Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

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Ubud: Market; Flores tickets; hairless dog; ordered tingkliks

We walked to the morning market and bought vegetables and fruits and snacks. The market is active from 7 to 10 am. It has two levels: the street level and a downstairs level. On the street are live chicken, vegetables, porridge, snacks, and souvenirs. Downstairs are meat, satay, more vegetables, spices, and slippers.

Kweilin bought a pair of slippers for 20,000 rupiah (US$2) after the vendor opened at 100,000. The vendor said, "I can't sell for 20,000. That's Balinese price."

We bought plane tickets to Flores, a nearby island, for US$66 each. We'll fly there tomorrow morning at 8:30. Flores is supposed to be less developed than Ubud. Lonely Planet says that the island has pretty snorkeling and sandy beaches. The Portuguese colonized the island so it's 85% Catholic. From Flores, we'll take a day trip to Komodo Island to see the Komodo Dragons.

We drove to the tingklik man and asked him to sell us two tingkliks that I'll take back to the Bay Area. The tingkliks are US$35 each but we'll pay more for the packaging. We asked the maker to build a wooden box that will protect the wooden tingklik frame when we check it on the airplane. I'll carry the bamboo pipes on board. The tingklik maker taught me how to assemble and disassemble the tingklik.

I played a few songs with the whole family of the tingklik man. The tingklik maker and I started playing and the rest of the family joined in: one son played a drum, another played a two-note gamelan, the grandson beat on a gong, and some friends played cymbals.

I saw a hairless dog on the way to the tingklik man. It wasn't one of those rare dogs that are born hairless. This one lost its hair because it got sick. Dogs are everywhere in Ubud and they're all mangy.

posted by Li at 3:33 AM