A quick trip report (Bali, December 2023 - January 2024)

[Marc in Calif]

On 3/28/2025 at 8:20 PM, PeterRS said:

In the early 1980s I visited and stayed in Ubud ten times, once for as long as three weeks. It was such a beautiful town. I stayed in the former home of the gay artist Walter Spies who had helped develop the Balinese style of naif painting.

I first visited in 1971 and stayed in the same place! I returned in 1973 to stay for several years in a few villages around the island. 

It's been painful to trace the destruction of land and traditional customs to do over-tourism and over-development. Even the widespread available of electricity, indoor plumbing and telephone communication didn't do much to traditional culture and land use. 

At first, it was the Aussies who used Bali as their backyard Ft. Lauderdale all year long. The destruction started in the beach villages of the south and spread north, east and west from there. 

[PeterRS]

I used to love just wandering along the little paths through the rice paddies hearing in the distance the faint sounds of gamelan orchestras practicing, first on one side, then on another. It was all so calm and peaceful. In the evenings, we'd join villagers for shadow puppet plays or the dancers who put on displays of various dances, including the young boys who danced the warrior Baris Dance.

I read somewhere that Walter Spies had choreographed along with a Balinese the wild Kecak Dance. During my first visits, these would involve up to around 100 men. When I returned in 2005, there were perhaps only 30 or 40.

I wonder if you remember the artist Antonio Blanco. He lived in a house just across the bridge on the left side amost opposite the Tjampuhan Hotel. I paid a visit to his studio one day and was slighty surprised to see that all his female helpers were naked to the waist. But they were all very beautiful. Directly across that little river was Murni's Warung where I would go to eat quite frequently. Fresh fruit with honey and her homemade yoghurt was wonderful!