My second day in Ubud, I decided to rent a bicycle and visit the nearby rice terraces. If you know me well, you know that I am incredibly clumsy on bikes, and I almost always seem to fall. Three major falls come to my mind: A 4th of July night, riding down Monte Alban in Mexico, and riding down a big hill in Vienna, VA. And now I can add riding down a hill on a busy road in Ubud to the list. When I rented the bike, they didn't give me a helmet. Apparently they only provide them for motorbikes, which made me quite nervous. So here I am, by myself, riding down the busy road without a helmet. I make it all the way down the hill and pull over to stop, when I lose my balance and topple into the road. It was actually more embarrassing than anything else since I was at a complete stop when I fell. Luckily I only scraped my knee and arm, and a lovely Australian woman stopped and gave me band-aids and neosporin. She even told me about a delicious organic farm in the rice fields where I could go to lunch. And she was right - it was a very yummy feta and tomato salad with baba ganoush and a glass of Balinese wine.
In order to get to the rice terraces, I had to park my bike and walk through a dense jungle by myself. I didn't see any other people, despite the fact that it's a popular trail amongst tourists. As I set out through the jungle, tons of lizards were jumping out and startling me. I was a little uneasy walking the trail by myself to begin with, so as soon as a good-sized, black snake slithered over my feet, I jumped, yelped and immediately decided to head back. Luckily on my way back, I ran into a couple Swedish tourists and decided to walk the trail with them. I'm so happy I ran into them because it was only another 15 minutes until we stepped out into the beautiful view pictured below.
I saw this t-shirt being used as a scarecrow and had to take a picture.
Masks for sale along the trail
The rice terrace pictured below was taken in a village outside of Ubud, called Tegallalang. On one of my day trips, I stopped here to have a cup of tea and enjoy the scenery. If you look at the top of the hill, you can see 2 tiny little people - that'll give you a better idea of how impressive the terraces are.
One of the cultural performances I saw in Ubud was the Javanese shadow puppet show. The shadow puppets are traditionally made of leather, painted vibrant colors, and are incredibly intricate. When the show ended and we walked behind the screen, I was surprised to see that the puppets were painted. I found out later that the men used to sit behind the screen where the puppets could actually be seen, while the women watched the shadows from the other side. All of the puppets are controlled by one person, the Dalang, who also provides all of the voices. Accompanying the voices is an orchestra of gongs, drums and percussion instruments - which were all very loud. The Dalang spoke in both Balinese and English and added a lot of humor to the story.
Not the best picture, but you can see what the shadow puppets look like without the screen
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