Who needs sidewalks and other sources of confusion

who needs sidewalks

One of the many sources of confusion as I wandered into town today is the lack of sidewalks especially when people are speeding along on motor bikes and cars. You just walk on the left side of the road and give the wheeled vehicles the right of way. Even in the city the sidewalks are the parking areas for the motorbikes for the most part and are sparse for actual use as walking paths.

The Blanco museum has to be one of the strangest places I have ever visited.It has been in the family for decades and Blanco was an eccentric artist born in the Phillipines who married a Balinese woman and made this area his home. On the estate sits his original studio, a bird park, the family temple, paintings by him, and now also paintings by his artistic son who inherited the painting bug from his father. The art is mainly paintings of traditional Balinese women in sarongs only. While our tour guide spoke earlier this week of the fact that until Westerners inhabitied the island Balinese women were topless and wore only sarongs covering the lower half of their bodies I guess I didn’t really think about what this must have looked or felt like until visiting this museum. Blanco seemed to have also had an affinity for sexually explicit content as some of the other art and poetry that he wrote bordered on PG17. He was also a mixed media artist and there are poems and mixed media
paintings in a smaller room as you exit the building. One of the fascinating things to me is that he had many of the frames for the art that he did specially made into all sorts of shapes and configurations. Sadly photos are not allowed in the museum so I couldn’t take pictures of the interesting frames with the exception of the monkey one seen here that was in the ladies room.
 

bamboo charcoal cone

Although not approved in the US by the FDA as a food additive, although it is used in some beauty and skin care products, here in Bali activated charcoal is used in things such as ice cream cones. This gives the cone this black color and slightly more crunch than your typical waffle cone. I had a creme brulee scoop and a salted caramel scoop in my cone. It was delicious. I got my tasty treat at a shop called Gelato Secrets followed by lunch at Oops Restaurant where I had a very tasty Triple L ginger drink which it seems is made of kaffir lime, ginger, soda water and a shot glass of honey that you can add yourself. I also had a chicken panini with pesto and cheese.

Henry providing quality assurance

Our activity for the day was at Museum Puri Lukisan. The museum is actually an art museum but we were on the veranda to weave baskets. Three very patient women from Ubud helped us to weave baskets and lids and even gifted us with a tiny woven box when we finished our projects.After completing my basket I did wander through the museum and see the rqwqwwq

Henry testing out the lid

 As my culminating activity for the night I visited Oka Kartini a delightful shadow puppet theater. The puppet master tell the entire 75 minute story complete with voice changes as the characters weave in and out of the tale. It was absolutely awesome.The 100000 rupiah ( a little under $9 US) cost was well worth the money. There is also a gallery and a show room where you can purchase the puppets if that is of interest to you. Oka kartina is run by a husband and wife team. She teaches Balinese dance, costuming and make up. He teaches puppetry and mask making. He is also the voice and work behind the 75 minute presentation. There are also two gentlemen playing gamelan and two assistants passing the puppet master the puppets as he needs them. He though is the only one actually performing the show which was in Balinese with a few English jokes thrown in from time to time making fun of the touristy things we have all come to know and love while traveling in Ubud.

Day 6 photos