Today was our last day in Ubud. We started our day at the Blanco Renaissance Musuem. The Musuem houses the collection of paintings by the late Spaniard, Antonio Blanco.
Blanco was an eccentric, wealthy, and perverted man. He searched for the meaning of life and found it in Ubud. He settled there in 1952 and began painting young, nude Indonesian women. He wrote a letter to a friend back home. He wrote that his life is perfect now--with a mango in one hand and the butt of an 18-yr old Indonesian girl in the other hand.
He also had a little shrine to Michael Jackson. And he had exotic animals on site. It was an odd tour to say the least.
Jameelah took a quick flute class. We lounged at the Tutmak cafe for lunch. Then we lounged at Casa Luna one final time. It was a little sad. We had come so far, seen so much. Our journey had come full circle, and we were much wiser than a month ago.
We were picked up there by shared van and transported to Kuta (tourist town nearest the airport).
Kuta
The streets of Kuta were crowded. Also, motorbikers would slowly navigate through the crowded pedestrian path, which was annoying. We walked around for almost an hour trying to find a low-to-mid-range room. We finally found a one for $25/night.
Kuta is the cheap, foreign party haven for Australians (akin to Canun for Americans). There were lots of 20-something Westerners and Westernized Indonesians.
We went to eat appetizers and drink at a restaraunt near the beach. All the places were playing Michael Jackson music videos; it was fun and sad at the same time. We went to a restaraunt with a live reggae band and sampled the local rice liquor: arak. Arak and coke is good.
Jameelah scored two VIP passes--worth $50 each--from the hostess at a hot club. She is slick. So we maximized on that. We partied, danced, watched fire shows, drank, and chilled on each of the three levels of the club. Great times.
