April 21st Ubud with Helma

Today our friend Helma came to visit us along with her colleague Lisa. It took them about an hour and 15 minutes to get from Jimbaran beach to Ubud.  Helma has hired a car and driver for the day which was nice because then we got to see other areas of Ubud that we had not walked to yet.  We started the day at the Antonio Blanco Renaissance Museum which we thoroughly enjoyed. Don Antonio Blanco was an eccentric and wildly creative artist whose sensuous images of Balinese dancers and naked women sold well in art galleries over the world. Despite his productivity, Don Antonio decreed that his art could only be publicly displayed in the gallery he built in Ubud: a massive baroque structure that is as eccentric and wildly creative as its creator. Don Antonio died in 1999, just as the finishing touches to his museum were being added, but you can still see his work studio, which retains the Don’s last unfinished work on an easel.

Note matting

 Antonio Blanco framed his own painting, and made the mattings, and these vary to compliment each painting. The samples right and left ,show this original framing.


Note frame with scarf

He painted seated on the floor with legs in a pit, as shown by David below with the artists last work in progress.

The next "Dali of Bali"

We then managed to locate a new shop, Utama Spice, owned by a Balinese couple who are creating their own essential oils, soaps, lotions from traditional Balinese recipes.  We bought some mosquito repellent and Helma bought different items for samples for the hotel. Walking up Monkey Forest Road from there, we browsed in and out of the shops before having lunch at Kafé Batan Waru.  The couple that own this restaurant, Karen and Guski, also own 3 others and did the catering for the Julia Roberts movie “Eat, Pray, Love” when the cast was in Ubud.

We have been raving about a gelato shop, Gelato Secrets, here in Ubud so we all went there. We sampled way too many ice creams – they make 32 different flavors including rose petal. Our friends Maria and Joe passed by as well to enjoy an ice cream, and caught us all on our second cones. The scoop of chocolate Chilli and a scoop of passion fruit were a favorite. The ice cream from this shop is sold in many of the five star hotels in Bali including the InterContinental where Helma works.

How did they get those frangipanies to look like that?!!

We then went on a tour of the two 5 star resorts in the area, Maya Ubud Resort and the Orient Express’ The Hanging Garden, which are quite a distance out of town.  Both locations take advantage of the rainforest and the natural slopes they are on to have lovely spas, infinity pools and lush gardens. Helma nabbed a few secrets and I tried to figure out the frangipani floral displays. Helma and Lisa left all too soon.

They should have stayed and joined us at the Moko's@Mina for a lovely blues band and jamming session.  Joe and Marie and found the place the previous Saturday and had actually stayed through the week so they could go again. The 4 of us were there promptly at 8 pm and ordered our dinner. The bar quickly filled up with expatriates versus tourists - we say that because the lead in the band and his foreign wife were greeting everyone personally. We stayed until 11pm and then walked home -a little over a mile-to the Cendana Resort. We had moved there earlier that day when our reservation period at Murni's House was completed and the room needed for other guests.