One meal I should have mentioned is the full moon sea side dinner that IPB put on for the guests. I have the impression that this is a monthly event and they brought out the gamelan band and the Legong dancers for a brief show. It was a nice night while that went on, but after dessert the hotel band came out to play a selection of 'international hits' (oh boy). My wife almost peed her pants listening to these guys mangle the words to various common Italian, Russian and German songs. I'm fluent in German and I didn't know what they were singing when my wife said it was a German folk song.
We had another similar situation one evening before we found out about Mama's. We walked into a nice looking restaurant with various pools separating the dining places and there was an older local man strumming on a guitar. As we took our seats he started singing, or uhm, he started mangling the words to a few songs. I suspect some less than well meaning Aussie had taken the piss out of this poor guy at some time. He was strumming 'leaving on a jet plane' but he was singing 'Sreeping on a Jet Train'. I don't think he came up with that all by himself.
His next song was 'Country Roads', but there was a total disconnect between his strumming, and his mangling of the words. Have you ever tried to sing along to 'Country Roads', played in ¾ time? Oh boy.
My wife informed me that his last international hit was Frank Sinatra's 'My Way'. He certainly sang it his way because I didn't recognize it.
Anyway, the old feller sat down to drink a small beer and about 15 minutes later he got back up to start mangling various international hits again. He started his next set with 'Sreeping on a Jet Train', so it's rather likely that he has been destroying these three songs for quite some time. All a part of the adventure I suppose, but it's giving me a head ache just thinking about it.
As for typical Balinese music I can say that I've heard enough of the gamelan and bamboo flute for a while. I actually like these instruments and I find them relaxing to listen to, for about 20 minutes at a time. I haven't figured out why they mix these instruments with those out-of-tune tambourines. My wife calls it kling-klong music and doesn't like it at all. Still, it is an original bit of culture and should be respected.