Monkeys, intensity and art.

Hello armchair travelers!

Am writing this from beloved Thailand and so am clearly well behind with the part-time job (blog)!

Right. One of the main attractions of Ubud is the Monkey Forest and I'd been to it about 11 yrs before with the brothers, but couldn't remember a thing. Zoe had been the other day so Jon and I decided to head there on this lovely morning having arranged to meet Miriam (German girl) at the entrance. There was no sign of her as we waited and the banana sellers told us she'd already gone in which was clearly a lie!

This place is a little scary...the Lonely Planet warns of the viciousness of the little buggers and advises against showing them you have any food at all let alone bananas. They're hilarious none the less and watching monkeys swim and fight in a pond will be a treasured memory. I have a lovely photo of a big fella watching himself have a wee! We notice a guy with clipboard and it turns out he's been studying this lot for about 3 months for some primate research paper. He tells us about the individual characters and family groups here and yet again I'm bowled over by our luck. A professional commentary no less! I take a bottle of water out of my bag and am alarmed to find a monkey climbing up my leg to get at it! (que girly shriek!)

There's only so much monkey action you can watch, so we leave the forest and start walking through town. And now something odd happens. We start chatting ordinarily enough but before long it's turned into something rather deep and personal. Neither of us knows how it gets there and we just walk in the heat of the day through the streets not knowing where we're going and not really caring. This is very intense thinks I. After god knows how long we stop and have no idea where we are, "errrmmmm...lets go over here...anyway...as I was saying....". We walk from one end of town to the other and back again...or at least I think we do and all this stuff comes out. He's clearly bugged by the what I said to him on Lost Tues, some of it he'll take and some of it he thinks is unfair. It seems he's full up with others lives (understandable considering his job) and he's aware he doesn't always listen. I apologize for my behavior that day...it's none of my business but I could see he was better than that and it annoyed me. Not sure why it should bother me that much. When he asks if I'm aware of my own faults as well as telling others off for theirs I tell him arrogance whilst drunk is one of them. He's not sure why it matters to him what I think...he's traveled for 2 years before and come across all sorts, he can take or leave what people say to him.

By this time I'm feeling like I might pass out from heat exaustion so we stop and have a drink (lemon and ginger iced tea...everyone must try this one day in their lives!). The chat goes deeper still...hopes and fears are shared. Have I only known this person for a couple of days? We confess some mutual appreciation...he thinks I'm clever...I think he's clever...he doesn't think he's compassionate...I think he's the most compassionate man I've ever met...etc. I get a little intimidated by his worldliness but find myself saying things I only say to my closest friends. I think, 'You've got under my skin, how did you manage that?'  A friendship is born.

So before we head to Dewar Warung (same place as last night) to meet the others for lunch, we do some shopping in the hundreds of fantastic boutiques along the streets of Ubud. Whole days could easily be lost doing this marvelous activity in this most amazing of places. Jon asks my help to find some pressies for the "girlfriend in limbo" and I'm pleased he wants my opinion. I buy a ring made of bone that reminds me of the Kauri images in NZ. We have a quick look round the market and batter off the hawkers whilst both trying to be patient and compassionate!

Zoe is waiting at the warung and chatting to a new German girl and her Scottish boyfriend. They're both quite young and Jon bombards the guy with travel tales all bigger and better than the other guy can come up with. Hmmmmmm...how you change in front of others I think...this is not the same man I was chatting to an hour ago. Why do you do that? ( To let you know, about a week later he brought this subject up with me and is well aware he does it.) So lunch I find an irritating experience and Zoe is also in somber mood. I put it down to the ridiculous heat getting to us all.

The three of us head through town to a hammock shop and I find myself buying not just a small one, but the jumbo size for no good reason than the fact that I can (and the others talked me into it!)! I tell myself will come in handy in Thailand for my vision of lazy days reading on the veranda with the perfect view beyond......ahhhhhh. To make myself feel better, when we go back to the guest house to drop them off, I ruthlessly gather up anything I've hardly worn and give it to a beggar in the market...purging the rucksack and obtaining karma brownie points to boot! I buy an ankle bracelet, realize I have spendyitis and try to rein it in before I purchase a giant Buddha statue!

Jon and I go back to the rooms leaving Zoe in the market, he invites me for hot chocolate from the amazing plantation yesterday on his veranda. How civilized! The conversation is less dramatic but no less flowing. More than flowing...it seems we have much to tell eachother. He goes to his evening meditations and I have a meditative and luxurious shower.

Again, dinner is spent at the Dewar (would be nice to go somewhere else!) and after I suggest we go to Cafe Wyan (Lonely Planet suggestion actually) for cake as we're all abstaining from the booze. Well...there must be some vices surely! This place is amazing.....soooooo posh to the backpacker eye we're all in awe! Set in charming gardens with ponds and streams, each seating area under it's own canopy with cushions and low tables.

We talked about the bombing in Kuta in 2002 when Jon was here last. He spent the rest of his holiday giving blood and counceling some of the locals who had been afffected. Showoff maybe....hero indeed. The amusing stories start to flow and I watched as the two German girls abecame wrapped in Jon's tales. But this time everyone got a turn, the evening was well balanced and full of good natured laughter and for some reason......I feel relieved.

Mon 20th Nov

This morning Jon leaves for Lovina in the north and we've arranged that I'll meet up with him there the following day. I've stopped trying to analyze what I'm up to, but feel almost like I'm shamelessly following the guy! I had planned to go somewhere on the north coast to see a little more of the island before I leave anyway and justify the "following" stuff by the fact that it'll be far more fun to do these things with a friend than on my own. Might do an intro dive and as Jon is a dive master it's a good idea to do with him as he knows the ropes. Ok...ok...I can stop justifying it now!!!! Not sure what the old agenda is but I try to just do what feels right at the time...tis my new traveling mantra!

I decide to get more cultured up and go to the local museum and a women's art gallery on the way. Is a very long, hot walk but a pleasant one as I have the time and space to stop and take loads of photos as I go. I'm full of the joys of travel...not a care in the world and rather proud of myself for wandering around this town on my own (and not getting too lost as is my usual custom!). I look at some great ancient textiles and get to know a little bit about the legends that surround this magical island, depicted in pictures throughout the museum.

As I pass the internet place I catch up with Zo and we have lunch together. She's decided to go back home that week and not come to our planned reunion in Kuta. I'm sad about this as she'll be missed and has been a really good laugh for the 2 weeks we've spent together. The longest I've spent with anyone on my travels and we've got pretty close. We pledge to visit eachother in our respective countries when we can. I'm glad she's made her decision as I know the problem of when to go has been bugging her for ages and she seems more at ease now. We go to the market and I get spendyitis again...find myself with a mini Buddha head and small painting and then manage to stop!

We find a high speed internet shop as I also need to buy a ticket out of Indonesia....tis bugging me something chronic! Just to let you know the decisions of what to do, when to leave and how you get there might seem insignificant to you, but these things are all you really worry about when traveling. They turn into mountains of anguish as you find you might die of heartache if you miss out on one little thing. It takes a while but eventually you have to learn to let things go. I am nowhere near this stage yet! The blog time and farting around looking for flights costs me an arm and a leg as this place charges near enough blood for the Net!

That eve we watch a Fire Trance Dance at the temple in town. It's an incredible thing to see with what seems a cast of thousands in fantastic costume...all using their voices to create the atmosphere. Had no real idea as to the plot, it was all done in symbolic gestures and voice patterns around an erie standing candelabra of flames. Then out comes this man in what seemed to be a primitive Rod Hull and Emu costume....he starts kicking some fully alight coconut shells into the audience and by some strange miracle no-one is injured. I had to hold my titters to myself in the dark...how do you explain Rod Hull and Emu to a German? And this was clearly a very serious event....I soon stopped giggling as a shell narrowly missed my shins looking like a fully fledged firework shooting in my direction! Take that you unbeliever!!!

We finish the night with a lovely and well deserved bottle of wine on our veranda, happily playing cards and chatting by candlelight. We talk about the people we've met and Zoe points out that Jon never interrupts me...she gives a look. I say that I noticed their personalities didn't always blend so well and she agrees. Maybe there's more to him than meets the eye I suggest. We leave it at that....