Robin and I were up at the crack of dawn and off to yoga for a
class at 7:00 a.m. We did a moderate level Vinyasa Flow class. It was
interesting to us that we can be on the other side of the world and the
practice of yoga can unite people. The poses were the same as we do in Canada,
the overall philosophy was obviously the same, and even the words the teacher
used were not unfamiliar. It was a nice “moderate” class and the setting was
beautiful. We were on the second story of a building in the lanes of Penestanan
overlooking the rice fields and in the distance Mt Agong and Mt Batur, both of
which could be seen through the haze on the horizon. There were windows all
around on 3 sides of the studio, and there was a lovely breeze flowing through.
The sun was just coming up and it heated up during the class and felt warm and
comforting resting on the body. The teacher used some incense and essential
oils to please our olfactory senses. We left feeling calm and positive to tackle the
day.
After breakfast we sat around the table with Robin and Peter and planned our week. We called up Made, the driver, and he came over and discussed our plan with us. Then Robin, Peter and I headed over to the Dream Café for a cooking class! We learned about the spices, chicken, and vegetables, that are put together to make up Balinese chicken satay. We learned how to BBQ on coconut husks. Then the best part, we got to eat it for lunch!!
At 3:30 p.m. we trooped down the lane to meet Jero who took us on
a tour of some neighbouring villages to see the craft work. Apparently way back around the 16th Century one of the kings of Ubud made the decision that each town would be known for a different skill, so there
is a village known for wood carving, one known for stone carving, one for
weaving, etc.
The wood carving village is Mas. Robin and Peter had previously
visited “Ketut Puja” and sure enough, it was still there! They had three or
four wood carvers working on their carvings in the courtyard, so before we even
got to the art work our nostrils filled with the sweet aroma of fresh wood. We
walked passed some rather noisy but colourful birds, and went inside to see the
several galleries displaying the finished carvings. All were made from natural
woods and naturally finished. The craftsmanship was outstanding, and the
carvings depicted tales and myths from Balinese culture as well as more modern
depictions of current Balinese life. The carvings were made from various types
of wood and a carving of Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge, arts, wisdom, and
learning, carved in grey and white hibiscus wood, seated on a white lotus, with
a swan at her feet was my favourite. But there were so many other beautiful
carvings that must have taken hours and hours of delicate work. Prices weren’t
cheap: $17,000 Cdn for the larger version of Saraswati; but given the length of
time it takes to carve such an elaborate piece, this price was probably quite
fair.
We tore ourselves away from Ketut Puja and Jero suggested a trip to “Genta” a fine art gallery. It took us a while to absorb the beautiful Balinese buildings and gardens that the art work was situated in and then we looked through several galleries of paintings; some traditional, some modern traditional, and some in styles influenced by Western artists living in Bali in the 1920s/30s who encouraged the Balinese to break away from the traditional style of painting and experiment with more modern components of every day life.
We arrived back in the villa in the late afternoon with our minds swimming with exotic wood carvings and colourful paintings.
We decided to eat dinner in and cooked some salmon, salad, and
baked potato. Robin had saved a little basket of brownies from their stay at
the Amandari and we divided that out and thoroughly enjoyed the delicious
chocolate, desert treat!
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