Fire Dance - Oct. 11, 2010

 Senne's Summary: Checked out Ubud town. Saw the fire dance.

Today we decide that we are really going to research and figure out what we want to do while we are in Ubud. As we head out on our walk to town we check out the sign at the restaurant next to our hotel because they are advertising cultural dance performances four times a week. It looks like tonight is the fire dance so we figure we’ll ask about tickets on our way back. (That’s one of the things checked off my list that I wanted to do while in Ubud 😀)

I can't get enough of these cute monkeys!

We head past the monkey forest… it’s getting less scary every day; the monkeys seem to totally ignore us. We head up the main street. Steve and I check out some of the shops that have interesting "stuff" in them. The shops seem a little more upscale than Sanur, and there typically aren’t people hanging out in front trying to convince us to come in.

They have pretty stuff like this!

Outside one of the shops are two little girls about four years old. One of them has an exercise book, which she is diligently writing in, and the other is talking on her comb like it’s a phone. They seemed to be unsupervised (I suspect their moms were working in close by shops) and the girls were perfectly happy just to sit out on the sidewalk and amuse themselves. The one writing said hello to me and then went back to her work.

We also saw the elementary school as we walked down the street. The first time we went by the kids were out for break. They all had uniforms on and were running and playing. There were no toys and no playground equipment…just lots of happy kids running around playing. I tried not to look like a creepy stalker, but watched them for a little bit. A few adventurous kids ran up to the gate and said hi to Steve and I. When we went by the second time they were back in class. We were both surprised by the noise level in the classrooms. It sounded like a farmyard full of chickens! The Indonesian people are generally so quiet and gentle, but the kids in the classroom were N-O-I-S-Y! I wanted to go in, but couldn’t think of an excuse (plus I think I might have thought it was creepy if I was teaching and some stranger from another country wanted to just come in and talk to us 😀)

Seen on our walk.

We try to find some prices for tours, but quickly realize no price is advertised. I suspect that this is in an effort to get as much money as possible from unsuspecting tourists. We decide we won’t book anything until we do a little more Internet research and try to find out what reasonable prices are. We pick up some pamphlets and stuff at the tourist information office so we kind of know what to look for.

We also go to the pharmacy. I needed to get more ibuprofen and Steve was looking for some antacids (the heartburn from the stomach bug never quite left!). The sign said “doctor and pharmacy”. It’s a little teeny tiny shop with one shelf and a room in the back with a door. It turns out that the lady helping us is also the doctor. Her very important instructions for the antacid were, “You only take one. You like us, you not big people”. Excellent instructions 😀

As we were walking we saw the first beggars that we’ve seen since we arrived in Bali. It surprised me because there definitely weren’t any in Sanur. Steve and I talked about it later and we figured they might have all been from the same family. There was a mom and a baby, then later a grandma and a little girl, and then later two school aged boys.

We decide to stop for some lunch and try out a restaurant on the main road that had good prices and people inside. Steve ordered the chicken soup to start (I wondered why??? I was soooo hot!) and it was delicious! Possibly one of my favourite soups I’ve ever tasted. It had bean sprouts, chicken, skinny noodles and lots of spices; the broth was kind of a light creamy orange. I would like to know how to make soup like that! We also each had an entrée and two drinks each and the bill was less than $15. This is definitely more affordable than Europe. Hopefully we’re saving enough money to pay for our stint in Australia and New Zealand, which are going to be quite a bit more!

We pick up Steve a couple new t-shirts (oddly he needs more!) and then head back home. We stop to book tickets for the fire dance tonight, but it turns out you just make reservations at the restaurant and the performance is included.

Went home for a rest and then headed out to the dinner show. The dinner was terrific and the ambience was perfect. Picture yourself sitting out in the open air under a large gazebo-like structure. (Steve and I are having trouble coming up with the right word to describe it. It has a palm frond roof, but no walls. You can probably fit 9 big tables under it.)  It’s dark except for the candles on your table and the candles surrounding the rice field beside the restaurant. (The only downside was that it was almost impossible to read the menu in the dark!)

After we got our food the show started. There were 100 men who were the monkey chorus and were basically chanting through the whole story, which I think is based on an Epic poem. I really enjoyed the show. One of my favourite parts was the comic relief of the little children in monkey costumes. They moved just like monkeys! I actually saw one pretend he was picking another monkeys head… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that this week! I think it’s a pretty cool experience to be able to watch so many people performing one of their cultural dances. Steve and I liked it so much we are planning to go watch a different one later this week.

During the performance one of the torrential downpours started. There were just buckets and buckets of rain coming down. The performers, who were out in the open air, not under cover, didn’t even flinch. They just kept going. Steve tried to take a picture of how hard it was raining, but I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to see that. Sorry the photos aren't great. It is really hard to take pictures in the dark! You need to come see this for yourself!

After the show we headed home. Luckily it’s right beside our hotel, because when it gets dark here it is DARK. Why do jungle sounds always sound scarier in the dark?!