Ubud, Bali (May 23-25): Fire Dance!

I left Kuta early after a breakfast of bananas and a quick run down to the beach to swim. The bus to Ubud only took an hour – I ended up here at Agung Oka. Decent little place, large room with huge patio, nice tea and good breakfast. Dingy bathroom though.

After arriving, I walked around looking for some food – ended going somewhere and getting essentially the Indonesian combo meal – sate, gado gado, and chicken curry. Very tasty. Also had the best drink ever – mixed juice of lemon and pineapple! Mmmm… I had it again this afternoon, actually.

After getting my bearings and walking around a little, I took a short nap, then headed out again. Eventually went and bought tickets for the Kecak dance show. The show was good, the music was provided by a large troupe of men (and later women) and was extremely trance-inducing. Chek-chek! Chekcheckehckehcekcheheckchek… The main part of the show was a story that I still have to research involving some women, and maybe a king, and a bunch of monsters. Then two women who danced and kept pulling a James Brown routine (they fell and some of the women from the chorus ran out and helped them up). Finally a guy in a horse costume danced over hot coals resulting from flaming coconut husks.

May 24 I woke up and headed out walking. I bought a ticket for the next day's bus to Gili Trawangan, then walked for a few miles to Goa Gajah, or Elephant Cave, a temple carved into a cliff face a couple miles outside of Ubud. I think I walked about 6 or 7 miles that day. Came back, relaxed, napped, went out for lunch/dinner, then came back and relaxed some more. Life here sure is tough.

Next morning, May 25. Got up at 5:50, packed the few things I hadn’t last night. Luckily had time for breakfast – French toast! And fruit salad. The proprietress was very nice, I paid her for the room and then I was off. Waiting on the corner of Sugriwa and Jembawan for a few minutes, but nobody was coming – so I called Perama (the transport company). The guy apologized and came right out. I’m telling you, I would have been screwed without the phone. So I got to Perama to wait for the bus to Pandangbai to the boat to Lembar to the bus to Senggigi to the boat to Trawangan, and what is the first thing I do? I twist my ankle, the right one, the worst one, something fierce. Shiny black tile, shadows, and a step down at 6:45 AM conspired along with my own stupidity to put a serious hurting on me. Luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as I originally thought, and several days of swimming has fixed it right up.