Monkeys in the Morning

Posted under Deja vu Asia 2010

We are now entrenched in our new hotel in Ubud, (that is pronounced Oobood), and is situated on Monkey Forest Road. See how colorful the Balinese peoples are, no old Elm street for them. It has been an interesting day getting here from Seminyak, where we were to here. We hired a driver, which was a good thing, both because he was cheap, but also he knew how to drive upon Bali’s twisty little roads, on the wrong side, with way, way too much traffic. We did see some interesting countryside though, and the trip was uneventful. We arrived in Ubud in time to get our luggage into our room and then stroll the streets in search of more food. As luck would have it, we were successful in both endeavors, and managed, once again to stave off starvation. It was then back to our room for a good nights sleep.

All was well until the early AM, about 6:00, when I heard a racket outside our room. Now Bonnie tends to be a tad peckish at this time of the day, particularly if she is awake, and I was beginning to get a bit upset with these workers who would not at least try for a little stealth, and as I was awake anyway, I decided to arise and face the day. After a shower, a shave, and a new change of clothes I was still subjected to the banging and thumping of the annoying workers. A stroll out to our deck soon changed my mind. Remember that bit about Monkey Forest Road? Well the workers were monkeys, and the banging and thumping was the sound of them running around our deck, and knocking the occasional tile from our roof. These are Macaque monkeys, and they apparently like to take a stroll through the hotel grounds each day in search of food. They have done an extremely good job of training the tourists, and will take food from your hand, with a perfectly shaped little hand of their own. The bunch that tour the hotel encompass several generations, and because of their comfort level with humans will pose for some rather interesting pictures. After two or three hours, they all left the hotel, and went back to the forest.

Having missed the monkey excitement, I felt compelled to enthuse about my situation to Bonnie, but she seemed less enthused than I expected. I guess that this was probably due to the fact that not being up, prevented her from looking deep into their monkey eyes and seeing the intelligence that dwelt there. Actually, I swear that I have seen less awareness in the eyes of some of our politicians.

Yesterday we did the touristy thing, like go to the villages to view the artisans works, see the temples and the countryside. Well worth the trip, but of course we had to buy some of the local wares. I would like to place the blame for most of this upon Bonnie’s shoulders, but she may read the blog and note that I had taken some liberties with the truth. Our first stop was at a shop where they had done wood carvings for many generations. In fact, they had only carved for the temples until the 1980’s, and some of their work is quite spectacular. We spent considerable time admiring the numerous pieces, and then decided upon a small carving which we could bring back with us. We were sort of like kids in a candy store, we had a very difficult time choosing.This is not a picture of the carving which we chose, as it was about four feet tall. It was carved from a single piece of wood, including the cage for the chicken. There is also a chicken carved inside the cage, as well as the chicken on top. Even the weaving pattern of the cage itself has been carved. It is interesting to note that only the men of the family carve, but the women do the finishing work, such as the sanding and polishing. The middle aged lady who assisted us, was descended of some of the carvers, both her father and grandfather were carvers there. In fact, it was a carving done by her father which we chose.

Our next stop was to a temple, one of the oldest in Bali. It began life as a Buddhist temple in the ninth century, and then carried on as a Hindu temple in the eleventh century, and carried on, side by side until 1917, when a volcanic earthquake toppled the statue of Buddha. There are plans to restore the statue when funding is available. The Hindu temple is primarily a cave, which is known as the Elephant temple. This is in itself somewhat interesting, as there have never been elephants in Bali, and the answer to this question is that it was named for the Elephant river, which is nearby. Of course, this does little to explain how the river came to be named. The Hindu religion seems to have a God for every occasion, and even have one in the form of an elephant — sort of. It is called Ganesha, and has the body of a woman, and the head of an elephant. I believe that I might have gone to school with this girl, or maybe she had the body of an elephant, and the head of a woman. It was a long time ago, you know. Either way, she probably had a wonderful personality. The Balinese tend to utilize any area that is suitable for growing rice, to do just that, and there are rice paddies on the temple grounds. Of course, we had to tour these as well. All went well, and as these were very old paddies, there was even a concrete walk separating two off the paddies, well all went well until I decided to capture this Kodak moment with a picture of Bonnie and our guide. In my best artistic efforts to capture the perfect effect, I stepped off the concrete walk and into the paddy. The difficulty here was that the first step was about four feet, and I was doing it by means of a half-gainer. I managed to keep my camera air side up and out of harms way, as I assumed a horizontal position amongst the rice stalks. The next thing I heard was Bonnie screaming, no doubt concerned for my well being. Well not screaming exactly, more like loud laughter, showing a most cheerful disposition that is seldom displayed. Now if “she who laughs” expects that I should hurl myself into a rice paddy on a daily basis, so that she may start each day on an up note, she has another thought coming. I have to draw the line somewhere. Now I don’t know how many of you have recently strolled through a rice paddy, but they keep those puppies wet. This makes about an eight inch layer of mud on the bottom from which it is most difficult to break the death grip of suction. Were it not for the assistance of our able guide, I may well have been compelled to stay there for another month, when the fields are drained for harvest. The above picture shows Bonnie and our guide. Her great smile is still laughter, and as I had to wash my shirt and mud encrusted sarong before this shot was taken, you can see just how amused she was, but note that the camera still works. When I returned my “rent-a-sarong” I quickly slipped it in with the rest of the bunch. It was still quite wet, and I didn’t wish them to think me incontinent as well as stupid.

Another stop, another temple. This one with special healing waters. Too hard to redirect the Ganges all the way from India, so the ancient priests found a river of their own. As it happened, the day that we were at the temple, was also a day of the full moon. That means that it is the day that you are supposed to bring gifts to the priests, and have a splash in the sacred waters. Quite frankly, I had had enough of splashing in the water for one day, so I was avoiding both polls and paddies. Bonnie couldn’t see her way to participate without getting her hair wet, and that is a no – no, so we left this festive occasion to the locals. I didn’t notice any new Lamborghinis parked in front of the priests, so their gifts seemed to lean more towards food and such.

One of the high spots of our little tour, was a trip to the mountains. No pun intended. When we got up to the top of a viewing mountain, we would have a scenic vista of the tallest mountain in Bali. It also happen to be a volcano, but you can’t hold that against it, many mountains in the area are volcanic. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the summit of our mountain, the torrential rains were in full force. We took this un-Kodak moment to have some food at a view point restaurant. The nice part now was that everyone was wet, and I didn’t look out of place at all. Not only that, but as we were eating, the deluge ceased long enough to take a few pictures. The return trip back to Ubud took us through some of the area of Bali where they grow fruit and spices, as well as passed some older rice paddies which had been terraced into the hillsides. All in all, a mostly pleasant and eventful day. Our driver was great and had rather a good command of the English language. This being rather good as our command of Balinese amounts to zip. It is back to our hotel and a good nights sleep, for who knows what tomorrow has in store.

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