Just why do you have to order Balinese smoked duck 24hrs in advance?

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We travelled the short distance from Kuta to Ubud in a tourist shuttle bus, and avoiding the touts at the bus station - some of whom were so eager to get us to go to their guesthouse that they didn't realise they were showing us the business cards upside down- we set off to walk into the centre of town, fully laden with our backpacks. I am already thinking I packed too much - I mean, who actually needs a change of clothes! Ubud is certainly a more sedate country town, in comparison with Kuta's backpackers, package holidayers, and long term surfer expats! There are rice paddies scattered between the shops and art galleries, and the calls of "transport, transport" are slightly less frequent. Our hostel/homestay turns out to be a whole bunch of little bungalows set in a leafy tropical garden, with a full menagerie of kids, cats, dogs and geckos running around all over the place. Our landlady is extremely nice, and brings out flasks of piping hot tea at regular intervals for us to sip whilst sitting on the veranda. Ubud is a little village that is famous in Bali and beyond for its arts and culture. Everysecond building is some kind of art shop or gallery, well either that or a temple, and there are hundreds of cafes and restaurants that are certainly above the usual backpacker fare. It has also become something of a spa town with plenty of fancy hotels and little beauty salons. I had my first ever massage, a traditional Balinese one apparently, with about 45 minutes of relaxing massage followed by a salt scrub, a yoghurt moisturiser and washing it all off in an open-air bath filled with flower petals a full 2hrs of pampering! Not bad for about 3 pounds 50p each! I'm not sure I managed to wash all of the yoghurt off, and as straight after that we went to a traditional Balinese dance in the ruins of Ubud  palace, we both seemed to smell slightly like sour milk! The dances are amazing, Bali has a Hindu culture and the dances tell traditional Hindu and local stories, accompanied by a full orchastra of bamboo xylophones. The dancers are always exquisitly dressed with incense burning in their headdresses. I hope I can get the pictures to upload soon, words don't do it justice.

Lepong Dance
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Another attraction of Ubud is a monkey sanctuary, and there are quite a few enterprising people just outside selling bananas and nuts to feed the macaques. There are big signs ecverywhere saying don't try to hide the food from the monkeys, and we soon saw why. Quite a few japanese tourists had attempted this, and they ended up with some big daddy monkeys, all with big canines climbing up their legs. I was glad we'd been to stingy to buy bananas. That said the baby monkeys are supercute. They look like little old men, all wrinkly and bald, except for a mohican - Rob you are in good company!

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In our attempt to be arty and cultural we also went to a shadow puppet show, they are pretty amazing puppets, and the stories are dramatic, we just had no idea what was going on until afterwards, since it was too dark to read the paper outlining the story, and the singing that accompanies it is all in balinese. The puppetteer did throw in a few random english skits though. It was all quite surreal. Ubud is a really nice break from the buzz of Kuta, and we were beginning to see just how much the bombs and natural disasters that are keeping the tourists away are starting to affect the towns. It's certainly quiet, but the people are friendly, and glad to see us, even though there are some quite persistent hawkers and taxi drivers!