Farewell Jimbaran, Welcome Ubud

Well we said goodbye to our little villa in Ungasan, Jimbaran area and headed on the 1 1/2 journey to Ubud area. There are no real road systems here, so most navigation is by landmarks. Many of the main roads you see on a map are only just wide enough for two vehicles to pass. We're settled into our villa here and already loving it.

Even though Ungasan was beautiful, this feels much more comfortable. I think this is largely due to the fact that few tourists come here. Even those that do, do not come to be tourists, they come to live and engage.

I'm loving the modern cultural clashes here. My favorite is the shrimp and seaweed pringles. I have not yet had the stomach to try them. There are many funny signs as well, most humorous because of the hybrid Bahasia-English that has evolved here. The language is a soft language, with many similar sounds to English, but in their language, there are no rules about word order or context. Today there was a sign in a store that simply said 'Buy 1 Free.' They also say all their words exactly as they are written. As such there are many taksi drivers and jacuzzy cleaners around.

The picture of the kids and the fish is a common tourist attraction. These little suckers (literally) are natural exfoliators. People pay $100,000 rupiah (about $12 Canadian)to put their feet into these tubs for 20 minutes. The kids get to try their hands for free and absolutely love the tickly fish, but you could not pay Lindsay enough to try a finger...

There is a funny mix of mysticism and reality here. For example there are 'Jumra' every where (small auto-body shops) But there are two types. The first and more common are the standard body shop; get a dent pay the repair price, a few hours later you get your car back repaired. However the others are magic auto repair shops. (This is not a joke... comical, but not a joke) You bring your car in, pay the magic price (moderately more than the standard repair price, hmmm...) They take your car into their shop, which you are not allowed to enter because you are not an auto-body priest, and a few hours later... you get your car back, dent free. It is sad and remarkable at the same time.

We've always enjoyed Balinese styling, design and craft. This is creating a frustration for us as many of the beautiful things we would like to purchase are too large to fit in our suitcases... So today we did some export research. At this point we're not too serious about and significant business potential, but the prices on many of these goods are incredible. Wood and stone carvings, silver jewelry, textiles all hand made. If any of you are interested, please get ahold of us, should we decide to bring some back with us, it would be easy to add other things to our order.

Off to bed... there really is something to this 'early to bed and early to rise' idea...