Road trip to UBUD

So this is supposed to be the first of many to come articles about my life in Bali and about my daily life here.

No worries i will never stop writing about Art or Film! just in case you wondered.

My friend Mirjam from Vienna is currently visiting Bali and we decided to "do Ubud" together.

The last time i was in Ubud was in February aka it was low season.

So we didn't want to go anywhere without knowing what every middle age desperate housewife knows about Ubud - oh yes i am talking Julia Roberts - as preparation we watch "Eat Pray Love".

People. Ubud is not like that. at all.

Besides the fact that the movie itself is a HUGE bore -

 

quote Mirjam:  "I want the wasted 2,5 hours of my life back please" 

- and in my opinion sexist towards women (come on she stays because of him and her life makes sense again because she has a MAN in her life? sorry but that is BS).

Don't get me wrong here, Ubud is nice but i prefer to visit during the off season. And also the outskirts of the center are more for the eye. We had some great routes through the jungle and beside rivers and the "Tegalalang" canyons.

We drove all the way up to "Tempak Siring" to visit
"Titra Empul" - a Watertemple with several fountains to purify yourself in.

Yes we did that, and i found the experience to be very nice! 

What was more to our discomfort or/and disgust where the usual tourist disrespecting the privacy of the people performing the ritual. Taking pictures and selfies at the fountain, wrapping their beach scarves around themselves as if they would be actual sarongs - not cool guys!

 

so of course there were many Pokemon to catch on the way ;)

We stayed at the BALILA Homestay owned by my friend Birgit - lovely place for, peaceful and good prices! (starts at 17€ per night incl. Breakfast)

 A small temple in the sacred monkey forrest in Ubud - and no it was pretty much impossible for  Ms Roberts to bike along that canyon, she would have broken her neck and died #Hollywoodfakesitall

 YAY itsa me Marky!

beautiful pottery colors on the way to Tempak Siring

We also stopped in Sukawati - it's known for its big market of typical indonesian handcrafts. I purchased a beautiful handwoven Ikat

 Handwoven Ikats - simply stunning!

So when we walked through the little gangs we stopped as we saw this rooster crucified against the wall of a house. I have been living here since half a year now and never have i seen or heard of a ceremony like this so i was very interested in finding out what and why.
Our friend Made explained to us that the owner probably liked his fighting rooster so much that when after he died he nailed him to the wall out of respect.... cooooool !!!

Me catching the last sun yesterday evening :)
have a great week you all!

MB