Last few days in Ubud - Monkies, Rice Terraces, Cremation

I thought I'd better do a quick update before I get too behind on things! The last few days have been very hectic!

On the 17th we rented some mountain bikes and rode firstly to the Monkey Forest temple. It was a beautifully green place with really old trees and moss covered stone. The monkies were hilarious to watch and were eeeeeverywhere! Next we rode to the Elephant Cave. I'm really not sure how it got that name but it was supposedly 'built' 700 years ago and inhabited by some monks and not 'discovered' until the 20s. Neither of us really enjoyed it.. it wasn't anything really spectacular and was just ruined by being so touristy. Next we rode an arduous 10km uphill to the rice terraces at Tegalalalalalalalalalang... I can't remember the exact spelling but the views were beautiful.



The next day was the ceremony for the cremation of the King's mother. HUGE day, HUGE ceremony, HUGE crowds. It was really unbelievable. There was a 25m tower built to carry the coffin, as well as a giant bull which was to house the body for the cremation. These were carried by groups of men 1km to the cremation site from the Palace in the centre of Ubud. It took several hours to move. They had to cut all the power lines over the main road in order to get the tower through, leaving pretty much the entire town without electricity.. which didn't really matter because the entire town was on the streets! Thousands of men from surrounding villages took turns in carrying the tower and the bull. Unfortunately for them, the bamboo carrying structure of the bull broke halfway and they had to drag it the rest of the way. It was the first cremation I've seen and it really wasn't as graceful as I'd imagined. The body was taken out of the coffin and place inside the giant bull and then little walls were built around the legs of the bull to house the fuel for the fire. I think what was supposed to happen was that once the structure of the bull was burnt, the body was to drop into the 'fire pit' and finish burning, but one of the structural inner beams of the bull didn't quite burn through and so the body was kind of suspended underneath the bull for all to see (althought it was wrapped up). Then a guy with a big long stick had to try to release the part that was still holding the body up, while another guy with a big blowtorch tried to speed up the burning process! They eventually got the body unhooked but not very elegantly, and the body ended up doing a spread eagled belly flop into the flames!!! When it landed the knees bent and you could see the lower leg and foot angled up in the flames! It was just unreal.



The next day we decided to go on a morning walk along a river on a route that we found in a friend's lonely planet book. Except we missed the turn off and ended up added hours onto our walk. We ended up walking over 25km in the from 9 - 3pm! Once we got back on the actual route it was beautiful but our feet were absolutely killing us so once we got back to town we indulged in an hour long reflexology foot massage.

I've had some great rashes over the last few days. One on my arms and hands was sore and yet itchy and came up blotchy and with little blister looking bits. Really pretty. Figured out that I'm allergic to the RID mosquito spray that I brought with me! Convenient. I went to a little pharmacy and bought some antihistimines and it seems to be getting better now.

We left Ubud this morning and are now in the beachside town of Sanur for the night. I was actually really sad to leave Ubud, I've really enjoyed that town and the hosts of our homestay have been so lovely and friendly that it was a bit like leaving family. The matriach of the family, Biang, whom the homestay is named after, makes us banana pancakes for breakfast in the morning because she knows they're our favourite. She was also a very useful source of information about everything that was going on with the cremation and explaining the different customs. Such lovely people!

I'll add some photos in the next couple of days. I only have a couple more days with Steve before he heads to Laos and I start working with Grounds Kent on Monday in Jimbaran.

Love you all,
Amiee