Our driver for the day picked us up at 8am and we headed for the Panti Asuhan Kesayan Ikang Papa, it is a small orphanage for about 20 handicapped children in Gianyar on Jl Elangga. Gianyar is east of the southern tourist areas, past Sukawati where the great markets are, towards Klungkung, Candi Dasa, Amlapura, Tirtagangga and Amed. Its about 30 Km from Kuta and much less from Sanur of course.
Called in at Hardy's to get some dried food stuffs, ended up with 50kls rice, plus spices, veg, dried fish and eggs. Arrived there about 10am to find that about half of the children were out on a day trip, which was lovely for them. We created much excitement by our arrival, the kids were giggling and happy as I popped hats on a few heads as I passed. There was a new director apparently, who after the driver spoke to in length turned out to be a good guy, we were told not to pass over any money until this was established as it seems that it has been known in the past that people have pocketed money that had been donated. The staff could not speak english and I can speak only a little Bahasa Indonesian, so not a great deal was said between us, which was ok as I spent most of my time there interacting with the children. Out of the ones left there for the day, 3 or 4 were non-verbal and had hearing impairments, they used basic signing between them, one young lady had a sight impairment and the other few had an intellectual disability. One little girl has a facial deformity, she has had two operations in Oz but need another, so is waiting hopefully for someone to sponsor her for that. The children's ages ranged from about 6yrs to 16 yrs.
I am by qualification a Social Trainer so felt quite at home with these great kids and we managed to communicate to some degree.
They all looked happy and cared for and they obviously liked their carers. We were shown around the place which was clean and tidy, these people did not know that we were going so it was a normal situation. They had just had the toilets renovated, one for the boys and one for the girls. They have a dormitary style bedroom for each of the genders with beds and mattresses, and a couple of bunk beds.
We had taken 2 large bags of toys, colouring books, pens, pencils etc plus toiletries, hats and other things I had bought over the past few months. Some very generous people from our town had given us donations to take so we had approx $200au to give them also.
We took some pictures and some video of them all, and they loved it when we played it back for them. It was a great few hours we spent there and it seemed that the children enjoyed the time as much as we did. The carers are doing a great job and the Mandira Hotel has begun to sponsor them which helps greatly.
After our goodbyes we set off for Ubud, on my to do list was lunch at Ibu Oka's, the well known warung for Babi Guling. We were lucky enough to find 2 spare seats, quite often you have to queue to get seated I am told. No sooner had we sat when a plate of food was put in front of us, rice topped with pieces of pork, a piece of crackling on the side, a small piece of black sausage and a portion of very hot sambal. Everyone gets the same and pays the same, 20.000 each. Babi Guling is all they cook here. Yum, the meat was delicious and the crackling was some of the best I have ever tasted. I passed on the blacking pudding stuff and the hot stuff but the rest was lovely. The place is very basic, no airs and graces, it has been there for over 25 years I hear, a great experience and highly recommended. we went for a quick look at the markets in Ubud, then set off back to the hotel for a rest before hitting the streets again for dinner.
Bamboo Corner for dinner, just off the legian st end of Poppies 2. This was one of the best and cheapest meals we had in Bali, Nasi Goreng, Mie Goreng, black rice pudding ( to die for) and 2 large bintangs, all for 49.000rup.
A good day was had by all.