Bali Part 1

Well, I meant to try and blog while I was gone, but we were busy from sun-up to bedtime (which, since we were all jet-lagged, was around 9 or 9:30pm.) So I decided to just enjoy myself, take lots of pictures, keep up with my journal, and blog when I got home. I've been home a week now, trying to get over the jet-lag (coming back across the international date line always takes me at least a week) and then getting over the cold I got from not getting enough sleep. I'm finally feeling a bit better and have started editing photos to share.

We did a LOT of stuff every day, but as most of you know, we were filming for a TV show as part of the trip, so I'm just going to give some highlights from each day showing what I'm allowed to share right now. When the show airs next year, I'll be announcing it everywhere, and then you can watch it! Bali was totally amazing, and I'm SO glad that I went.

For the first part of our trip, we stayed at a wonderful little hotel in Ubud. It was beautiful, with a fantastic staff and a really good restaurant. This was our view during breakfast every morning:

On our first full day, after breakfast a few of us went across the street to the ATM and then explored the area around our hotel a bit before meeting our bus. 

We visited some local artisans who greeted us with fresh coconuts. I'd tried it in Thailand and didn't really like it, but the taste of the water varies, so I tried it again and really enjoyed it this time - I drained my coconut!

This was one of the views from their showroom - pictures don't do this place justice.

We had a chance to shop for ikat fabric and were able to stick our heads into their workshop to see where they make it all by hand.

That evening I went for a walk with two of the ladies in the group - we headed toward the Monkey Forest, looking in the shops and enjoying a beautiful evening. As we got close to the forest, we found a few of the inhabitants out making trouble.

We went back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. They had a very nice set menu that most of us tried. Here's the entree which was a tasting plate of Indonesian dishes. Delicious!

The next morning, Tuesday, we started out visiting another artisan shop - it was in their family compound, and they had decorated everything for our visit. The courtyard was beautiful, and their workshop and showroom were amazing.

This is the grandmother - the wife of the founder of the workshop. What a beautiful lady!

I was in Bali with Craft Tours, and all of Jim's trips to Bali include a chance to learn how to make batik fabric. That's what was on the schedule for the afternoon and I was pretty excited about it!

Some of the ladies at work in the workshop:

Eye candy (their batik is very traditional, and GORGEOUS! They sell to haute couture companies and their fabrics have appeared in several international fashion magazines.)

Some of the batik stamps in the stamping room. I wanted to bring just about all of them home with me.

We got to make two kinds of batik on our own. One was stamped, one we traced or drew a design in pencil and then painted over it with hot wax. After we were finished, the dyed them for us (our guide picked them up later and brought them to the hotel when they were done. How's that for service?)

Here are some of the other ladies tracing their designs:

Here you can see my stamped batik piece before it was dyed and the wax was removed:

And here's a shot of my finished ones after I got them back a few days later... I was pretty impressed! I want to find a way to do this at home now.

When we got back to the hotel, Emily and I went down to the pool patio for tea. Isn't that just the coolest? We had a pot of jasmine tea, and these are the refreshments they served us (plus some veggie fritters that were delicious.) That little handmade basket was full of corn and fresh coconut and it was awesome.

After tea, we got to go to the royal palace of Ubud, just up the street. We were able to meet the prince of Ubud! (One of them, there are 3.)

I didn't get a good photo with the prince on my camera - there were several other cameras there, and I'm hoping someone else got one! But here's one with him and Jim.

It was cool to visit there - especially since we got to go into a part of the palace that's normally closed off to visitors :)

Emily and I walked back from the palace through the local craft market. They were closing up, but it was enough to do a little bit of shopping and see what we wanted to see. Since we're gone all day, we usually miss it, so we wanted to find a way to see it while it was open!

Wednesday, we started out quite early so we could drive an hour to go see the elephants. The drive itself was stunning!

The elephants aren't native to Bali, but were actually brought there from Sumatra - they were rescued from government camps where they had been sent to keep out of the way of newly built plantations. We were told that there are now 43 elephants in the park - 4 of which were born in there, and the others were all rescued. (Here's an article that talks about the rescue and their new home.) I love elephants, so seeing these beautiful and happy ones safe and loved made me very happy!

Note the elephant totally laughing as he put the flowers around me.

I stole this one from Emily's Instagram until we have a chance to exchange photos... that's Gigi. Isn't she pretty?

I took some video a little later when some of the elephants had free time in the pool. They were trumpeting and playing - dunking each other and having a pretty awesome time. I have to get it off my video camera... eventually! It was so fun to watch - and listen to!

Eventually we went back to the hotel to have a late lunch. Emily had gotten a recommendation to try Watercress - very close to our hotel. We went and had a fabulous lunch. I had corn fritters with avocado and poached eggs, and this mango ice-cream shake that was to die for.

Next we went to the Monkey Forest in Ubud - full of monkeys, there were also a few temples and some very beautiful surroundings!

There were several monkeys with little babies - they're so adorable! You can just see the ear of this one:

We left the Monkey Forest about 3:30 so that we'd have time to slip in an extra stop for the day... some of the ladies had asked if it was possible to go visit the shamen from Eat.Pray.Love - Ketut Liyer. Since they close at 5, we had to hustle! We got there and his son, Niyoman was able to see us (Ketut is retired and wasn't seeing anyone that day.) This is where the scenes in the movie were filmed. Just for fun, we each sat with him for 10-15 minutes. Of course, we're all beautiful, intelligent, lucky, and successful. He told me a few things that he didn't tell anyone else (mostly common sense and probably fairly easy to deduce,) but it was all good advice! Most of it I'm even going to try and follow!
Since it was our last night in Ubud, when we got back, Emily got some recommendations at the desk for a dance show that we could go to. We had dinner and then the hotel drove us over to see the Trance and Kecak dance. We had no idea what we were seeing, but the lady at the hotel said it was the best! At the show they gave us a pamphlet with our ticket - I read it ahead of time which is the only way I understood the story. It was about Rama and Sita, and all of the music was from 100 men sitting in concentric circles who sang / chanted - no instruments. It was outdoors and dark, and there were several tall people in front of us, so I didn't get good photos. You can kind of get an idea from these:

I can't imagine how those men manage to sing non-stop for an hour (I got some video of this too - just to remember how it sounded!) That was the trance part of the show - the singers seem to go into a kind of trance for their portion. It was very cool, and the costumes were great and the dancing was beautiful. They finish by putting up barriers to protect the audience and then they light a big fire in the middle. A man comes out and kicks the fire around with his bare feet (it's a hoby horse routine - still don't know what it meant!) and they keep raking it back and he kicks it around again until it mostly goes out. That's the end of the show. After that, we walked back to the hotel and then called it a night.

Now, it's time for me to get busy editing some more photos so I can put up the next set!

Comments

[Mary C. Nasser]

oh.my.gosh!
What an amazing experience!
Love that you shared so many wonderful photos!
Wow! Wow! Wow!

[Tracie]

Oh Gwen as always your international travels looks fabulous!!!

[Mary Beth Shaw]

What a trip! So utterly amazing and of course I especially adore the elephants.

[Patty Bocciarelli]

Wow, another fabulous trip. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for the tv show!

[donna]

Amazing! So much packed into each day - can't wait to hear more.

[Denise Spillane]

What a great post! Trip of a lifetime, thank you for sharing it and can't wait for part 2

[Mary Hockett Thoma]

The elephants do look happy. Can you give any more information about the TV program broadcast? The batik projects were artistically inspiring. I can see why the fabrics are sought after by designers. Can you tell me the material the stamps were made from? Like you I would like to try my hand at this batik method at home, it's not likely I will travel to Bali.

[Gwen Lafleur]

Hi Mary - the TV show is called Destination Craft. It won't begin airing until next fall, but it should be on your local PBS station. I'll start posting once there are more details or any promo material to watch.

For the batik, the stamps were either wood (the older ones,) or they're metal (those worked better for me.) The design needs to be deep, if that makes sense, so that the wax doesn't fill in the lines when they dip it. I'm going to try doing it with stencils - you could do the same trace and paint method, or even freehand it. I think you can also order metal batik stamps online, but they're fairly expensive.

[sandeeNC]

This is so much fun to see and read after watching the show, and I really wanted to see your finished batik piece, I was wondering if you would get to keep it! It did turn out beautifully!