Rain and dancing

I'm sitting in an outdoor theatre like space with rain pouring down outside and cars splashing past in the torrent that was a road. It's a traditional dance performance. I'm expecting toned dancers with exquisite skills, like Indian dancers.

But running out onto the stage with a burst of energy are about forty middle aged to old men with saggy bellies, bony shoulders and grey whiskers. They sit in a circle and chant in a trance like state for 5 minutes; swaying to a strong complicated rhythm and some very impressive melodies. They don't skip a beat.

The backstage chatter overpowers the performance but when the female dancers come out in their embellished golden costumes and bedazzled (sorry bejeweled) headpieces the show really gets going; the story of good vs evil unfolds. I don't really follow, but the control and shape of the women is beautiful. It's a little bit pantomime and the dancers are not in time, but the men chanting are relentless with their syncopated rhythms and overlapping melodies. It's been 15 minutes now and I'm wondering if the choreography is going to change. Ooh. Here's a shiny tasseled man with impressive fake facial hair. I think he's a god. I like his silk costume. And his sword. Melodic unison. Pitch is spot on. Must be important to the story. Now there's a white, masked man. A bit scary. A hunter....

And so it continues for quite sometime. You get the idea. The male choir exit the stage at the end, picking their wedgies....

It rained all night. All morning and all day with a brief break for half an hour and now it's raining again. More than just the seasonal wet season, this is constant and I am drenched.

Armed with my new plastic raincoat and umbrella, I joined a jaunt through the villages surrounding Ubud this morning. It was pretty - rice fields and ducks and thatched roofs. Traditional houses, but all a bit tourist savvy and not the authentic experience I've had in other places. The tea in a grass hut as the rain fell was nice. The free wifi in a rice field was unexpected but a sign of the times. I remembered the days when traveling was disconnecting with everyday life and existing in the moment. It's so hard to do now.

Have I travelled too extensively elsewhere to enjoy Bali? I'm hoping it's just Ubud and that my travels further afield will be a bit more real.

It's going to rain for the next week pretty consistently. In Bali it's called a shower, in Australia it's heavy rain. That means climbing volcanos in the dark, cycling through fields and snorkeling may not happen.

A $3 dinner was not a bad way to end the day!