可爱的巴厘岛 Day 2 (UBUD - Town of Arts and Crafts)

Our next stop was to Ubud which is a artistic town with aspiring artists displaying their works !. I love this town lined with shops that sold art pieces and other stuff ! If I ever come to Bali for another visit, Ubud will the town where would like to spend a day or two in !

Ubud street scene

We were ferried to this humble painting arts gallery. We were given a brief introduction how the painting was drawn from scratch to a finished product.

A section of the painting gallery.

A nice painting of Ubud rice fields and stream.

Fang, Gavin, BC and myself bought some paintings from this gallery shop. I would say that even after much bargaining, we paid more than those in the open market. The same piece in Tanah Lot costs much lesser even before bargaining. Well, it has all to do with commissions to the guide and drivers ! The guide was not "helpful" to us in terms of revealing cheaper shopping alternatives till he mentioned Tanah Lot stalls after we have exhausted the arranged itineraries.

I had my first taste of how corruption works! I like 3 small sized paintings and I was offered $500,000rp for them. That was absurd ! I counter-offered $200,000rp to the gallery sales assistant instead. After much negotiation, he finally relented but softly told me that he could sell me the 3 paintings for $200,000rp if I can pay him $20,0000rp under the table ! I was rather taken back and was rooted for a moment! $20,000rp was about SGD3.00 which was such a nominal amount to us. However, this was not about the insignificant amount but it was just against my own personal values and principles! For a moment, I acted blur and was so relief to see the guide walking into the gallery ! I started to reconfirm the price of the 3 paintings for $200,000rp and proceeded to pay at the counter ! The counter even issued an official receipt to me ! It was a good experience and an eye-opener for me.

These were the more contemporary abstract painting I have bought for my mum's bedroom.