Oleh-Oleh

We woke up to rain today. However, by the time we convinced ourselves to go get breakfast, the rain had back off a bit to a constant light drizzle. We had breakfast and came back to our room to relax. At 1pm we were picked up for our last tour. This tour was guided by Dika. He is less soft spoken than our first encounter, I think he was beginning to like us.
This tour was easy compared to all of the rest. Again, there were 3 couples from Canada, us, two women from Ontairo and the same couple from Saskatoon. The last was a new couple from Denmark.
Our tour started our with a short drive to Batu Bulan to visit a local stone carving shop. Unfortunately, we didnt get to see anybody actually carving the stones since there was a cremation today (which is quite a large ceremony that most in the village attend). The carvings are made out of a few different stones ans each one takes a few months to create. Most of the stones are made out of limestone. It was neat to see the difference in the freshly carved sculptures to the ones with moss and plants growing on then. We continued to our next stop, Celuk.
Here we visited a gold and silver shop. We watched the people make the jewelry and learned the extensive process it takes to create them. We then shopped in the store. I have come to learn that bargaining is not an easy task. But we did it anyways and were quite happy with what we spent. We then visited Batuan to see local painters.
The shop, Dewa Putu Toris has people painting in the front and the gallery in the back. The artwork is amazing and has so much detail. Although we didn't end up purchasing anything, when inquiring, the price wasnt even bad before we would start to bargain.
Finally, we were off to Ubud. Here, Dika gave us some free to to eat/shop/wander etc. We started out trying local cuisine- Babi Guling (or suckling pig). The pork was very tender and we would definitely eat it again. We started to walk the market. The shop owners weren't quite as invasive as some we have encountered but if you look at anything, they will be on you try to sell you anything they can. Here, we really got to practice our bargaining. We ended up leaving mostly happy with all of our purchases, with most articles of clothing costing $10 or less. After our time ran our quickly, we headed back to meet with our group.
We drove back to Batu Bulan to watch a Kecap and Fire dance. Different than the barong dance, they dont use instruments to make sound. Instead the stage is filled will men who chant the whole time. Again, the story was a bit confusing, but easier to follow this time. It ended with a large pile of dried coconuts, lit on fire as one man danced over them. This was quite spectacular.
We drove back to our hotel and are now looking forward to a few days off to relax before we head home.Baca lagi