Ubud: Bemos and Body Massages

On our second full day in Ubud, we scheduled the whole morning for an ancient monument called Gunung Kawi. It's a small site, but we knew we'd need the whole morning because Bali has the worst public transportation in the world. It's affordable for most travelers to rent your own car and driver, and if there is one thing this city is missing it is not taxi drivers, but our budget is extremely tight. And so we took bemo. Bemos are the closest thing to a public bus in Bali - basically a van with two low benches inside, usually pretty rickety, riding with the door open to keep things cool inside. They are very cheap, but have few, totally inconvenient routes and no schedules.

It took two separate bemo rides to get to Gunung Kawi, though it was not far away. We were the first customers in our bemo, but we were eventually joined by many older Balinese woman going home from the market. It turns out a bemo can fit 9 people, one baby, 14 shopping bags, one spare tire, and about 20 melons. I don't think too many foreigners take bemo, and some young girls on the street broke into hysterical laughter when they saw us pass by, but it was actually the highlight of our day.

Gunung Kawi and an important temple in the area were a little underwhelming at first glance, but an enjoyable trip nonetheless. We were obliged to buy sarongs before entering, which are large pieces of cloth worn kind of like a skirt by both men and women. Flabby white foreigner legs are not appropriate at a temple, which is probably just as well.





After lunch at a restaurant operated completely by 14-year old girls (with fun Indonesian soap opera TV viewing) and our required nap time, we were ready for a full-body massage. We felt that it was a little weird to be so man-handled by strangers while in our underwear, but it definitely relaxed us for the whole rest of the day.

Finally, we saw our second dance performance, known as a Legong. Unlike the previous night, this was a paid performance specifically for tourists, in a good way. It was a more reasonable hour-and-a-half, written explanations were handed out, and there 9 separate sections to give us a taste of Legong dance, which is a graceful dance performed by a group of young women. Balinese dance is very unique, especially the jerky eye and hand movements, colorful costumes, and eerie background music. The dancing troup was fantastic and the venue, Ubud's royal palace, made for a perfect evening.