Many have asked! Some may be surprised to hear that our life is not all that different than it is in Istanbul, only it's warmer, cheaper and the Muslims have been replaced by hippies from Marin.
Here is an illustrated Carpetblogger Day in Ubud:
Morning: Rise early! Things must be done before it's ridiculously hot. These things might include:
Cultural Activities. Our guesthouse is a family compound with its own temple. The temple was blessed this week by "the Big Priest." Three generations scurried around all day, making offerings to demons and gods. These offerings included elaborate banana leaf sculptures, piles of fruit and ducks' heads. Foreign guests hung around wondering what, exactly, was happening until they got bored and went to yoga. This took pretty much all day and was completely inscrutable. It rained, which apparently was a good omen. We interpreted it differently but we aren't Balinese Hindu and hadn't been thoroughly briefed.
Excursions: Did you know rice paddies can get UNESCO designation? Yes they can! These were pretty awesome ride paddies. It took us three hours to find them, all stuck up there on the side of a volcano like that, on our Slurpee-colored scooter, but only 90 minutes to get back to Ubud. We often take the scenic route.
Watching wildlife: Have you ever heard the phrase "like a pig in shit?" These pigs might only have been happier if this guy was flinging shit on them instead of water, and if they had not been stacked like cordwood in a pickup headed toward some unpleasant demise. We cracked up listening to them giggle and croak like old ladies.
Afternoon. Did we mention it's hot? That means it's time for a swim in the guesthouse pool. Alternatively, we might plant ourselves in a cafe with some lime juice and "work." Or we might work on the assdent in our hammock. Or we might ask the help throw buckets of water on us.
Late afternoon: Going to an ordinary yoga class here (if you can find one that doesn't involve ecstatic dancing or vaginal ozone treatments ) is so mainstream as to be embarrassing. That said, we spend a lot of yoga hours in this studio overlooking the rice paddies and it, enhanced by the view of the yomosexuals in the front of the class, is not at all unpleasant.
Evening: Ubud rocks HARD. Would you expect something different from a population of 50+ women wearing sensible shoes, natural fibers and dangling earrings? Kbai! It's chakra realignment time! Gotta go!
All this sounds like a normal day in the life of Carpetblogger. Archaic religious rituals, pigs, yoga, the question I have is, "What the f*ck are you doing in Bali?"
Looks as though you're having a great time, as usual.
Ciao!
Posted by: John | 22 March 2010 at 06:26 PM