July 29- Ubud, Bali



We are heading to the beach today after a wonderful short week in Ubud, but we have to finish telling you about our time here. On Wednesday, we went to the Nirvana Gallery and took a batik workshop with Buddha himself. Well, not really, but this guy advertised in his brochure that he was larger than life, and he certainly was. His batik artwork was amazing, though, and the compound he had built, with galleries, studios, guest rooms, a temple, and a gorgeous home for him and his family, was an idyllic location to let the creative juices flow. The area was full of tropical plants and trees, and there was artwork hanging on every square inch of wall in the open air studios.

He began the lesson by telling us about the batik process, and then left us to be inspired to sketch out what we wanted to batik. Ari quickly decided on a mask of Hanoman, the monkey from the Ramayana story, and Jillian wanted to do a lady dancing. Ari was able to draw his out nicely, referencing a picture of the mask. Jillian got a little help from the batik master himself, and then we were off to begin the actual batik process.

In the middle of the studio space, there were pots set up cooking beeswax, and little batik "pens" for us to use to trace the wax onto our sketches. These pens consisted of a little wooden handle with a small vessel at one end, about a one inch cylinder, with a tiny spout at the tip. We would fill the vessels up with beeswax and then use the spout to draw on the fabric we had sketched on. Once we had traced all of the lines in wax, we began painting with fabric dye. The batik master gave us a lot of guidance on choosing colors, and it was good practice staying in the lines. We hadn't done that for about twenty years.

After the whole picture was painted in, we spread beeswax over the painted areas to protect them while we dyed the background indigo blue. We had a lot of help from the batik master's apprentices, and they did most of the really messy dyeing for us, but we were still proud to call the pieces our own. (They may not be on display in the permanent collection in our museum apartment, as they will be on loan in more prestigious collections).

During our class, the wife and servants of the batik master prepared a feast for lunch for us and some of his other visitors. They were kind enough to make us plenty of vegetarian options. It was the best gado-gado we had ever tasted (in the three days that we have been eating it).

After the batik class, we headed back to our bungalow to put on clean clothes, and we meandered back into town. We shopped, shmyed, and shopped a little more before we sat down for dinner. This dinner was the nicest that we had had since leavnig Hawaii, and the food was gourmet with a local flair. It may have been the wine, but we decided to go a little crazy by the time the dessert menu came around. Jillian had been hoping for creme brulee, but she was even more excited to find durian brulee on the menu.

A note about durian: We don't know if we have told you yet about this amazingly odd fruit. It is considered a delicacy in most of Southeast Asia, and the locals devour it! Unfortunately for non-locals, it smells like armpits. A lot of hotels that we have stayed in have signs posted that you are not to bring durian inside, because the smell is so offensive. While we were in Bangkok, we just had to try it and see what the rage was all about. It sort of tasted like onion custard, and after a couple bites, it began to grow on us a little. We would go so far as to say we almost enjoyed it.

So, Jillian ordered the durian brulee- when were we ever going to see that on a menu again? Ari ordered an extra spoon, but then something on the menu caught his eye. A single word: Cohiba. It was more than appropriate for him to order a Cuban at the nicest meal of our honeymoon.

Needless to say, we slept in a little the next morning, but we had to rest up because we had a long day of shopping ahead of us. No need to go into the details, but we literally spent the entire day browsing boutiques, haggling in the market, and schlepping shopping bags back to our bungalow. Our major purchase of the day was a new suitcase. The cheapest one we could find was a "same same" Burberry. We will be travelling in style now, with four backpacks and a Burberry rolly case in tow.

Yesterday, Friday, we took a Balinese cooking class. (Ari thought it was a good idea on Thursday to sign up for it, to curtail the shopping frenzy). The class turned out to be well worth the relatively nominal fee. We began with a trip to the market, where the chef explained to us about the local fruits, vegetables, and spices, and also some of the imported ones that have been incorporated into the cuisine. We have been to markets all over the place, but it was a real treat to have a gourmet guide lead us through the stalls.

Back at the restaurant, we donned aprons (which we get to bring home as souvenirs- if they fit in the new suitcase) and prepared six delicious courses. It was a vegetarian cooking class, and we were delighted to find new ways to prepare tempeh and tofu, both of which we struggle with sometimes at home. Jillian was even more thrilled to learn the secrets of gado-gado (which will be served in the museum cafe). Everything turned out delicious (but that's probably because half of the things we made were deep fried in coconut oil, and the other half were drowned in coconut milk. We got to keep recipe books of all of the things we made, plus a few other Balinese treats which we didn't make, but will experiment with at home. (Potluck, anyone?)



After the class we had time for some last minute shopping of pirated DVDs (we had had it up to our necks with batik). We went back to our bungalow, and the engineers in us came to life. We had so much stuff, in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of fragility that all needed to make it into our bags. Amazingly enough, and with a little elbow grease we got it all in.

This morning, we got up early to write this post before we head to the beaches of East Bali for our last week in paradise.

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now).

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari