Bali Adventure Part 4: Ubud

Now I'm going to continue my story about what happened in Bali, specifically in Ubud. Ubud is a region famous for their craftsmanship like textile making, woodworking, silver filigree, and painting.
The first thing in our list was to watch the Barong Dance. This dance was mainly about the fight between the Barong (tiger/lion) who is representing good and the Rangda (monster or demon) who is evil.

I enjoyed watching these two ladies dance, especially when they opened their eyes so wide I thought they were going to pop.

Outside the performance area were three men playing musical instruments made of bamboo. One even asked my sister if she wants to try playing. But she didn't, she was too shy.

After the show, we went to the place where they demonstrate how to make batik.

They use a wax resist dyeing technique and all of these are made by hand. My sister and I wanted to learn how to make batik on our own so we bought the metal tool that the ladies were using. We were so glad we bought the last two on stock!

We weren't allowed to take photos in the store, but I couldn't resist it. I just had to share how beautiful these are.

Up next was the Balinese painting demonstration. The man was showing us how the artist starts by pencil, and then inks the drawing, and then paints it with acrylic.

Everything was expensive, (well at least in our terms as we were traveling on a budget) so we didn't buy anything but the men in the store let us look around.

After the painting demonstration the driver took us to a temple in Ubud.

Saw these ladies making offerings at the side of the temple. Each offering costs Rp 10,000.00 ($1).

This is what the ladies were making. It is composed of flower petals, pandan leaves, and occasionally they add a few grains of uncooked rice.

After that we watched a woodworking demonstration. The lady told us they used different kinds of wood like alligator wood, hibiscus, molave, etc.

These old men have been carving wood for years. They were taught by their parents and they also taught their children how to do it.

This one is made of hibiscus wood. I really love how intricate this piece is. It probably took the artist weeks to finish just the head.

And then here are other sculptures that were on display.

After then we drove to Bali Pulina. It's a farm that grows several spices, cacao beans, coffee beans, and they also take care of the animal called luwak. The luwak eats coffee beans and poops it out. They collect the poop to make it into Kopi Luwak. It's supposedly one of the most expensive coffee in the world (for $5.00 for a tea cup)

It became popular when Kopi Luwak was mentioned in the movie "The Bucket List" starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. So here are the other spices that they grow. Can you name them all?

Here's the lady roasting coffee beans. Trust me, it smelled so good in there!

And then they took us to the area where we can sit down and enjoy the view of the rice paddies while tasting their coffee and tea (and the optional Kopi Luwak for $5.00).

Unfortunately it rained that afternoon, but we did enjoy looking at this view.

After that, we went to Tanah Lot, which will be on the part 5 of my Bali Adventure posts!