Ary's Warung in Ubud, Bali

I thought while I'm waiting for my new glasses, I could post some of my sketches from a long time ago.

 More to the point - I've never posted my sketches of Bali as a series!

The Japanese waiting for a plane
Ary's Warung, Ubud, Bali
5 May 1997
pencil in Daler Rowney hardback black sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've still got my sketchbook notes of my stay in Bali in 1997 and this is in fact the last day and very nearly the last sketch.

This was morning and lunch on the last day.

5th May 1997 Taxi down to masseur (Metari). Bought shirt for J and T shirt for me. Changed money.  Thai calamari salad, lemon grass tea and white cocolate cheescake at Ary's Warung.  Sketched interior.  

Venice has Harry's Bar and Ubud in Bali has Ary's Warung.

Looking at what it's like today, I'm rather glad I visited it back in the 90s before it introduced chrome and the starched linen!  It looks as it's changed a lot.

Back then it was cane, cane and rattan on the verandah which contrasted with the lush greens of vegetation outside where I sat, watching the world go by.  There was a constant stream of customers - although some waited rather longer than others such as the Japanese couple in the centre of this sketch who were obviously killing time before the journey to the airport.

This is what I wrote when I first posted on Making A Mark about this place

I sat in Ary's Warung on the main street in Ubud in Bali and started to draw some people while I had a pot of their lemon grass and ginger tea. And it just turned into one of those sketches where you order another pot of tea and then lunch as your sketch keeps creeping across the page until every last bit is filled. People came and went - which was a bit of a challenge - and the Japanese couple with their suitcases that I had started sketching originally finally left for the airport to catch their flight.MAKING A MARK: Ary's Warung 27 April 2006

What I do remember - across the years - is the lemon grass tea.  I think it had a sliver of ginger in it as well.  When I think of Bali now I think of the lemon grass tea - and I've never been made able to make it the way I had it there.  Must be something to do with the freshness of the lemon grass....

I'll see if I can get my sketches about Bali posted before I get my new post-operative glasses at the beginning of next month - at which time sketching can return to normal.

Address: Ary's Warung, Jl. Raya Ubud Kedewatan, Ubud, Gianyar, Bali 80571, Indonesia
Contemporary Reviews of Ary's Warung on: Trip Adviser | Lonely Planet | Frommers.

You can see other sketches from this particular travel sketchbook on my website at:

• Travels with a Sketchbook - Australia
• Travels with a Sketchbook - Bali

You can also see other sketches from different places in the Travels with a Sketchbook galleries on my website "Pastels and Pencils".

Chocolate cake at Kensington Palace Café

I have to report that the Chocolate Chip Muffins on offer at the Kensington Palace Café are the best chocolate muffins in London! Hugely chocolatey, with chunkie chips of chocolate on top and moist and runny in the middle.

I know you think this is a sketchbook blog - however I do entertain serious aspirations to being asked to sketch meals anywhere you care to mention! (see Foodie Drawings and my sketches of  Interior Landscapes on my portfolio website)

Chocolate Brownie and Chocolate Chip Muffin at the Kensington Palace Café
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

We visited Kensington Palace today - following its reopening earlier this year after a major refurbishment.  It's well worth a visit if you come to London.

We did the Kings State Apartments in the morning and the Queens State Apartments and Victoria Revealed in the afternoon.  My only real criticism is that the method of telling you what you're looking at is very much geared up to those with good eye-sight which I found disappointing.  Methinks Lucy Worsley needs a rethink on this one! However the Palace makes up for this by having some excellent room guides.  If you'rte not familiar with the background to the Kensington Palace and which members of the Royal Family have lived at the Palace, this is

• A building history - Kensington Palace
• Palace People
• Interactive timeline

After our visit to Hampton Court Palace, where the cafe was seriously below par, we weren't too hopeful about lunch today.  However the new Cafe is really excellent - great furniture, lovely food and well lit.  Plus the food is great!  We had lunch - and "he who must not be bored while I sketch" had to wait until I'd sketched his muffin before he could eat!.  Then having found out great the muffin was we had a tea break in the afternoon - and I seriously over indulged by trying out the Chocolate Chip Muffin as well - and I have to say it's by far the best chocolate muffin I've ever eaten in London!

Next summer a new part of the Palace will open to the public.  This will tell the story of the Modern Royals - Princess Margaret, Diana Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.