It’s about nineteen miles from Seminyak to Ubud, as the crow flies. But we took a car, and cars in Bali use narrow, winding roads that are clogged with scooters, pedestrians, and anything else that moves. There are no traffic lights. To make a turn, the driver edges toward oncoming traffic, waves, then waits for the other motorists to let them pass. Our top speed on the journey was around thirty miles per hour. At one point, we got stuck in a traffic jam that was caused by the lunchtime rush at a really popular roadside chicken joint. The trip took about two hours.
As Angelenos, Christina and I are very familiar with traffic, although in LA the line at an In ‘N Out drive-thru, as opposed to a chicken joint, is often the culprit of our lunchtime traffic jams. But only tourists eat beef here, so chicken it is. Also, the traffic in LA has a grinding, soul-crushing feel. Here, the traffic is more like an invisible force field that slows everyone down and invites you to stop and look around.
On the road to Ubud, we stopped to see some women making batik fabrics. Christina bought a few meters of material. One pattern will likely serve as our tablecloth at Thanksgiving. After some YouTube tutorials, Christina plans to make the other pattern into some throw pillows, although for reasons that are unclear to me, I’m not allowed to throw them.
A few miles down the road, we stopped again to see some men carving wooden sculptures by hand. Their work is incredible, and they do it without the aid of a picture to guide them. Common sculpture subjects include monkeys, dogs, frogs, dolphins, and a big-ass Komodo dragon. There were also a variety of deities, including a ten-foot Jesus, skinny Buddhas and fat Buddhas, and Ganesh (naturally). We bought a wooden dragon mask because it spoke to us, and if I’m being honest, because we’re obsessed with HBO’s House of the Dragon. We thought about buying something bigger, like a giant wooden dong, but I didn’t want to have to explain that one to the customs agents at LAX.
Eventually, we made it to Ubud, a town high up in the mountains that many call the cultural center of Bali. Ubud will be our base of operations for the next eight days, so I’m hoping to learn more about the textiles and wood carvings we bought. I’m also hoping to see tons of monkeys because I fucking love monkeys, and Ubud is monkey central. Hopefully, I’ll also get to do some yoga because that’s big in Ubud. But for now, I’ll close with a picture of the view from our hotel.
Like I said, it’s the journey and the destination.