Travels of THB: Day 16: Bali

Day 16: Bali

Pictorial pop quiz: what is this? Answer at bottom of post

THB and DB bought a small memento of the trip, destined to hang at the beach house

Quote of the Day:

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mm yeah

Weather: Sunny and hot and plenty humid as the day went on

A first: charcoal croissant...excellent

Breakfast is ¼ mile up from the room so we time it meet Budi and Wayan at the lobby for our day-long outing (without returning to the room). It is hot today and the first “event” is hiking a well-known ridge trail down to Ubud and the car will meet us at the other end. At the end point is a temple first constructed over a 1000 years ago (and obviously upgraded any number of times since original was built).

Ganesh and his friend the rat under his foot on left

View from beginning of trek, hasn't been dormant all that long

Taken just before THB's camera battery died (replacement waiting at end of trek a few minutes away), this is a "stack" pagoda style from a temple around 1,000 years old

From there we visit a wood-working art gallery. The son/grandson gives us a quick tour. It turns out that this is an auspicious day and thus two funerals and at least one wedding are on the schedule. Thus many of the woodworkers are doing their community service at these ceremonies and are not at work so the workshop is closed for the day.

This is an auspicious day so funerals and weddings are scheduled. The bull is 1/2 of the funeral cortege (and the coffin is in the bull, the body is in a "trailer"). The bull is burned later after the procession end is reached and the body is moved from the trailer to the coffin.

The pallbearers climb into their spots, it clearly takes a lot of clansmen to carry the bull/coffin

The trailer and the bull are tying up traffic, and this is before the procession starts

Another trailer, they couldn't afford a bull, just a dog??

Driving through Ubud is a slow process. Very slow. It’s not too impressive, overrun with chains and typical tourist town outlets. And very crowded (high season is July and August, and coronavirus hasn’t seemingly cut down travelers to Bali).

Budi arranges a visit to the compound of the former king of the province. Family members still live there

We have to wear sarongs and DB balances an extra piece of decoration on her head as part of the photo op

The caretaker plays the gamelon (a form of pipes/xylophone combo)

The King

Garden art

The king and his second wife; she appears younger than the king's daughters from first marriage

King's compound statues

We’re having lunch at a nondescript tour bus type hotel; crispy duck is the specialty.

Our lunch spot is down below the lobby

We’re the only two people dining in the entire place. Best that THB can say: there’s an elevator to take us down to the pool dining area and back up again.

Please take me to the basement

Maybe menu 1 was better

Appetizer of stalks in Bloody Mary mixer

Too crispy, almost no duck. Not good.

Best part of meal

Soup with chicken balls

The crispiest duck ever...this duck has ceased to be (maybe this was not an auspicious day for the duck)

The topper: jello for dessert...maybe this restaurant is stuck in the 1950s

The highlight of the day: a tour by the developer/collector of the Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA), Agung Rai. He’s managed to fine Balinese art from the last 100+ years, some of the work very local to Ubud, from around the world, buy it, and skillfully display it over 3 buildings (with more in reserve). Along with the museum, ARMA has an exhibit space (featuring local art school graduates’ work), workshops for artists’ residencies, vast well-landscaped grounds, and a café (where we enjoy iced tea and coffee) after our long private tour.

Entrance to ARMA

The attribution card of the following work, the artist is graduate student

The work is a revelation, many fascinating pieces, some very hard to place as to when created. Agung was very proud, rightfully so, of all the work he has done in building up a great collection and museum from nothing.

this piece is from 70+ years ago

Not recent work, reminding THB of "girls gone wild" artist from 2019 Venice Biennial

Much older work, possibly over 100 years ago

Agung allows the exhibition space to be used for free dance lessons

There’s a gallery that carries a few of the works of artists we admired, it’s on the way back to the Capella so we stop in and end up buying a small piece. Rather than ship the work (like we did with our recent Paris purchases) we are going to carry the piece with us on the flights.

Work in current exhibition space:

Stephen Bennett

Budi knows this guy, he's an artist in residence. Changes THB $11 for this work incorporating our signature. We weren't asked if we wanted it, and it turns out the guy is independently wealthy (by Bali standars)

Back at the hotel, DB works with Amex to get us on a non-stop from Singapore. We’re still in business class, there was no changes to the fare, and we’ll spend the night in the Singapore airport, Chiangi, and take in all the tourist stuff they’ve built into the airport.

Stacked dishes in on carrier; chilled red wine on left

Decent Caesar salad

cheese platter, light is dimming as we dine outside

Dinner is room service: Caesar salad, cheese platter, fruit platter, fresh cookies from the stock in the room, and an expensive bottle of chilled pinot noir (not bad given the conditions).

We’re asleep before 9, THB sleeps through until 6:15am! This was actually the first day on the trip THB made it without taking Tylenol in that late afternoon.

Pics around Capella Ubud