers or rice and fruits. They are only small about a 3" x 3" square and placed outside every building. They also place flowers and bigger offerings at the temples. You also see a lot of people in traditional dress which is nice. For the men this is a white shirt and a sarong. A lot of the men wear black and white checked. We found out that white represents good spirits and black is to represent the bad ones. Men also wear a small turban type headdress. For women it is a lacy blouse with a cloth belt around the waist and a sarong too. Most temples require visitors to wear traditional dress too so we invested in some sarongs which was quite good fun! 

Sunday was our last day in Ubud which we were quite sad about. We had both said we could happily live there and may possibly do so one day. The people are so friendly and the atmosphere is chilled out and just heavenly really. Anyone who has read the book or seen the film of eat pray love then I can completely understand why she fell in love with the place now! So yes, Sunday, our final day. We had found out that there was a cremation ceremony. This doesn't happen very often only once every couple of years so we were lucky to catch one. It happened to be the ceremony for the death of the king of Ubud as they still have a sort of small royal family there. What a ceremony it was! We got to the palace around 1130am and there were already a lot of locals and tourists gathering. We had seen some very large bamboo stairs the other day and baffled as to what they were for. Now there was a giant (around 15meters high) pagoda type thing next to the stairs. It was on top of a bamboo frame and so brightly coloured just exquisite. A lot of locals in matching traditional dress and matching t-shirts were waiting around it. We guessed that they were men from the community who had volunteered to help. The crowd got larger and larger and in the opposite street we spotted more of these giant things. There was a bull and a horse too. I guess the best way to describe them is a sort of very very large, much fancier and solid piñata. Sort of! Anyway, as the crowd got larger, a local band started playing Balinese ceremonial music and these men lifted the giant pagoda and turned it around. They then took turns in climbing the stairs and putting small offerings in the top of it. It wasn't a sad ceremony, there werent any tears like we would see at home. The Balinese are Hindu and believe in reincarnation so I guess it is more of a life celebration. The crowds got even bigger and the band louder. eventually the men lifted the pagoda thing and started carrying it to the crematorium. There was a boy riding the horse and the bull too. The large pagoda and horse and bull went one way and there was a smaller set went the other way. We followed the smaller set as there were smaller crowds. The crematorium was just a temple courtyard really. They set the bull in the middle and cut him open to let people put in offerings. A local man told us that this smaller ceremony was for local people who had died in the last two years. Don't worry turns out they cremate the body straight away but they cant afford a fancy funeral so they wait and do a big one. The offerings were things belonging to or representing the dead people to go to be cremated inside the bull. So its a representation really rather than a bull full of burning bodies. They eventuallg set him and the horse as well as a small bonfire on fire. Again, a few people looked a little sad as I guess some could have been recent deaths but the majority didn't have sad faces. It was such an interesting experience. And you can see why they are not frequent as very extravagant so must cost a lot of money. We spent our last afternoon relaxing and chatting to a guy at the hotel. He was a funny guy only 21 and seemed to work ever so hard. He had a good old laugh at my attempt to speak indonesian and he also asked me if it was true that we had fires in our houses in the UK just to stay warm as he had seen them on the television but couldnt believe it could be that cold! 

We left Ubud at lunch time today to move onto the next stop, Sidemen. We had been told by many Balinese that Sidemen is stunning so we were looking forward to it. They didn't lie! Agoda had messed up our booking and didn't realise the hotel was overbooked so we got offered an alternative at no extra price. We are now quite glad as this hotel is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen! I've stayed in my fair share of fancy five star places all over the world but there is just something about these hotels in Bali. They are small, around 4-6 bedrooms and such a personal feel. And obviously the architecture, delicious food and beautiful weather helps too. This one has an infinity pool looking over across a valley of rice paddies and mountains- photo attached! (sorry for those sat at your desk right now ;) ). We can see there isn't much for miles except rice paddies and various farms. This also means it is lovely and quiet! I think tomorrow we will rent bikes and explore. We are here for three nights before heading to padang bai to get the ferry to Lombok. So yes, that's about all for now from Bali, oh except one last thing. The only bad thing I have identified so far. The spiders are HUGE. There was one where we ate breakfast every day in ubud and I couldn't see it too well as didn't have my glasses (luckily) but it had built a web in the tree and John reckoned it was bigger than his hand stretched out. I have just seen another of these beasts opposite our balcony here in sidemen! Pesky things! But yes, if you are looking for the most idyllic and beautiful holiday destination with still plenty to do and you dont mind paying a bit more for flights then here should be your destination. The Balinese make a cracking rice pudding too! 

Hope you are all well at home too, is the sun still there or do we need to bring some home with us? Lots and lots of love XXX PS just realised after writing this that we don't have internet here so hopefully can find somewhere when we explore tomorrow. But so you know I wrote this on Monday afternoon and if   I'm not back in touch for a while its due to lack of WiFi not because the spider has eaten me ;)