Monkeys, Dragons and Seaweed

A bit of a catch up on the last week or so in here in Indonesia. I'm sitting in a cafe in the port town of Padang Bai, waiting to catch a ferry over to Lombok.

I spent most of last week in the glorious hill town of Ubud. It's sits in a river valley about 25 km north of the capital Denpasar. Rich green rice paddy fields flank either side of the town. I spent some lovely mornings walking up the Capuan ridge amongst the long Elephant grass overlooking the town.

Ubud is famous for it's culture and everywhere you look there are artists, writers and musicians working away in studios. The town is also famous for it's Dancing. I went one night to a traditional Kecak dance which depicted the story of a prince and princess being separated in a forest by an evil Ogre. There were 6 main players but what made it special was the choir of a hundred or so men who kept up a trance like chant for the whole performance. They also set the scene for each act and made great monkey noises "Cha-cha-cha-ou-eiieee!". Great fun.

Monkey's abound in Ubud. The main drag where I stayed was called Monkey Forest Road. At the end of this drag was a temple with a large colony of grey Macao Monkeys. They are nothing like the dosile pictures on the ticket you get at the entry though. They're greedy sods! Half way around my walk and there's tens of the guys all jumping around you wanting bananas. One ever jumped on my back, only to run off again when I had nothing to offer it.

After all the culture you can relax and get a massage. Ubud excels at this. For about 5 pounds I got pushed pummeled and cleansed of the nasty stuff in me for an hour. Afterwards you sit under a pagoda drinking ginger tea and feeling, well, blissed out.

For the last few days I travelled over to the tiny island of Nusa Lemborgan. It's main product is seaweed. They harvest tons of the stuff here from the nutrient rich water. Every afternoon they crop comes in and they lay it out on big blue sheets to dry before it is packed in plastic to be shipped away. Seaweed is an emulsifier. It's the stuff in ice cream which makes it creamy!

So now off to Lombok. I tried to get here on my 2000 round the world tour but they were in the process of burning Christians out of their houses. I hope I get a better reception. this time around....