A very random encounter

Today was pretty damned crazy.

First there was being on the same flight from Labuan Bajo to Denpasar as a guy from 1k Oaks...Because that's likely. Then there was the completely random mix of travelers and CEO's and government VIP's at the DPS airport because of the APEC conference that kicked off yesterday (and the motorcades that made a mess of traffic getting out of the airport).

Finally I get to Ubud.

Ubud is the Buddhist spiritual capital of Indonesia and an artists community. It is kinda like a tropical 3rd world version of Carmen by the Sea or something. I can't tell if there are more yoga or art studios in town. And a temple on every block. It is a bit overrun by tourists, but still manages to feel authentic a lot of the time, which is impressive.

I walked around the town a bit and ended up going to the monkey temple. There are a lot of monkeys at the monkey temple and they are kinda scary tame. Some people all bananas at the entrance for you to feed the monkeys with, but you never get more than 10 feet into the temple grounds without having a monkey just take all of the bananas from you. One kid tried to hide the bananas under his shirt and a monkey just crawled up his shorts and reached under his shirt to take the whole bunch. I had a monkey crawl up my leg to steal a few from me. It was pretty hilarious. The temple grounds were awesome as well. It is so much greener here than in Flores.

After walking around a bit more and organizing a tour of the area for tomorrow, I decided I wanted to take advantage of the cooler air here and go for a run. I talked to the guy at the hotel and got a map and had plan to run about 3ish miles as a loop on a trail through some rice paddies. Very Bali and relaxing. Then I missed a turn and just kept running. OK, no problem, I'll just make this an out and back run and deal with running on the road, I guess. Then I see some guys on a trail heading into the rice paddies and run over to them, ask if the trail leads back to the center of town and they instantly say, "c'mon! This way!" so I head off with them. The paved trail quickly becomes a narrow dirt levee between rice paddies, and then a muddy path near a creak, and eventually goes full on into the creak. At this point, I'm confused, but having a great time and thinking about how random and hilarious this is. The 3 guys meanwhile are encouraging me along and we just keep scrambling through the mud.

Finally I notice one of the guy's shirts..."hash house harriers." I stumbled into their monthly run and the guys I saw thought I was a fellow harrier who had lost the trail.

So I run to the end of the trail with them, talk to a few of the expats in the group who find my story hilarious and share some beer and a few laughs with. Then I notice it is getting dark and I need to get to my hotel, so I get back to running and push through the last couple miles to get to the hotel.

I intended to run about 3ish miles, and I ended up running about 7. And instead of a nice paved route...it was a full on trail/mud run.

Pretty ridiculous, but also an awesome travel experience and memory made.

Tomorrow I'll be visiting some of the sights and the outskirts of Ubud and then maybe enjoying a massage at the end of the day. And eating. The food here in Ubud is ridiculous. So good. Best I've seen in Indonesia so far.

Oh, and I think I just locked up a reservation to dive a WW2 shipwreck on Sunday.

Double oh! I almost forgot to write about the cockfighting!

I was walking through the monkey temple when I notice a large crowd of loud people. So I go investigate and discover that right in the middle of this tourist area...there is a cockfighting ring! After a lot of hype and bluster and gambling, I saw my first (and probably last) cockfight. A few observations...the handlers spend a lot of time slapping the back of the rooster's head and plucking neck feathers to get them hyped and pissed; the gambling and yelling lasts a lot longer than the cockfight; holy crap is it violent and then just over when one rooster is dead on the ground.

See...just a random day.

Pics below of monkeys and Ubud.