Friday 7-11-2014. Day 79.
Organic. Vegetarian. Movie. Theater.
The big plan for Friday night was to go to Paradiso, the world's first organic vegetarian movie theater (their tagline, not mine) and see The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
But first, after a slow morning at the villa, it was time for lunch. We'd heard a lot about the babi guling (Indonesian suckling pig) at Warung Ibu Oka, so we had to go try it out. It was delicious.
We walked around Ubud for a little while before landing at Seniman Coffee Studio.
If you're looking for a cup of vacuum-brewed, single-origin coffee, this place has you covered. We sat there for awhile, enjoying a great cups of coffee — they have babycinos (same thing as a fluffy in New Zealand) for the kids. It was very civilized. Not only is the coffee great, but they play music we hadn't heard anywhere else in Bali. As we left they started playing Johnny Cash, which was a pleasant surprise.
Mail Box in Ubud
We owed a few people some postcards, so on our way back from Seniman, we stopped and dropped off three postcards at the local mail box.
We hoped they get there, but nothing we mailed from this place ever arrived.
A Movie in Ubud
The movie was set to start at 7:00 p.m., but we were out of things to do, so we walked over to Paradiso and got there about 6:00 p.m. When we visited, the theater was adjacent to the Down to Earth Cafe, just off Jl. Hanoman, an organic vegetarian restaurant that probably explains the movie theater’s claim to fame .
We ordered some food and drinks — most notable on the drinks menu was the inclusion of Leffe Blonde, a Belgian ale. It was expensive (105,000 rupiah, three times what an Indonesian beer usually costs), but I was happy to see something besides Bintang and Carlsburg on the menu. If I never have another Bintang again, it'll be too soon.
The nice thing about Paradiso is that your admission fee is credit toward food and drink, so I was able to rationalize the purchase of a more expensive beer.
As we sat waiting for the movie to begin, a man walked into the theater from the restaurant and sat down behind us. He was bald, bare-chested, and wore nothing but a sarong around his waist — a fairly typical outfit for an soul-seeking expatriate Westerner. He was obviously not native, and, as we got to talking, we learned he was from Santa Monica and had been living in Ubud for about a year.
He was a little put out when Samantha mentioned that a few of the places we'd visited reminded us of Santa Monica, then proceeded to tell us that that evening was Purnama, a festival to celebrate the full moon, and we might want to go out and see it instead of being corrupted by a Hollywood movie.
“It’s not a big deal for me,” he said, “because I live here, but for you guys ...” He gave a little shrug as his words trailed off.
I thanked him for the information, but as we’d ordered food and paid our way, we were going to settle in here for the night. He replied with a smarmy mutter of, “Well, Planet of the Apes it is, then.”
Thank you, kind sir, for judging my family based solely on your own world view. We ignored each other after that, and he wasn’t around when the movie ended.
The movie itself was fine, although after a visit to the Sacred Monkey Forest a few days before, it was probably a little more eerie than if we'd seen it in Los Angeles.
"This, son, is how you eat a banana after you take it from the body of the dead human"
Tom Fassbender is a writer of things with a strong adventurous streak. He also drinks coffee.
