Sunday was still wet but we had a driver booked and planned to tour. After breakfast we headed off south east. First stop was Celuk to watch the silversmiths and see the various stages of crafting silver jewellery. Interesting. Bought matching earrings and bracelet for my sister. Some lovely stuff available if you're into silver (which I'm not) and very wealthy (which I'm also not!)
Trundled off, heading toward Candidasa. Our driver was very good at telling us about the areas we went through and explaining what we were seeing. Spoke good English. Had a lovely lunch at Balissa Lagoon View Cafe - which unsurprisingly had lagoon views - with the ocean beyond.
Took the long way home via Sanur and saw those superbly muscled and tanned young men flying across the water on those kite surfer thingies; bypass to Seminyak for a drink and to check out a few shops then on to Tanah Lot for a look around. Returned to Ubud "the back way" to complete the triangle.
Monday was our last day and we opted for a quiet one. After our last breakfast with the macaques we got a taxi to Nyuh Kuning to visit Bumi Sehat and deliver the baby clothes, equipment and money we'd collected for them. We had a quick tour of the facility and were very impressed with the whole setup. In what was a real highlight for me, one of the three new mothers in the clinic was quite happy for me to have a cuddle of her tiny baby girl. Just gorgeous! I left feeling really gratified that I'd made the effort to support them.
In the afternoon we sort of shrugged, thought "here goes nothing" and did a walk through the Monkey Forest. It was interesting I suppose. The monkeys were entertaining; particularly those which were harassing tourists with food who had no bloody idea of how to interact with them or even follow the instructions posted everywhere. OK, so we've been there.
Had a final swim in the lovely infinity pool. It must be fairly new as it doesn't show up on Google Earth. Had a slap up dinner at Tropical Bale which ensured we weren't taking any excess spending money home!, then went back to pack Ugh!
Early morning call and pick up at 6.45 am for the trip to the airport. Because of our early departure, the hotel packed us up a breakfast box each. Omigod. You could have fed a small African nation for a week on the contents! I can't handle food at that hour, June neither, so we retrieved a juice box each and gave the rest to the driver who was delighted.
Went through the departure proceedings with no hassle. The airport is relatively cool and quiet in the early morning so we had a coffee and read until we boarded. Again had the exit row to ourselves - something to do with June's Garuda Club membership, I believe, but the flight was quite full.
And there ended our holiday, mercifully with no illness, no mishaps (apart from the dog) and nothing untoward. Ironic that it takes 3.5 hours to fly from Perth to Denpasar and 4.5 hours to drive from Perth home to Denmark.
I'd like to thank all the BTF members who were so helpful during the planning of our holiday. You certainly made the difference between feeling completely lost on arrival, and having a good grasp of the situation.
Elaine, aka mopprincess
PS "mopprincess" has nothing to do with a floor cleaning implement. My hobby is inlaying Mother of Pearl in timber.