Celuk and Ubud Bali 10/27-11/01/2010

The wedding bands from Celuk

After a relatively long wait at the ring-makers shop in Celuk, we were presented with two sets of wedding bands, one resembling the etched wave design we had presented to them and another a surprising raised wave around the band. Debating the merits of each, we decided to go with the raised version. The bands are made of white gold (we hope) and while not perfect, they are unique and supposedly endowed with a special Balinese power to make us disappear while wearing them. They should come in handy on our upcoming sojourn into New Zealand. With this accomplished we headed out on our scooter to Medewi, some 80 kilometers away. We didn't make it. The rain decided to unleash on us soon after our departure from Celuk (Mordor no doubt) and we sought shelter in the nearby town of Ubud. Ubud is the artistic capital of Bali, and you can find all sorts of paintings, statuary, and musical instruments in this region. There is also loads of garden cottage accommodation and great food to be had. We found this unplanned stopover to be exceedingly pleasant. After a swim in the pool and a rare great dinner, we relaxed in our room with our books. We have found access to good books pretty easy throughout our travels in SE Asia and Nepal, but finding something interesting in Indonesia is a challenge. Fortunately for us we have come across a couple of good books, one of which is "A Land of Two Halves" a hitchhikers journey around New Zealand (timely, funny and informative) and "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" a Dominican immigrant families story, told with lots of humor and zest (also with lots of Middle Earth references for nerds like me).