Life in the Jungle - The Shopping Spree

The Shopping Spree

"Matt, you know I have to go shopping tomorrow, I only have one day left, I will need Silver and a couple of Paintings" "Hey, no problem. Tomorrow’s for you". So he meets me at the hotel in the morning, (more stories about the house, "Blake, see this building? This building was built by someone who knew how to build a second story! You know what I figured out yesterday? My wife got the only builder in Bali who doesn’t know how to build a second story …") I remain silent, I figure there is no appropriate response to that. We pile in the car and drive off to Celuk, the center of the silver smith trade in Bali. Art in general in Bali is usually of fairly high quality and fairly low in price (compared to say the US or Europe) artisans spend an extraordinary amount of time finishing a piece and you can see it in the intricate detail. Silver is no exception. I am looking for the type of jewelry that I had seen on my first trip. Detailed pendants with the face of the barong on them or bracelets and necklaces with fine spheres and braided wire. We go to several shops and only a couple have the kind of style I am looking for. Most jewelry makers are making styles that are more modern (and take less time). I guess they are getting smarter. We finally find a shop that has some selection. I see price tags (Bad sign number one) that have prices in US dollars (Bad sign number two) I think that this is a tourist fleece shop. So I get ready to walk out when Matt starts earning his keep. He asks them in Indonesian for a gram price. They look confused (A common tactic) he continues to ask. I join in the request. Pretty soon an amazingly low price is negotiated. I try not to look pleased but my interest obviously increases as I start pulling pieces off the shelves. Several more rounds of negotiation and we depart with the goods. The owner thanks us for the business and requests (no, begs) that we tell everyone that we paid several times more then we actually did. (Another common tactic). "I think I’ve done well Matt, time for lunch then we look for Art"

We head back to Ubud (for both lunch and art). Ubud is one of the centers for painting and hosts several good galleries. "So, what kind of painting are you looking for Blake?" "Well, I would like one traditional style, perhaps of a village Barong dance and I would like a semi-nude of a Balinese woman similar to the style that I saw in the Neka museum the other day." "I know where to take you for the Ubud style painting but the other one… Hmm … There was a gallery just down the road that had some nudes that had women in provocative poses bent over in such a way as you could see-" "Uhmm, Uh, I was thinking of something lower key, more romantic, representing the true Balinese women". Matt was visibly disappointed, he obviously had something more lascivious in mind. We go from studio to studio and again I notice that the detail in the kind of painting I am looking for just is not there. (Perhaps my timing was off but I suspect that the old style is not painted with as much detail as before) We give up on the Ubud style painting and concentrate on the nude. Persistence is rewarded with success. I negotiate a small discount off of the price of a painting by an unknown Japanese artist and we depart leaving some very happy studio owners. Now I just have to get carvings in the morning and my shopping list is complete.

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