Monday being the first day ( well half a day ) was spent unpacking and settling in. We are more than happy with the rooms on the first floor on the garden side of the hotel, they overlook the pool and always seem to catch a breeze. This time we were up-graded to a tropical terrace room, very nice but you miss the chat and the Om swastiastu's from the gardeners, the crossing man, the drivers and reception staff. Apparently we got the up-grade because this was the 33rd time we had stayed at the hotel,the room had plenty of flowers, plenty of fruit and a complimentary bottle of local wine,talk about being spoilt ! I brought the wine back as I need to do some paint stripping ! There was an abundant supply of English Breakfast Tea Bags in the room, my favourite,and a large jug of milk for numerous brews; they have such good memories.
I had a couple of phone calls to make, one to the beautiful blonde at
Buahan and one to the orphanage in Amlapura to confirm the arrangements for a visit, waste of time with the orphanage as this had already been arranged as was the car for Buahan, I just needed to let them know which day.
Eventually got on to the beautiful blonde and to our delight, her and her huband had a free day on the Tuesday so we arranged to meet at the hotel and go out for lunch with two of the hotel staff. I'm going to put a big pat on the back here for Accor and Novotel. They are so supportive of our efforts for the orphanage and for the little bloke up at Buahan that they supply the transport and a driver for our convenience.
First breakfast on the Tuesday morning, there's another shift of staff on duty and once again it's half an hour to get through to sit down for a coffee, once again the missus is being feted and swooned upon by one and all ( the tart ) Breakfasts are massive and so good.
Had a look at the beach, there had been some erosion which was not so obvious after 500 loads of rocky sand filling topped off with sand, a billion rupes worth apparently which they are going to do again after the tide fininshed with it on Thursday evening.
Tuesday lunch over at La Lorraine with the beautiful blonde her hubby and two staff members who are also big time in supporting us. The beautiful blonde looked absolutely drop dead gorgeous as ever.I got a lovely cuddle, (thought I'd have to get a cold shower.) It's the first time we had really had time together and we learned so much about the pair of them and their support for their community, We take our hats off to them. After lunch they became tourists for the afternoon and relaxed with us and a few Bintangs at the hotel. Sad to see them go but I had the bonus of seeing them the next day.
Wednesday up to Buahan, left at 7.30am a lovely drive up through Batu Bulan, Singapadu, Kedewatan, Payangan, Kintamani then drop down to Buahan and Lake Batur. Really is a lot of lovely scenery. The little bloke at Buahan was born with one and a half arms and one and a half legs. It was when I did a posting on this very forum that I had access to a special childs wheelchair that the beautiful blonde responded that she could use it and another one. The boy is now mobile and growing, he was too heavy for his Mum to carry about, now he is at school and if I have ever in my life seen a change in a little bloke it's this one, Yoko. The culture in the village is very strong, you do NOT give money, it's Dads job to provide but a couple of boxes of cakes provided by the hotel always go down well as do long thick Aussie socks for Dad and woollen leggings for Mum, gets a bit cool up there. Another thing I learned from the beautiful woman up there is to stick to traditional culture and wrap gifts up in red paper which will be opened after you have gone. And Gator I hope you are having a read because your donated whellchair keeps on chugging on, well done mate. Came back to the hotel and had lunch at Tampak Siring, if you haven't seen the goings on there with the Holy Bathing and you are somewhere near Ubud youshould have a gander. The tucker there is excellent.
I'm getting back ache and bum ache here and I fancy a brew.
If you want more I'll do an Arnie and I'll be back with the trip to the orphanage.