Hippie Town

I picked up a free local magazine in one of the chi-chi cafes in JL Raya Ubud. This magazine is probably the most circulated publication in Ubud.

There was a 3 page article on the path to enlighten or something about your inner voice written by some expert. It was the weirdest bullshit I’ve ever read. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for finding enlightenment and all about “finding yourself”. I am no grammar Nazi for I, make a lot of mistakes in my random blogging. This was one was so bad it deserved to be photocopied and sent out to my editor friends. The article used a lot of “….” , italicized words, bold words and capitalized words. The thing that bothered me the most is like it was written while the author was smoking pot. No, he wasn’t smoking pot. He was probably on acid. It was the kind of essay that would earn a scribbled note from your teacher --- “And your point is?”

 In the same magazine it was advertised that you can have your own Eat, Pray & Love retreat with the help of some mystical jewelry set. Sounds like an ad straight from the home TV shopping network. It was also done in poor taste since this “healer” is using someone else’s work to promote her products and services.

Ubud is no doubt the center of arts in Bali or Indonesia, even. Just about every Balinese is a painter, musician, sculptor or artist. Even the guy who tries to sell you tickets for the show, the satay street vendor or motorbike driver is an artist.  God bless the true artists but sometimes you gotta weed out the hippies and “gurus” who descended in Ubud after Woodstock was over. Some of them are just here trying to make a quick buck from gullible tourists.