Ubud, The Healing Place

'It’s about 6AM, and I was stunning there, alone at Campuhan Ridge…’

Ubud, about one hour drive from Kuta, is very famous village for international travelers, but not for Indonesian. Why? Because most of Indonesian likes shopping! Not me of course, that’s why when I stayed at Ubud, they will guess that I’m Malaysian. I love Ubud!

I went to Ubud alone, this time. After attending on my best friend’s wedding at Kuta, I rent a motorcycle and drove it to Ubud! I didn’t know why, I really wanted to reach Ubud as soon as possible, just one stop to buy a gift for my friend’s new daughter who lives at Ubud.. landed Ubud.

Check in to Rojas Home stay at Jalan Kajeng. This home stay was recommended by Budi, one of my travel mates. I wanted to try because the location was just about 5 minutes walked from Ubud Palace. The room that had given to me had one double bed and one single bed, room for three. The cleaner and better room was fully booked. But the neighborhood was nice. There were many flowers and trees around. There were two kinds of breakfast, bread or noodles, with the compliment of egg and hot tea/coffee.

After a little break, I decided to go to Tegalalang, the famous rice terrace, for picturing. I drove slowly, enjoy the scenery, the moment, the ambience. Like usual, when I arrived at Tegalalang, many tourists there. Picturing, picturing, and picturing… Had an idea to go to the other rice terraces, but meeting a friend who lives here and just got a new daughter was my priority, so heading to Penestanan Village!

Penestanan Village, has many art galleries, local warung, and and some quiet accommodation. I really enjoyed walking around the village to find my friend’s house. The house was built between the rice fields, but my friend’s house was on the little alley which full of houses. The house was typical of Bali house, with a lot of Bali’s ornaments, an unique gate house, and of course, a beautiful small park in front of the house. Watching all these scenes made me dream having a house at Ubud!

My next stop was Kokokan Village, the home for hundreds or maybe thousands white herons (kokokan in Balinese, blekok in Javanese), but but by looking the bird itself and some sources from the books, this bird catagorized as egret. The best time to visit is 5PM, when the birds flew back to the villages. They were everywhere! Flying across the street, up the rice fields, eating in the roadside, in the rice fields, in front of the houses, everywhere… and at the point, none of them!

At this point, was located a small post for a voluntary donation to aid the protection of the bird. The villagers now have been preparing a jungle for all the herons, so they can move and stay there. The reason why they live at the village, is because they didn’t have a place to stay anymore. So it was a good decision.

‘Kecak Dance’ was my last itinerary that day, but it was rain, downpour! Still, this rain didn’t got me down, I walked to the open stage Balinese Temple, but the performance was moved inside the temple. About 70 tourists sit around the show area, and I’m the only Indonesian. The dance was about the story of Ramayana. Rama, a warrior and rightful hier to the throne of Ayodya, is exiled with his wife Sita to a faraway desert. There, an evil king spies Sita, falls in love with her, and sends a golden deer to lure Rama away. Sita is captured, and Rama rounds up his armies to defeat those of the evil king and rescue her. Rama is the man in green dancing in the center of the circle, the golden deer is in yellow in the back.

The music was come from male voices whose sit around and gave a hand dance to the story, they were about 50 men. It was like hearing a male choir, the light was just from one bonfire. At the end, they gave a ‘Trance Performance’. The old guy that talked to me before the show was the actress. And I didn’t know why, but I was sad to see him got trance. The ember was got into his body, he ate coconut, and walked at bonfire. The tears came out from my eyes.

On my bed that night, the words came out from my heart, and the written was uploaded to my personal blog. Yes, I brought my laptop and a modem to company me. It was wrong, companied by gadgets, not a person. Ah, what a world…

Wake up at 5AM was the hardest part that day, but for welcoming the day by trekking Campuhan Ridge was worth. It was still dark when I opened the door. I met the cleaning road person, she swept away the leaves in the street, stopped for talking to her, continued my walking.
If you never go to Campuhan Ridge, this is the directions :
1. Find ‘Ibah’ Villas & Resto, located on the right if you walk from Kuta Market, before Antonio Blanco Museum.
2. Just walk down to the bridge, take the right way, beside the bridge to the trekking path.
3. You’ll find the way, the ridge, and the savanna then…

I was alone. The green of the savanna was refreshing my eyes. I came too early, the sun hadn’t risen yet. The sky started to become light blue.. I chose a point to sit, and waiting for the sunrise, and then, voila! I took my breath for being the witness of God’s creation. When I pictured the view, I saw the hill across the ridge, full of villas, and there it was, the sun reflected on the windows! It was gorgeous! The eyes of God!

Ubud is never let me down, a place you can find peaceful and be healed …