9am our breakfast arrived on our verandah at Kebun Indah, consisting of Fresh fruit salad with yoghurt & honey, toast and homemade jam, Sunrise had fried eggs, Sunblock had cheese omelette, Fresh Juices and Coffee.
Ubud was a little different to Kuta, not better, not worse, just different. More relaxed, the locals seemed to speak better English, and were keen to talk to you about anything at all. There wasn't as much hassling to try to get you into their shop, there were the usual . . . 'helloooo, transport?' and many, many smiles, the traffic on hanoman and MFR wasn't nearly as busy as Kuta, but OMG I believe there are even more bikes here, how is this possible!! Lol. 'Helloooo, where you from?' . . . Australia . .. 'Sydney? Melbourne'.
We walked up Jl.Hanoman a little then down MFR to the monkey forest, stopping along the way. I purchased a beautiful silver necklace at Utami Silver, I can't remember how much I paid for it but it was a fraction of the price asked for the same piece at the silver factory in Celuk. Harrys Shop, MFR, 2x Karimba's and a sml -med size bongo drum was 275,000. We stopped at the 3 monkeys for a drink and as sunblock was not feeling well, had the driver from Kebun Indah come pick her up. Sunrise soldiered on (sauntered actually) up the hill to the Ubud Market.
O-M-G what a place these markets were, so much to look at, it was great not being hassled so much like in Ubud, all the sellers were wonderful and so much cheaper than Kuta. OMG I love shopping in Bali (which I hardly ever do at home). I ran out of Rupiah!!! And I wanted to buy this one last dress that I had to have lol, the girls were great and showed me on a calculator the equivelant in ozzy dollars, so that I could buy it, a silk dress $25. I bought some beautiful clothes for my 4 yr old daughter at an average of 35,000 a piece. 'special price for you, just 250,000' oh no too much . .. bargaining, bargaining, 'how much you pay . .. no more, more than . .last price, good for you, good for me', . . I just love it, love the Balinese people :)
Stopped at Ja Juice on Dewa Sita, it is an organic health type café, had a chicken & avo roll and one to take away and a fresh mixed juice for 85,000. Back at the hotel with all my bags. Met Kim & Ian in the room next to ours also from an area near us in OZ. Had a swim, it was Friday night, about 7.30 had a most excellent full body massage at Dimas for 60,000/ 1hour, getting just a little more use to the nakedness thing. Had dinner at Pundi-Pundi, the place was packed, dinner was scrumdilly licous - beef ribs, sirloin steak, 2 x soft drinks, 180,000 (about $10 each).
Day 5 . . .Jalan Jalan
As i had not been on a real holiday before, i was beginning to realise just how stressed i had been at home, and just how relaxing a holiday can be, physically and mentally, especially in a place such as Bali, with the balinese . . ummm . . how do i say . . way of life . . .their disposition. We often didn't know what day it was, and very seldom knew what time it was, it didn't matter. Except for the night we arrived in Bali, it hadn't been nearly as hot as had expected it to be, I am a bit of a stick figure so I love the heat and never thought it was too hot. If you got hot, you jump in a pool.
Our wonderful driver, Ketut had organised tickets for the bali safari park at Mara River the day before so that we didn't have to wait in any lines. But unfortunately Sunblock was not feeling well and we need to postpone, If it hadn't been for Ketut we would of lost our money, after a couple of phone calls Ketut was able to convince them to allow us to postpone till tomorrow. Ketut was worth his weight in gold.
So, Sunrise, ventured off on her own, 'I'll just be an hour or two'. Hehehe I honestly believed that at the time. I sauntered(?) up Jl.Hanoman to the Palace, I don't know how long it took, it is a LONG way, looking at this & that, trying to look at everything as I walked & at the same time hoping I wouldn't disappear into a gaping hole in footpath. I heard many, many hellooo's - 'helloooo . . .' . . is he talking to me? Where is he. Oh yes across the road, 'you want transport? Where you going?', the palace, 'ah long way, you want taxi?' , No thank you, Jalan Jalan. Of course this was repeated many, many, many times lol. I finally got to Ubud main road, Wow, what a sight, here there were not just hundreds, but thousands of bikes :), old women selling detailed knives, even more transport guys, women walking with baskets on their heads, whole families out on one bike, OMG! How cute is that little girl! Many smiles and knowing nods were exchanged with aussie looking people in passing and also many Europeans.
I got towards the end of the main road, and was thinking about trying to find a leather shop that I had heard on this forum, but I wasn't going to keep walking down that road for nothing. 'helloooo, you want transport?' hmmm, yes I did! He had a car, So I told him about the leather shop which of course he knew about and took me there, helped me talk to the shop owner, I made no purchases and he brought me back again, he offered to take me on a rice paddy tour in his village for a couple of hours, but I was a little less sure about that one! So off I went again up the main road, I found some beautiful batik patchwork bedspreads, and sat on the step talking to the old lady who makes them, she was lovely. I talked to many, many locals that day, they are all happy to, a very enjoyable thing to do. I bought a single & a double bedspread from her for 210,000 total. Just a little further up the road I purchase a beautiful hand crotched long sleeve jacket for my little daughter for only 40,000. And I got some advice from an Aussie lady in a tour shop about posting the bedspreads back if I ran out of my weight limit. I purchased some silver plated buddhas and dragons for about 60-70,000 each, which I had previously looked at for 125,000 special price.
I had lunch at Warung Laba Laba as I was craving just a plain old toasted sandwich or similar. Had a ham, cheese and tomato jaffle and a Banana milkshake, made with real bananas of course for 33,000. They also do some nice looking salads, etc. Okay home time, NO more shopping, no more spending! But of course just a little way down the road I damnwell purchase a lovely suede handbag made in Nepal! Ok 'Transport, Please, Take me away from these shops'!
I picked up our laundry a little later, 2 plastic carry bags, 4,400, clean, smelled beautiful and all pressed. It was now drizzling a little. Back at Kebun Indah I rang my children, whom I was starting to miss, there were so many sights I would of liked them to see today. I checked on Sunblock, who didn't want dinner, and organised the staff to bring her some boiled rice. Had a swim, had a shower, and took myself off to dinner at Memme's again. They are sooo nice there, don't you just love that "excuse me" the meals are great, I would never go out for dinner by myself at home! I had Chicken curry & rice, Yummo 40,000 and an Arak. Meme's is only half a dozen doors down the road from Kebun Indah on Jl Raya Pengosekan, every Wednesday night they have a live Blues band and every Saturday night a live Reggae band. I LOVE Reggae so I checked in with my friend and was back at my table by 9pm. (they have a website I believe). I tried out a few Long Island iced teas 45,000 each. What a great night! The band was great! So much fun. I have never grinned so much before coming to bali! Again I walked home tried harder not to fall in a hole in the footpath hehehe.
More to come. . . .