8/21 -- Relaxation, Monkeys, and Puppets

Nothing was scheduled for us until 4 pm, so we had lots of time to do what we wanted, which was great after 2.5 weeks of go go go. We got up late and had breakfast and walked for about an hour past a variety of shops. I stumbled upon a pair of pants I couldn't live without, and we found some possibilities for gifts. However, I had an 11am appointment for a 2.5 hour spa experience so we postponed gift buying til later.

Statue outside a temple along our street. There
are an amazing number of temples here.

 While I was relaxing in the spa, Jim hung out at the pool, so we were both happy. We walked to the shops again and found gifts we wanted for less than expected, so a win-win all around. We also stopped into a grocery store, one of  my favorite places to explore in foreign places. We got some coffee, tea, and chocolate and went back to the hotel.

At 4, we headed to an area known as the Monkey Forest. Monkeys naturally congregated here and now it has become a park. The  monkeys are not caged, but the wealth of food available here makes it an easy place for them to stay. Now there are 500-600 monkeys divided into 5 tribes.

Then we piled back in the bus to go to the home of a renown puppet master. He is 74 and has been making puppets and putting on shows for 50 years. His 3 sons participate in the business, one of whom does shows and won a national award at 13. His son also won the same award at 13, so now 3 generations in the family are involved. It is somewhat unusual for puppeteers to also make their own puppets and we got a look at the process and saw a short show. Daytime shows  are done in the open, while nighttime shows use the puppets behind a sheet in a shadow format.

Puppet master Dalang with local guide Wailika

Puppet master's son embossing patterns while his son starts
learning the process early.

Three stages of puppet making: draw pattern on
hard cowhide, emboss and cut out, paint.

A closer look at the embossed puppet.

 The next several photos are from the show. Dalang normally works with 4 musicians and 2 assistants. The assistants are responsible for getting the proper characters out, but Dalang does all the acting. Shows can be a non-stop 5 hours long!

Finally it was back to Ubud for dinner in a  place made famous by the book "Eat, Love, Pray". We selected the typical Balinese meal, which was an assortment of tastes, fortunately each pretty small.

From top center: orange, hot sauce, cold long beans and bean
sprouts, seafood fritters, pulverized tuna in banana leave, bbq
chicken, shrimp, tomato, In the center is rice and pork satay.