Days 4, 5 and 6 (March 12th, 13th and 14th)
Wayan Merta picked us up from Vila Shanti at 8.30am so we could get to SD3 Sobangan school by 10am. There wasn't much traffic on the road so we arrived early. Due to the couple of weeks of celebrations with Galungan, Nyepi then Kanungan the schools were closed for 2 weeks but Agung from Bali Rotary had arranged for 10 children from 4 schools to all meet at SD3. Surprise surprise, about 60 - 80 children had turned up to school and there were at least 3 teachers. (Note to self, I must organize some worthwhile gifts for the teachers next trip). Wo, the pressure was on! Just Judy, Wayan Merta, Agung and myself were there. The children do look forward to getting some presents. I handed out gifts and letters for children as pre arranged, spent some time talking (thru Wayan as interpretor) to my 2 girls and other children I recognized. I had about 30 colouring books (I have another 100 but they are so heavy), pens, textas, toothbrushes, some bouncy balls to give out and the boys went crazy!
We toured the new library and unfortunately this is doubling as a classroom since the roof repairs on 3 of the 6 classrooms has still not be made. Damn beauriocrisy
The older girls performed a welcome dance for us and then a group of younger girls did their dance. Oh it was lovely. Some of the parents had waited at the school too so it was great being able to understand and learn more about the children.The mother of one of the girls that I sponsor,, Tina, came up to school again and she speaks quite good English so its lovely to talk to her. I took individual photos of a few children for their sponsors and we headed off after an hour or so.
We arrived at Tegal Sari (TS) in Ubud at 1pm and since check in time isn't until 2 and our room wasn't available earlier, Wayan took us for a drive to Cahaya Pacific word work shop where we bought some wooden elephants, buddhas at wholesale prices, no bargaining, just ease. The address is Jl Raya Andong No 38 Ubud. Its well worth a visit for wooden pieces. I paid 45000 for quite a large elephant and would have bargained down to 100000 or maybe 150000 in the market!
Wayan dropped us a Indus for lunch. We walked down underneath to the area where Jess and Mark are getting married. I took lots of photos for Jess to help her visualize the size and shape of the area. We went upstairs to the top level to lunch. We ordered the loveliest salads and followed with a lime tart to share. Oh yum. We also had fresh juices. Janet knows how to run a number of excellent businesses!
As we were eating the skies opened up and it poured for about 30 minutes. It is an amazing sight to see the intensity of the downpour, particularly from under cover. I rang Tegal Sari and they drove up to pick us up. (Cost 20000 or 30000 rp as its outside the ‘cbd' of Ubud). Our room was ready so we acquainted ourselves with the room (Super Deluxe #8) and wandered around. Coincidentally Trevor and I stayed in the same room last August. (But then again there are only 4 at that standard...) There are now 2 wooden rooms at TS, they have built another room between the duplex and gym. Another building is going up out on the rice paddies past the original wooden room. We were told that a guest has financed the building. It will be interesting to see what sort of room it will be. We watched ladies carrying near black cement mix and rocks on their head out on to the rice paddies and along to the building site. We watched a man cutting grasses from the edge of the rice paddie walkways and after taking a few photos he offered to show us his cows (nothing else fortunately). I think his name was Wilco. He lives across the rice paddies between Tegal Sari and the monkey forest. We took off our shoes and toe rings and plodded thru the mushy bits to get to his home. By the way, the rice had been stripped, the stubble had been flooded and the ducks were chomping on the bugs. Wilco's cows looked very impressive but his home didn't. It would rate about minus 5 stars. He picked us a number of guava from his tree, sliced one open for us to try and gave us a plastic bag to take back. We paid him 10000rp each for the ‘tour' as he had asked for money when we first took his photos. He also wanted some prints of photos of himself so I arranged some and handed them to another rice paddy worker the next morning.
(Has anyone ever mentioned how enjoyable it is to do a JBR, since your mind takes you back in time to that wonderful holiday and you relive the moments as you type).....
Left TS and wandered thru the monkey forest. We saw heaps of monkeys with hardly any other tourists. We didn't venture up to the temple, just walked the quick trip. We walked up and down to the Ubud market but it was not very busy around sunset. We had digital memory cards downloaded at the Ubud music shop and went across the road to the Lotus Café for dinner. The Legong performance was happening in the Royal Palace so we watched as we ate and drank. I paid 25000 to have 2 cards put on to one cd and ordered a few prints. 4R cost 1500 and 6R 5000rp.
Judy would have preferred to walk back but I convinced her that the pavements, walkways and roads are too dangerous at night with gaping holes in some areas. We negotiated transport. Back at TS we went for a swim and since the power was dodgy, a member of staff lit tealight candles and placed then around the pool for us (even though officially the pool was closed - gee the staff at TS are terrific through and through).
Next morning we ordered our breakfast to be delivered on to our front patio. It is like you have gone to heaven when you observe the peace and tranquility of life on the rice paddies. I love it.
We had tried to arrange cooking classes at TS but since we were the only starters they suggested referring us to Bumba Bali or Casa Luna. We had a change of direction and decided to do the almost fullday bike tour which Nicno in her JBR described so well last year. Headed off to the monkey forest again for a longer look at the temple, saw penned dear and lots of monkeys. None of the monkey rehaved badly except snatching the bag with bananas. We saw groups with Mums and babes. One baby still had the umbilical cord attached and a staff member said monkey was only about 5 days old. I love the way you can see her checking her for nits and she checking the one beside and the third checking the first with babies playing and diving back to Mums boob when times looked tough. We then headed down to the market, stopped for refreshments at Café Wayan bakery, bought a few bits and pieces, handbag, thongs, sarong etc then on to Casa Luna café for lunch.
We had to get back to the Zen centre for out 2 - 3 hours of pampering. I had the massage, body scrub and milk bath with flower petals and had Mandi Lulur. We then shared a room and lost many lines and a number of years off our looks by indulging in a facial with cucumber mask. Gee it made my skin soft, almost ‘soft as babies bottom'. We slided into Dirty Duck for dinner and then back to TS for an early night.
The bike tour transport arrived to pick us up before 8. We picked up 2 other couples and drove up to Kintamani. I haven't been there for 8 or more years and really enjoyed the view.
We headed off downhill in the transport van and stopped at a plantation where we saw cocoa trees, coofee, vanilla beans/pods, snake fruit and heaps of other plants, fruits and spice. We watched a fellow roasting coffee beans, over a fire, then grinding the beans. We were offered tea,cocoa and coffee too drink. The coffee was superb but the cocoa was outstanding. I have never tasted such rich natural flavour. We headed downhill to where we collected our mountain bikes. They were all is quite good condition and helmets were offered. Ken our guide was fabulous in teaching us to have a better understanding of Balinese life, customs and the Hindu temples and beliefs. I found his talks most enlightening. We pedalled, but mainly rolled downhill for 25 km, easy as! You really just have to be careful of the road surface and hand on the brake to keep from speeding up too fast. We stopped along the way at some rice fields where they were stripping the rice, shaking out the rice grain and bagging the rice. The working ladies were amused when we gave them a hand! (Wayan Merta suggested that we had earned some cash to pay for our holiday!) Just around the corner there was a ceremony taking place with crowds of millions. Wow, it was the biggest gathering of people I have ever seen in Bali. I recalled later that Nicno had mentioned they past a ‘village idiot'. Yes the fully naked man holding a bamboo pole also greeted us along the way. And do you think I could manage to contain my surprise, keep pedaling, watch the road and find the camera to take a snapshot! Bugger, I did all but take the photo. As Ken mentioned later, the naked man had a very big ‘kohuna'. (Note to self, have battery fully charged in camera and ready to shoot when on next bike ride).
We arrived alongside the river at the end of our ride, downed another cold drink with bananas and drove on to the traditional Balinese home. A family of artists were at work and Ken explained the usal setout for a home. No-one was impressed with the kitchen and our French riders couldn't find the cheese and bread sticks anywhere. Our final stop was at a homestay where we enjoyed a scruptuous feast of food. We spent an hour or two over lunch then headed back to Ubud. We were dropped off at Tegal Sari around 4 rather than visiting the monkey forest again. Gee we enjoyed the ride or should I say 25km roll down to Ubud.
We went for a swim and read then walked down to arrange some more photo prints and another cd burn. I had my heart set on buying a painting and had checked out many galleries. I found one artist whose work I particulary liked so we went up to the Negara Gallery and fortunately found a number of pieces to choose from. I negotiated a price and said yes I would buy but needed to change some money first. I asked for directions to the closest money changer and the girl in the gallery got worried that I would not come back. No matter how I tried to reassure her she remained doubtful then came up with her best solution. I had to hop on the back of her motor bike with her young son, Judy had to mind the gallery and off we went for me to change money. (Just another thing that wouldn't happen in Australia). The painting was removed from its frame and rolled into a tube and we headed off and enjoyed drinks at Arys Warung opposite the Royal Palace. During this trip we saw many groups of boys walking Barongs through the streets and collecting donations. I love the smile on the faces of the boys playing their musical instruments and having fun. We paid transport to take us back to TS. Had dinner at Nurianis which is outside TS, across the front rice fields. We enjoyed our meal and paid hardly anything for it. That's handy to know for next time for a nice more authentic Balinese meal at a warung close by and not cost-a-plenty.
Next morning Made (Wayan Merta's brother) picked us up for our change of accommodation down to Bali Mystique in Seminyak.