Finished organizing/packing for today’s trip to Ubud and posted yesterday’s blog while eating breakfast. It’s amazing that I’m actually up to date.
Monte and Ferdinando (Ferdi), our hired driver for the day, came by to pick us up for the drive to Ubud, an hour to an hour and a half drive if one goes directly without stops. It took us a bit longer. We detoured through Sanur because Monte wanted us to see an upscale beach town. Located on the southeast rather than the southwest coast, the surf is not as good, so the young and partying surfer crowd doesn’t frequent this area. Saw no surfboards and much gray hair as we traversed the town. However, according to the guidebook the first tourist hotel in the country was built here – a 10 story monstrosity constructed in 1966 using reparation funds provided by the Japanese.
We then drove on through a number of small towns on the road leading to Ubud. They are interesting in that each seems to specialize in a different craft/art, and the goods are displayed along the roadside. At Batubulan we stopped to visit the Pura (temple). This seems to be a good place to talk a bit about religion in Bali since it is such an important part of the life and culture of the country.
The Balinese religion is called Agama Hindu Dharma or Agama Tirtha, the religion of holy water, because of water's important use in worship and ritual. Balinese religion fused Buddhism, the state religion of Bali’s early kingdoms, with Hinduism when, in the 10th century, King Udayana of Bali married a Hindu Javanese princess. In the 16th century as Islam began encroaching in Java, the Hindu high priests moved to Bali from Java and introduced the caste system to Bali, placing themselves at the top of the hierarchy. The higher gods of Bali are both Hindu and Buddhist, but the Balinese also worship a number of deified ancestors and the spirits of mountains, lakes, rivers, and trees. Every event from birth to death must be divinely acknowledged to make it legitimate so there are many ceremonies beginning at the 5th to 7th month of pregnancy and continuing through the extremely elaborate death and cremation ceremonies. There are also a large number of temple festivals which can be extremely elaborate involving taking sacred images out of storage and presenting them with offerings. The religion requires a constant search for balance between good and evil with neither being allowed to get the upper hand. (Information from the Insight Guide on Bali and Lombok.)
There was a lot of activity at the Batubulan Pura, perhaps in preparation for next week’s major religious holiday. Everyone who enters the temple must wear a wrap skirt piece of clothing (sarong) which volunteers provide for free at the entrance to the pura.
Here we are at the entrance with the "rules" sign. We are properly attired!
Many offerings were being prepared. 
The eyes on this statue were amazing – pop-eyed, whether showing fear or ferocity, I’m not sure.
One of several platforms in the temple from which the priest would preside, surrounded by standing (and kneeling) worshippers.
We drove into Ubud and went to the Four Seasons, a 5-star hotel in a gorgeous setting with incredible architecture, for lunch on the Ayung Terrace overlooking the Ayung River and lush greenery. Expensive, but worth it to enjoy the ambiance of such luxurious surroundings and pretend to be the rich person I know I was meant to be!
On the way down the beautiful stairs to the bar and restaurant area, these musicians were providing entertainment -- playing and allowing guests to try their hand.
The bar is incredibly gorgeous. 
After lunch we drove to our hotel, the Villa Lady Bamboo, which is very nice – and much more affordable than the Four Seasons (understatement). I had a “suite” which is just a very large bedroom with a HUGE bathroom, a front porch overlooking the man-made stream which wanders through the property, and a back patio area which overlooks a “jungle” with huge palms and bamboo and from which I can also see the pool. Pretty luxurious accommodations!
After Monte helped me get tickets for tonight’s traditional dance performance, he and Ferdi left. I wandered the town a bit, finding the Threads of Life textile center about which I’d read in the guidebook. Each group of Indonesian women (by community or island) has its own textile patterns and techniques which are being lost as industrialization provides cheaper material. This non-profit, fair trade, group started with a single weaver’s group in 1998 and now works with over 1,000 weavers in more than 40 cooperatives on 11 Indonesian islands. The display textiles and those for sale were absolutely gorgeous, and there was an interesting educational display on the ikat dyeing process. Unfortunately, the cost of the textiles was outside my budget so I contented myself with buying a set of note cards showing five different textile patterns. Check out their website at www.threadsoflife.com
Continued walking up the road and heard singing. 
Some girls were singing and dancing what, to me, looked like a very traditional dance in a play area next to a school. After I applauded their performance, they wanted their picture taken.
View of the street.
Returned about 4 p.m. to the Lady Bamboo for tea on the common, outdoor, terrace. Quite a nice custom. Had conversation with a young woman from Switzerland who spent almost a week in Bali.
Because we’d had such a big lunch, neither Helen nor I were hungry so we decided to forego dinner until after the dance performance.
Left for Ubud Palace, the site of the Legong & Barong dance performance, about 7. It is only a 5-minute walk, but we were told to be early for the 7:30 performance to get a good seat. Even at 7:1o the space was quite full. Ubud Palace, officially Puri Saren Agung, was the palace of the royal family that ruled from the late 1800s until World War II. Most of the buildings there now were erected after a 1917 earthquake and were designed by Gusti Nyoman Lempad, Bali’s most famous architect, artist, and carver.
The performance was in three parts, and the last, the Barong and Randa, is divided into two introductory portions and three acts to the story. The Barong is one of Bali's more popular dances. The Barong and Rangda confrontation is more than just a struggle between good and evil. The Balinese believe that one cannot exist without the other, that they are essentially two sides of the same coin. So ultimately the battle ends in a state of balance with neither side really winning or losing. This information is from the Performance Program and the guidebook; I really couldn’t tell as I watched. To me it was all just interesting and/or beautiful.
One-half of the gamelan orchestra; the other half was on the left side of the stage.Because of the limited lighting, I couldn't get any photos of the whole stage/production. But here are some pictures of individual dancers who were generally performing as one member of a larger group.
The performance ended at 9 p.m. We stopped for a light supper (soup and spring rolls) arriving at the hotel at 10 p.m. I lighted our way with my book light since there are few street lights, and we’d forgotten flashlights.
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