The Road to Ooobood...
Leaving for Ubud as the bus pushes through into the line of near stationary traffic. A good decision based on the last few hours spent hanging around Kuta - traffic, fumes and noisy neighbours given the proximity of these nightclubs and bars to residential areas. 90 minutes to Ubud, even in this traffic, which actually is worse in the opposite direction, stationary for several miles as the bus skirts around Bali's principle city, Denpasar.
The road to Ubud is narrow, just room for 2 trucks to pass, bumpy in places too. Although the place is in relative terms rural there's a distinct feeling that
we are never really that far from the densely populated capital as the road is continuously lined with dwellings and structures for the last 60 minutes and with just a few more miles to Ubud. That feeling of urbanisation persists throughout, but actually, look closer, look carefully and notice what's changing!
Art, plenty of it too. We must be getting into Ubud then, well known for its artisans as for the last few miles or so, art of all descriptions spilling out from studios onto the road. Statues, carvings and ornate decorations not to mention some eye catching paintings of giant proportions! Architecturally the place is different with dwellings resembling more like temples. Ornately decorated wooden gates leading into their gardens and peaking through I can see more intricate decoration, carvings, stone statues inside. Not a bamboo and corrugated iron structure to be seen, and their looks to be a degree of garbage control too as the bus pulls into a courtyard and the driver announces "Ooobood".
A few touts hanging around, not that many actually, certainly not the experience of India or Cambodia. Taxi drivers mostly and a chap selling rooms pounces and persists as I initially decline. The deal gets better, only 100,000 rupiah, big rooms, new rooms apparently. Well, I do need somewhere, so with nothing to loose and the price is within budget, let's go.
Leaving for Ubud as the bus pushes through into the line of near stationary traffic. A good decision based on the last few hours spent hanging around Kuta - traffic, fumes and noisy neighbours given the proximity of these nightclubs and bars to residential areas. 90 minutes to Ubud, even in this traffic, which actually is worse in the opposite direction, stationary for several miles as the bus skirts around Bali's principle city, Denpasar.
The road to Ubud is narrow, just room for 2 trucks to pass, bumpy in places too. Although the place is in relative terms rural there's a distinct feeling that
we are never really that far from the densely populated capital as the road is continuously lined with dwellings and structures for the last 60 minutes and with just a few more miles to Ubud. That feeling of urbanisation persists throughout, but actually, look closer, look carefully and notice what's changing!
Art, plenty of it too. We must be getting into Ubud then, well known for its artisans as for the last few miles or so, art of all descriptions spilling out from studios onto the road. Statues, carvings and ornate decorations not to mention some eye catching paintings of giant proportions! Architecturally the place is different with dwellings resembling more like temples. Ornately decorated wooden gates leading into their gardens and peaking through I can see more intricate decoration, carvings, stone statues inside. Not a bamboo and corrugated iron structure to be seen, and their looks to be a degree of garbage control too as the bus pulls into a courtyard and the driver announces "Ooobood".
A few touts hanging around, not that many actually, certainly not the experience of India or Cambodia. Taxi drivers mostly and a chap selling rooms pounces and persists as I initially decline. The deal gets better, only 100,000 rupiah, big rooms, new rooms apparently. Well, I do need somewhere, so with nothing to loose and the price is within budget, let's go.
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