Ubud

I made it to Ubud after a pretty brief shuttle ride from Sanur. It was scenic with lots of wood and stone carving and furniture stores along the ride, as well as some rice paddies and coconut trees. The first thing I noticed when I got into the Ubud area was all of the art galleries or less formal art studios. It's so cool. For some reason I thought after reading about Ubud it might be a bit more modernized but it's still quaint, in its way. It's kind of nice. I got off the shuttle and since I had two heavy bags, I went with a bungalow owner who took me right to his place nearby. It's pretty nice and about $10 US a night, so pretty cheap. I was thinking about having a search to switch to cheaper/more convenient accomodation but it will be hard to move my bags and perhaps it's not really worth it. There are about a bazillion places to stay here from homestays to bungalows to villas. And I haven't seen the half of it, I'm sure.

I find Ubud a bit overwhelming- not in a bad way. It's large and there's a lot of visual stimuli: galleries, spas, handicraft shops, batik sellers, book shops, music shops, tourist info centers, cafes, restaurants. I'm not really sure what I want to do! I might stay for a while because this is also a central place for making day trips. I definitely want to see at least one dance and gamelan show, and I'd like to do some kind of rice paddy trip. I would also like to do some yoga and massage. There's tons to do here though. Tours, art, music, dance, shadow puppets, workshops and classes.

Now, Lonely Planet warned me that Ubud would be overrun with 30-something women- Eat, Pray, Love disciples who walk around, well to quote LP, with "a mixture of self-satisfaction, entitlement, and too much yoga, with maybe just a hint of desperation that they haven't yet found their Felipe." So far in my few hours here it seems like mostly run of the mill tourists and backpackers.

Currently I'm in Juice Ja, a hippie-dippie cafe with fresh juices and organic, healthy, vegetarian food. Ubud is pretty hippie-dippie. I like it so far.