Aug 26th: Ubud

This morning I was a bit lazier than I have been and slept in a bit later. I had breakfast and read and drank tea on my porch, and then headed to the post office to mail some letters. I got coffee and went on the internet at a cafe for a while. I had a nice inexpensive Indonesian lunch and walked around some of the streets I hadn't been to yet. I did a bit of shopping. I got some nice handmade batik items.

This afternoon I went to the Pondok Library and Learning Center. It's a cool place with books and cultural classes. I met my music teacher and I learned how to play the metal gamelan instrument (as opposed to bamboo). It looks like a xylophone. The tricky part is it rings a lot so you must silence the previous note with your left hand while simultaneously hitting the next note with the hammer in your right hand. I basically practiced one melody. I got the hang of it, although sometimes I'd get confused and mess up.

My teacher is cool and asked if I'd come back for another lesson tomorrow. So I signed up for another lesson. When else am I going to get to take Balinese gamelan lessons for $7 an hour? If I stay in Ubud until Sunday I can come see him perform as well. Hmm. Maybe.

Tonight I went to see a shadow puppet show. It was at a musical instrument shop. First the gamelan players banged out some music and then the puppet show began, quite seriously and with Balinese singing. Then the characters, all voiced by one puppeteer, started to talk in English. There were funny jokes about Bali and tourism here. There were some cool fight scenes with puppets throwing and stabbing each other. It was a lot more fun than I expected and quite enjoyable. Afterwards we got to go behind the screen and see the beautiful puppets and the two gamelan players.

I think I might stay in Ubud for a few more days. I kind of want to end my Bali trip near the beach, and Lovina sounds nice for that.