Bali - Day 2 continued

We just returned from Ubud, the center of art in Bali. We actually bought a 1.7 million dollar painting! HA HA in the Rupiah...this is only $170. We bought it from this outside gallery found in an alley in Ubud. This painting is so beautiful and would go for 10 times this price back home. The Rupiah is very weak. The exchange rate is 1USD to 10,000 Rupiah.

The people are very poor here. They live in huts with sometimes just a single 40 wat light. They are artists, preparing wood carvings, which can take some of them 2 full days to carve for only $30USD. We drove through the artists villages prior to reaching Ubud and saw the painting, wood carving, gold/silver, and stone carving crafts. It was really interesting to see hut after hut offering these beautiful pieces of art.

Ubud was really intersting, a ton of Hindu temples and shopping. Hindus are constantly preparing for rituals - sometimes spending almost 2/3 of their day in ritual.

At least 3 times a day, they place bamboo trays of flowers, fruit, and sugar cane in front of their homes and businesses to invite in the good spirits and keep out the bad. You have to be careful not to step on these! They are also very superstitious, such as the direction they sleep (North and West only), the hand you use to eat as a visitor in a Hindu home, animals having certain ranking overs, etc.

You can see some of the many Hindu temples above. They are very different than the Buddhist temples in Thailand - made of limestone and depicting a variation of different Hindu Gods.

There are also wild monkey's running around everywhere! Jeff saw one jump on a tourist woman's back today and steal her food! You have to be very careful of anything too flashy or food because these monkeys are wild and will take it form you! We will see more of them when we visit the Sacred Balinese Monkey Forest on Thursday.

Tomorrow we are off to Tamah Lot temple to watch what is supposed to be the best sunset in Bali. Afterwards we are heading to Kuta, where the nightlife and shopping are supposed to be great.