The Pondok Pekak Library and Learning Center

On my final day in Ubud, I spend a leisurely day visiting the Pondok Pekak Library and Learning Center. Named after a priest/healer from the area, Pondok Pekak roughly means “Gradfather’s little resting house in the rice fields.” Located near the large (and only) football field in town, the center offers a relaxing place to spend an afternoon. The center was started in 1995 primarily as an expat library, but has expanded their focus into encouraging local kids in the “love of reading” mentality. This led to the development in 2001 of a children’s library with books in Indonesian and English. As their brochure attests, and I can well believe, they have a collection of over 10,000 books in a wide range of topics including Indonesian, Balinese, and SEA studies.

An on-sight learning center offers traditional music and dance classes, woodcarving lessons, Indonesian language courses, etc. Plus there is a restaurant, tours can be arranged, and water bottles refilled for a minimal charge. The library has become self-sustaining because of these services and programs offered to tourists.

It’s at this center that I finally find a copy (actually 2 copies) of the Natural Guide to Bali – a guidebook that I had read about online, but could never seem to find. This guidebook is unique as it rates places based on how traveler-friendly, nature-friendly, and community friendly they are. Basically, it’s trying to appeal to more conscious travelling, and letting people go beyond the price when choosing a guesthouse, restaurant, or a sightseeing activity.

Selecting a few books, I find a cozy place to read on the 2^nd floor of the building.

In the evening I decide to try the Bali Buddha cafe listed in the Natural Guide to Bali book. In the book it gave the restaurant/organic health food store extra points for a project they run called ABC solutions, a waste management program they organize with local households and small tourist operations to collect recyclable waste, sort it, then transport it to the Denpasar recycling facility. They charge roughly $5 US a month for the service, so provides a good service to the community as well as providing extra income for their business which is visited mostly by tourists and expats.

The restaurant is located above the organic food store, so is rather small in size – about 10 tables and another room that acts as a sitting/waiting room full of couches. When I arrived the restaurant was full, but by the time my food arrived I had found a vacated table next to an interesting faux-wall made up of linked together wind chimes. I have to agree with the guidebook, the food is very good and healthy, while going that extra step to provide a valuable community service within the area.

Ubud’s Sacred Monkey Forest

On my second day in Ubud, I walk to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary on the far South side of town. This tourist attraction is run by the Padangtegal village, and contains local holy temples – and it really does have a lot of monkeys.

There are three holy temples in the forest. The first is the Holy Bathing Temple, its use is pretty self explanatory, and it’s located next to a stream. The second is a large temple called Pura Dalem Agung, and the third is a cremation temple that’s located next to a graveyard. One must pay careful attention when walking around these temples, since monkeys really are everywhere – I almost tripped over quite a few (probably not the best interaction between a human and the revered monkeys of the “sacred monkey forest”. ) Staff in green outfits stand around the park, and give guidance on feeding the monkeys. I asked one of the staffers how many monkeys are in the park. “Over 300.”

The Sacred Monkey Forest is run by a council called The Padantegal Wenara Wana foundation, and different stakeholders and village members serve on the council. Their goal is to maintain the sacredness and culture of the area, while promoting it to domestic and international visitors. No easy task, as tourism has jumped from 800 a month in 1986 to around 10,000 visitors a month at present. While the early morning and late afternoons are fairly quiet, the temple receives a large amount of tour buses during the day. Here are the 3 goals of the foundation, as listed on their website:

· Educating people about the importance of conserving the Sacred Monkey Forest's natural and cultural resources.

• Maintaining a team of highly trained staff members that are responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the Sacred Monkey Forest.

• Monitoring and whenever necessary restoring the integrity of the Sacred Monkey Forest's natural and cultural resources.
  
  
• Unfortunately, due to the rainy weather my pictures of the place weren’t that great, but if you’d like to see the monkeys here is a video someone youtubed.
  

So, is this an example of responsible tourism? Unfortunately, the information office next to the forest was closed when I visited. The only thing I saw besides some darkened and locked offices were cheeky looking monkeys hanging out on the balcony nearby. I asked Sherry, the Ubud expat I met, about the forest and she did mention the local village was benefiting economically from the tourism. Environmentally, tourism has created a reason to protect the woods and animals inside – though with all the bananas being handed out the monkey community seems to have expanded disproportionately with the size of the forest. And what about socially, what are the effects of this site as a tourist attraction – does it still maintain a cultural meaning to Padangtegal village???

www.monkeyforestubud.com

Meeting Sherry

As I mentioned, there are quite a few expats living in Ubud. Before arriving I’d been in contact with Sherry, who used to write for the Inside Indonesia (www.insideindonesia.org) online magazine. While she has moved into more translation and editing work, she still sat down to talk with me at Three Monkeys Café, located just a few blocks away from the Monkey Forest.

Canadian by birth, she’s lived in Indonesia for over 10 years and almost 8 ½ of those years in Ubud, Bali. Sherry has helped with the organizing part of several alternative tourism programs, and has worked as a communication facilitator between groups and locals. Sitting down with her, I got to hear some interesting stories about taking a group through Papua to talk with the local tribes people in the Baliem valley. Closer to home, she also discussed the challenges of village home stays in Bali. From the tourist perspective, she explains, “they want a genuine experience, not someone trying to sell them something.” From the perspective of those just beginning to operate local homestays, many were a bit shy and embarrassed about hosting visitors in their humble home. In addition, while some go on pilgrimages, very few travel for the sake of travelling, and it is still a foreign concept, especially in villages, to go to a place with no set purpose, but just to observe. In a creative activity Sherry helped arrange, they took the tour group and the villagers running the home stay to the Bali bird park. This allowed both parties to interact together, and for the villagers to get a glimpse of what it was like being a tourist.

Another interesting pointer I received from Sherry is the importance of stories. From her observation at the local level, many of the community created programs that last are the places that integrate a story and connect with their visitors. For example, just taking visitors to a village doesn’t produce a connection. Even taking visitors to a village and pointing out different trees, plants, etc. doesn’t produce a connection. However, going that next step of taking visitors to a village, and integrating stories people can relate too, and pointing out trees and plants but explaining their use from a cultural standpoint is more likely to engage visitors.

It was an enjoyable time sitting down and talking with Sherry, and she offered some very interesting insights about developing tourism initiatives at the local level.

Threads of Life

The town of Ubud seems like a contradiction to the sun and sand tourism of the Southern Bali. Here is the cultural hub of Bali, where traditions and art on display, though the town seems as equally developed as the popular tourist areas farther South. The central part of Ubud is full of homestays, restaurants - many offering organic fair, and boutiques. These chic little boutiques sell upscale versions of local arts and crafts. Ubud used to be a much smaller village, but its popularity as a tourism destination caused the village to grow and absorb some of the neighboring villages. To support this expansion many rice fields were developed into hotels and home stays, though Ubud is still a very popular place to take walks, or bike rides, around the scenic surrounding area. I’m also noticing it is a popular place for expats, and sign postings for apartments to rent are common on all the billboards.

One slight hassle I am noticing, every 3^rd person appears to be a pseudo-taxi driver. In Ubud, there aren’t many official taxi cars, but these pseudo-taxi drivers offer rides in private vehicles and on the back of motorcycles. It’s a regular soundtrack when one tries to walk anywhere, “taxi?”, “you need taxi?”, “taxi, miss?”

On one of my ventures around town I discover the “Threads of Life” Indonesian Textile Arts Center off a quiet street in the far North part of town. Proudly displayed on the glass window near the entrance is a letter and certificate from Islands magazine nominating the center as part of their December 2007 issue "Blue-List of 100 Responsible Tourism Attractions." There is also a seal of approval from the International Fare Trade Association displayed on the sliding glass door into the cool air-conditioned building.

The Threads of Life center works with weaving associations on 9 different islands, and showcases products at the center in Bali. I look around the store at the different textiles, each includes a name tag that describes the item, its traditional use, and who it was tied by, dyed by, and woven by. As the store clerk lady proudly points out, not only are all the textiles produced laboriously by hand, but the dyes used are sustainably and naturally produced.

As she tells me, Threads of Life works to help each weaving center based on their individual needs. At some associations they help train weavers in order management, quality control, and bookkeeping. At others, the focus is on reaching a broader domestic and international market. Since 2005 the group has been organizing a yearly conference, the Nusantara Weaver’s Festival, to join these women from the different programs in one place where they can discuss their craft with other weavers. At the center a DVD of the conference plays continuously on the small TV in one corner of the room.

As a tourism student, I’ve found it particularly interesting how they’ve combined tourism in with the weaving program and shop. At the center they offer classes and workshops that teach about textiles, and how to make them. At a full day Batik workshop they offer, participants pick their own leaves for coloring, and watch the preparation of the indigo vat and paste. They then learn to hand-draw designs on cloth, and dye and re-dye their cloth. There is an even longer program that involves an 8 to 14 day trip around Bali that visit weaving programs and delves into the socio-cultural links.

The Threads of Life organization seems to be doing very positive work to impact the environment, society, and economy of those involved in the weaving programs. In particular, the program encourages sustainable dye plant use and handspun thread, which promotes organic farming of cotton and indigo and avoids chemical dyes. The program also encourages pride in culture through the act of making the traditional fabrics, which are then promoted as an art form – and sold at similar prices, thus generating revenue that goes back to the weavers and their families.

If you’d like to learn more about the organization, here is their contact information:

Threads of Life
Jalan Kajeng 24, Ubud
www.threadsoflife.com
tac@threadsoflife.com