Bali: Silversmith Class and the Monkey Forest

While in Bali we stayed right outside of Ubud which is known as an arts and cultural center. There are lots of silver shops and one of them actually offered a class in silversmithing.  We have never tried anything like that before so we thought we would give it a shot.

The class was held in the artist's home where we were once again welcomed in with open arms.  We each chose a design for a piece we wanted to make and got started.  The first step was to sketch the design on a sheet of paper.  I can't draw so one of the guys there was kind and sketched mine for me.  I chose to make a pendant and Derek chose to make a ring.

The beginning of Derek's ring

Learning how to cut out all the holes in my pendant

Cutting out all the holes.  I did this for an hour and a half.  Had I known it
would take that long I would have chosen another design. 

Derek's ring right before bending, joining, and polishing. 

Still so much to do! 

Derek's finished ring

The inside of his finished ring

Tired and ready for a massage but proud of my pendant

After we finished our silver class we headed to lunch.  There was a pretty good mexican restaurant in town so we knew we had to try it.  We are now making it our goal to try mexican food everywhere we go just to see what everyone's interpretation of it is.  The mexican in Bali was surprisingly good.  Because it is difficult to get the pre-made stuff all the way out here, most of the tortillas are homemade and fresh.

It was raining when we finished lunch so we decided to get massages while we tried to stay dry.  The massage was great and only cost $12USD!  Unfortunately it was still drizzling after our massage but we didn't want to waste anymore time hiding from the rain so we went on to the Sacred Monkey Forest.  I love monkeys so I was excited to see all of them running around in the open.

So many monkeys waiting to be fed

He is really hoping for some food

This one found a coconut.  Notice the already eaten banana. 

This monkey was being really cute and when I pulled out my camera to take a picture, he did this.

Inside the monkey temple

We headed down a trail in the forest and found this amazing looking bridge

We heard rushing water and found this narrow stone path

There were some stone lizards overlooking the stream

Baby monkey!

We finished the day with some shopping and an early dinner.  It was a great second day in Bali!