Ubud is an interesting place. It's the artistic and cultural center of Bali, but it's also a boutique shopping and fancy spa destination for tourists, but it's also a yoga and healing destination for hippies, but it's also a quiet countryside destination for those seeking peace, but it's also a culinary destination for foodies. There's a lot happening here all the time.
I've spent the last few days getting the lay of the land, walking for miles past shops and markets and touts constantly bugging me about taxis or sunglasses or tours. In that time, I've decided that I'm here for the arts, the food, the natural surroundings, and the locals. Screw the stores, the clothing boutiques, the spas, the expensive resorts, the healing, and the yoga. In fact, I'm convinced that being able to selectively filter out undesired stimuli is the only way to survive in this town with your sanity intact.
I'm finding that it's going to take some time just to plan out what I'm going to do with my time. I've been trying to organize my leisure since I landed here, but I keep getting distracted with, well, leisure. My vague agenda includes:
Now that I know I'll be here for a while, I'm even more grateful for the lodging I found on Agoda (Dewa Bungalows). My room is large and clean, I have a patio with a table and chairs and an amazing third-story view of the city (a rarity here), I have two beds, hot water, and air conditioning, the property is gorgeous and includes a swimming pool among the statues and vines and trees, I enjoy a large and wholesome breakfast every morning, and the staff is incredibly friendly and helpful. Arguably the best part of it all is the location; I'm on a popular street (Jalan Hanoman), but not one of the two really popular streets. I've already found four fantastic restaurants that are very close and I'm within walking distance of everything in town. Now that I have boots on the ground, it's become painfully obvious that I need to stay put. This exact turn of events is one of the beautiful consequences of planning a trip only a few days at a time.
Given my limited travels in Thailand and Indonesia, I'm noticing that the $30-a-night accommodation is right in my wheelhouse. I've stayed at $15-a-night places too and I've realized that $30 a night is more than twice as good as $15 a night; it's more like five to ten times as good, though I will readily admit that it's difficult to quantify such things. For me at least, anything past $30 a night will lead to diminishing returns.
Completely separate from all of this, there's been another interesting development. After visiting the Ubud Clinic for a couple days to get my dressing changed and my fifth and final rabies vaccine shot (I'm immune now!), the doctor was insistent that she teach a man to fish, so to speak. After remarking that the wound is looking clean, she suggested I take all the necessary medical supplies with me and just clean it myself. I found this a bit surprising and I was hesitant at first, but given that I probably won't be getting stitches and the cleaning takes all of five minutes, it sort of makes sense. After all, I've been watching nurses clean the wound for a month now, so I feel like I'm qualified to do it myself. I've got enough iodine solution, saline solution, antiseptic cream, gauze, bandages, and tape to last a little while, so here's hoping I don't make things worse.
One last observation that I'll put here is that it's funny that seemingly simple tasks can be so involved and complicated here. As a concrete example, I spent most of today trying to ship some documents back home (hospital bills for my insurance claim).
Initially, I tried to send them via FedEx, which required finding the FedEx location in Ubud, which isn't as easy as you'd think. Looking up the address on Google Maps (or even Bing Maps) turns up nothing. I had to ask around until I found someone who knew where it was, at which point I received directions that involved "turning left at the statue" and "going past the supermarket". That's just how things work here: addresses are somewhat meaningless and directions are always relative to other buildings or landmarks.
I set out this morning along the correct road (after dutifully turning left at the statue) and noted the addresses written on the signs of the shops I was walking past. Some addresses had numbers, others had just the street. And the numbers aren't always useful, because they don't follow the even-odd convention, they aren't sequential, and they aren't always strictly increasing or decreasing. As I walked north along Jalan Raya Andong looking for #30, I passed #10, then a little while later #18, then a little while later #14. I ended up walking way too far and found myself passing shops with address numbers in the 90s, including one whose address number was actually "9X". I just love the attitude behind that decision.
And so I started the whole process again with DHL. Once again, Google Maps was worthless. A general Google search turned up a Google Books result that said the DHL office was across the street from Ganesha Bookshop, which I had actually passed an hour prior as I returned home with my tail between my legs from the failed FedEx trip. I set out again and on my way to Ganesha, I sensed a lot of yellow in my peripheral vision; when I glanced over, I was greeted warmly by the bright yellow facade of a small DHL service center. Was it across the street from Ganesha? Nope, it was actually a few doors down, but you have to take these small victories when they present themselves.
One other aspect of Ubud that makes it difficult to find anything are the sidewalks. I would describe the sidewalks in Ubud as "quaintly crumbling": they're in gross disrepair, but in a really adorable, almost historical way. You spend so much time looking down at where you're stepping, trying not to trip and fall, that you end up missing signs or storefronts. I've already walked past destinations several times because I was too busy trying to not die. Once you find where you want to go, you won't forget where it is, but trying to find it that first time can be a bit of an adventure. Such is life, I suppose.
More to come soon as I start doing things that are actually worthy of photos.
I've spent the last few days getting the lay of the land, walking for miles past shops and markets and touts constantly bugging me about taxis or sunglasses or tours. In that time, I've decided that I'm here for the arts, the food, the natural surroundings, and the locals. Screw the stores, the clothing boutiques, the spas, the expensive resorts, the healing, and the yoga. In fact, I'm convinced that being able to selectively filter out undesired stimuli is the only way to survive in this town with your sanity intact.
I'm finding that it's going to take some time just to plan out what I'm going to do with my time. I've been trying to organize my leisure since I landed here, but I keep getting distracted with, well, leisure. My vague agenda includes:
- Self-guided hikes, temple tours, and gallery/museum tours (from Lonely Planet)
- Evening dance performances (there are many every night of the week)
- Self-guided photo walks
- Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary
- Finding a worthwhile volunteer opportunity
- Eating at a new restaurant for lunch and dinner every day
- Maintaining a blog post just for my culinary experiences
- Working out at the Ubud Fitness Center
- Various local bands and live music in the evenings
- Cycling tour to nearby villages
Now that I know I'll be here for a while, I'm even more grateful for the lodging I found on Agoda (Dewa Bungalows). My room is large and clean, I have a patio with a table and chairs and an amazing third-story view of the city (a rarity here), I have two beds, hot water, and air conditioning, the property is gorgeous and includes a swimming pool among the statues and vines and trees, I enjoy a large and wholesome breakfast every morning, and the staff is incredibly friendly and helpful. Arguably the best part of it all is the location; I'm on a popular street (Jalan Hanoman), but not one of the two really popular streets. I've already found four fantastic restaurants that are very close and I'm within walking distance of everything in town. Now that I have boots on the ground, it's become painfully obvious that I need to stay put. This exact turn of events is one of the beautiful consequences of planning a trip only a few days at a time.
Given my limited travels in Thailand and Indonesia, I'm noticing that the $30-a-night accommodation is right in my wheelhouse. I've stayed at $15-a-night places too and I've realized that $30 a night is more than twice as good as $15 a night; it's more like five to ten times as good, though I will readily admit that it's difficult to quantify such things. For me at least, anything past $30 a night will lead to diminishing returns.
Completely separate from all of this, there's been another interesting development. After visiting the Ubud Clinic for a couple days to get my dressing changed and my fifth and final rabies vaccine shot (I'm immune now!), the doctor was insistent that she teach a man to fish, so to speak. After remarking that the wound is looking clean, she suggested I take all the necessary medical supplies with me and just clean it myself. I found this a bit surprising and I was hesitant at first, but given that I probably won't be getting stitches and the cleaning takes all of five minutes, it sort of makes sense. After all, I've been watching nurses clean the wound for a month now, so I feel like I'm qualified to do it myself. I've got enough iodine solution, saline solution, antiseptic cream, gauze, bandages, and tape to last a little while, so here's hoping I don't make things worse.
One last observation that I'll put here is that it's funny that seemingly simple tasks can be so involved and complicated here. As a concrete example, I spent most of today trying to ship some documents back home (hospital bills for my insurance claim).
Initially, I tried to send them via FedEx, which required finding the FedEx location in Ubud, which isn't as easy as you'd think. Looking up the address on Google Maps (or even Bing Maps) turns up nothing. I had to ask around until I found someone who knew where it was, at which point I received directions that involved "turning left at the statue" and "going past the supermarket". That's just how things work here: addresses are somewhat meaningless and directions are always relative to other buildings or landmarks.
I set out this morning along the correct road (after dutifully turning left at the statue) and noted the addresses written on the signs of the shops I was walking past. Some addresses had numbers, others had just the street. And the numbers aren't always useful, because they don't follow the even-odd convention, they aren't sequential, and they aren't always strictly increasing or decreasing. As I walked north along Jalan Raya Andong looking for #30, I passed #10, then a little while later #18, then a little while later #14. I ended up walking way too far and found myself passing shops with address numbers in the 90s, including one whose address number was actually "9X". I just love the attitude behind that decision.
"Yeah, our address is Jalan Raya Andong, number, um, ninety... something. Yeah, it's between ninety and a hundred. Whatever, numbers here don't mean anything anyway. Who cares? Just put 9X on the sign."Again, I had to ask around until I found someone who knew what I was talking about and she pointed me in the right direction. I backtracked a bit until I came across a FedEx sign in front of a shuttered building with an empty lot. Taped to the large metal door, there was a paper sign with text in Indonesian only, so I took a photo of it and walked home. Once I was back in the glorious land of WiFi, I manually typed the text into Google Translate to discover that this FedEx location was "temporarily closed". I called the number that was posted, which connected me to the FedEx office in Denpasar (where the airport is). The agent on the phone explained that the Ubud location had been closed due to "not enough customers".
And so I started the whole process again with DHL. Once again, Google Maps was worthless. A general Google search turned up a Google Books result that said the DHL office was across the street from Ganesha Bookshop, which I had actually passed an hour prior as I returned home with my tail between my legs from the failed FedEx trip. I set out again and on my way to Ganesha, I sensed a lot of yellow in my peripheral vision; when I glanced over, I was greeted warmly by the bright yellow facade of a small DHL service center. Was it across the street from Ganesha? Nope, it was actually a few doors down, but you have to take these small victories when they present themselves.
One other aspect of Ubud that makes it difficult to find anything are the sidewalks. I would describe the sidewalks in Ubud as "quaintly crumbling": they're in gross disrepair, but in a really adorable, almost historical way. You spend so much time looking down at where you're stepping, trying not to trip and fall, that you end up missing signs or storefronts. I've already walked past destinations several times because I was too busy trying to not die. Once you find where you want to go, you won't forget where it is, but trying to find it that first time can be a bit of an adventure. Such is life, I suppose.
More to come soon as I start doing things that are actually worthy of photos.
