April 17th STrolling around Ubud and Ramayana Ballet

We spent the morning handing in laundry and strolling around the 2 central streets in Ubud. We are looking for a place to stay Saturday and Sunday nights with the plan that we will move on somewhere on Monday.  We checked out at least 4 other places to stay and will make a decision tomorrow but AC and a pool are looking very attractive right now with the hot (87 F) humid climate.

Sita, Rama's wife

We are very impressed with the quality of the shops and restaurants that we are seeing here.  The arts and crafts, paintings and clothing are very nicely displayed and there are so many lovely shops. The Art Galleries are also interesting, looking at the variety available for sale.  We met our Chiang Mai hiking friends Joe and Marie for lunch at Kafe Batan Waru which was mainly Indonesian food and very good.  We then went across the street to Mingle Bar and Cafe to sit upstairs for our coffee - we thought we might get more of a breeze there and we did. We then strolled back home to get out of the heat of the day and went out again in the afternoon and ended up having a kaffir lime Mojito with the same friends before going out to see the Ramayana Ballet at the Ubud Palace. 

This is a Hindu classic story that tells of a romantic love story of Dewi Shinta and Rama. We received a brochure with the plot ahead of time but David's schooling in India lead him to be familiar with the story. The gamelan music was quite repetitive to our ears but the costumes, palace setting and the subtle movements of the dancers' hands kept us interested. 

Hanuman, Monkey Army General

Laksmana, Rama's loyal brother also played by an actress

In Balinese dance the movement is closely associated with the rhythms produced by the gamelan, a musical ensemble specific to Java and Bali.  Multiple levels of articulations in the face, eyes, hands, arms, hips, and feet are coordinated to reflect layers of percussive sounds. We noticed that the hand positions and movements are similar to what we have seen in Cambodia and Thailand. The eye and head movements are similar to what we have seen in India, and the kicking of a tail skirt is similar to what we have seen in Myanmar.  The Khmer (Cambodian) dance style went to Thailand and then into Myanmar.

Rama being played by an actress confused us!

There are more hand positions and gestures in India than in Java or Bali. It has been speculated that they have been forgotten as the dance was transmitted from India to Java.  Sometimes just a dancer's finger would be moving in response to the beat of the gamelan music.  We tried to capture some of this in the video clip that we have included here.

After the performance we met Joe and Maria in a Shisha Lounge for a light salad and to listen to the live band.  We stopped and picked up a lovely gelato to enjoy as we walked home.

I remember coming to Bali back around 1968 and enjoying the different dance performances with my family and driving a motorcycle.  I also very clearly remember getting a mouthful of gnats on that same wonderful motorcycle experience.