Day 6 - Batu Bulan, Celuk & Ubud (Again)

As we don't have much program on day 6, and we didn't get to see much action (carving and all) or bought much things during the past couple of days (actually, I just wanted something from the silver department), we engaged a private guide who was recommended to us by Josephine, to take us out for a half day tour. He met us punctually at the lobby at 9am and greeted us with a firm hand shake and a self introduction. His name is Meko and he is a pleasant chap.

***

When we got onto the van, he asked us are there any places in particular we wished to visit/see. We told him that we wished to visit places where we can see people at work carving wood/stone, making silver accesories and weaving crafts.

Our first stop is at a weaving craft center that sells a variety of weaved accessories. Outside the center, there was a group of Balinese ladies sitting under a gazebo showing us, the'jakun' tourist, how a basket ended up being a basket.

(carving each line and curve in deep concentration)

After that, as we were passing thru Batu Bulan, we saw this Uncle carving a stone statue in one of the many stone carving stalls along the road. We got down and watched how it was done. We chatted a little and he told us that it will take approximately 1 week to complete this statue.

(The tools used in stone carving - variety sizes of metal piece)

(the many carved decorative statue - we got one of the mini meditating Buddha piece)

We moved on to our next destination, a silverwares shop in Celuk. Same as the crafting center, they too have a workshop by the side of the shop to demostrate how a piece of silver jewelery is being crafted.

It requires lots of patience to painstakingly stick each & every tiny little pieces of silver ball onto the the bracelet to create a masterpiece. It was so tiny that I can barely see it. I'll definately go 'cock-eye'. From the workshop, we walked over to its retail section and browsed thru thousands of accessories, from belly rings to brooches. A little flower pendant with exquisite workmanship caught my eye. Harrison got it for me as our anniversary present. It was retailed at US$180, but after some bargaining feud, it was mine for only US$75+. Lols... you see la... terrible or not... really kena bargain kuat-kuat one.. otherwise, sure rugi sial... I'll show you a photo of it on my next entry. Forgot to take photo of it.

From silverwares, we proceed to a huge wood carving center that has a great variety of carved items on display - from smallest size to biggest size you can imagine). Harrison loves to look at things like these. How it was done, the process of it. He was very impressed with the workmanship of each of the item. As for me, I am not really a fan of all these stuff. I appreciate the artistic part of it, but the item as a whole, hmm... no thank you. I remembered once I was being dragged by Harrison to visit temples and museums in Bangkok, gosh, I almost died of boredom....lols...

(carving frangipani out of the wood)

(men at work)

This one is an interesting masterpiece. The old man, basket, chicken in the basket, the fruit in the palm, is all carved out of one big piece of wood. Isn't this cool or what? Ihey must have taken a long long time to complete this one.

Meko also took us to one of the art center. Again, no one piece with just leafs, brds & flowers are still amongst the leafs. Sigh.... He then took us to another art center which he claimed to be the biggest. When we arrived, we realised it was the same one that Dana took us to on Day 2. So we quickly cabut. :p

Meko took us to this place for lunch after the art gallery. We were seated upstairs and when I looked down and saw a pool, I thought it must have been those villa hotels below. Found out later that there is no hotel nor villa below. This is pool is provided by the restaurant for its customer. So if we feel like dipping to cool off, we can jump in anytime. (Note to self: next time, wears a bikini beneath when go sight seeing, so can swim while lunch. cool eh?)

(the tranquility that surrounded the double storey restaurant)

(Harrison's fried rice with sate + egg)

(my mee goreng - FOOD!)

After recharging ourselves, we went to a batik center nearby. There, we saw how songket is weaved and how a batik is painted/printed. Not that we dont know la... we Malaysian, of course knows how it was done la.... I've even painted one before long ago. Anyway, we just acted like some ignorant tourist lor, jakun & impressed.... oooh.... ahhhh...wahh....

We finally got back to our hotel at about 3pm. Relax a little, and headed down to Sun Island's spa for a 2 hours massage & body wrap treatment. This was our best massage in comparison to the other two we had. The pressure was strong and yet smooth (or was it cause our skin is smoother now after all the scrubs? lols). After the massage, the masseurs applied some 'galanga' treatment on our body and wrapped us like a dumpling (ham yuk chung) like that. One thing for sure is, Harrison is definately getting a hang to these kind of pampering cause I can hear him snoring away. Later, I warned him that he is only allowed to go to these kind of pampering only with his WIFE. Not with any other people. He laughed..... I kinda regret to introduce him to all these cause I wont be able to 'sapu' all his sessions again from now on. I rememberd how I ended up with 4 sessions (supposely 2 sessions per person) of tender loving pampering session when we were at Tj Jara couple of years ago for a 3d/2n breakaway...

Back in the villa, Harrison caught me in photo relaxing in the courtyard reading a book, enjoying the sun & fresh air. How I wished for such a courtyard back home here. Do you think it will attract some perverts with binoculars across the street if it is here in Malaysia? Sigh... different mind set. Culture shocking.

Later that night, again we walked 400m to Made's Warung. This was how it look at night. Nice atmosphere huh.... This time, Harrison tried the Nasi Campur Special. It is something similar to my Biasa one, except it is of much bigger portion and have a few pieces of prawns. We stayed for awhile after dinner, enjoyed the atmosphere, chit chatted a little. This was our last night in Bali. Sigh, how reluctant to go home (that's for me).

***

After dinner, we took a slow walk another 100m away, then walked 500m back to our villa and called it a night.