Wow! Here it is the last day of November for us in Bali - that means that tomorrow will be December 1st and the countdown to us having to make a move on the 7th. The past two weeks have flown by and I am guessing that this next one will go just as quickly.
We started our morning with what seems to be a bit of a routine....a 20 minute yoga (well, really it is just a stretching routine and they're trying to make us feel good by calling it yoga), then I do my meditation while Lynda lets Ketut know that we'll be ready for breakfast in 15 minutes. It's all running so smoothly you'd think we were enjoying it. LOL
This morning as I walked down the laneway to pick up our laundry from MaeMae's (which is down another little laneway off Monkey Forest Road) I found I was following a staff person from one of the other little homestays down our lane. He was carrying his laundry basket filled with sheets and towels and headed for MaeMae's too so I'm taking that as a sign.....MaeMae's is the best place to go. Our host uses MaeMae's as well and I'm sure it has everything to do with the name and nothing to do with the fact that the people who run it are super nice and the place is super clean and organized. No surprise that all of our laundry was there folded and packaged up perfectly waiting for pick up. Yep....this is the way to do laundry!
Our breakfast this morning of veggie omelet and fruit salad was so substantial that neither of us wanted any lunch so by tonight we were ready for dinner. Tonight we opted for something a little bit upscale that was situated right on Monkey Forest so we could watch all the action during dinner. As we arrived the staff were gracious and hurried to turn fans on whatever table we chose. We opted for something fairly close to the road and in no time a little dish of fresh roasted peanuts arrived. A second later a basket of crisps (an airy cracker of sorts) also materialized on our table. Right behind that were the two lemon bintang we'd ordered as soon as we sat down. Not everywhere carries the lemon bintang (beer) so when we find it we order it right away. It was icy cold and tasted just as delicious as the last one we'd had a couple days ago. For dinner we decided on a mango salad and some spring rolls as an appy and then for the main I went with the fettuccine Balinese (tossed with shrimp and calamari along with an array of balinese spices and some coconut milk) while Lynda opted for chicken pesto with garlic mashed potatoes. The whole meal was delish and we were stuffed by the end when the bill for $30 arrived. Yep...all that for $30! I love Bali! Keep in mind, even though this seems so cheap, this was a splurge that we won't do all of the time. When you think about the fact that we could just as easily have had dinner for two (including appy's and beer) for under $10....that $30 sounds like a lot!
A short stroll and a little shopping topped off the evening and now here we are back in the room and settling in with the air conditioner working overtime. I really appreciate the A/C in our room. We only use it at night time and it works really well to keep the room at about 23 degrees. It also helps dry out the sweat drenched clothes we've got hanging after even an hour of wearing them. For example tonight both Lynda and I put on dry clothes to go for dinner and although they weren't too bad from strolling the street and sitting in the restaurant we did do one thing that left mine dripping with sweat. There is a little ATM very near here that we've been using. The down side is that when you go into the little glass cubicle that the ATM is in, it is like stepping into a sauna that is even more humid and hot than the one mother nature is providing on the streets. In the time it takes me to put in my card, punch in my PIN, punch a 2 and 6 zeros (yes, 2 million $), collect my money, retrieve my card and my receipt.....I look like I just stepped out of the shower. Sweat is dripping off the end of my nose and running into my eyes, my hair is soaking wet and my clothes are stuck to me. Yep....that is one effective sauna!
While I was standing on the street waiting for Lynda to have her ATM sauna too I met a girl from Toronto who was just on her way to the airport and to Canada. She can hardly wait till she earns enough money to come back here again. In her words....."I've fallen in love with Bali and I just can't get enough of it!" Don't worry people....we're loving it too but we will be coming home.
Tonight as we were walking home down the little laneway I was paying particular attention looking for snails as I didn't want a repeat of last night's faux pax. I didn't see one until I was all the way to the entrance to our yard and when I did he was right beside a frog which totally reminded me of the nursery rhyme...."frogs and snails and puppy dog tails...." so if I see a puppy dog tail anywhere down that lane in the next day or two I'm also going to start looking for little boys! LOL
Some of you may be wondering...."heh....where are the massages she was planning to have every other day?" Well, this afternoon I did it up big and blew the budget on a 3 hour session in a fancier spa. I had a 90 minute combination massage, a 60 minute facial, and a 30 minute shampoo and head massage. Three hours later I emerged having been thoroughly rubbed and scrubbed. This spa was really nice as it has a shower right in the massage room so afterward you can clean off the majority of the oil before getting dressed and having to slip and slide your way down the street. Oh ya...price tag (taxes included) $53 CAD for the full three hours.
As a result of all that rubbing and scrubbing I'm gonna be ready for bed tonight! In fact as I type this my eyes are beginning to close so till next time....
L & L
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
November 29, 2016
You know you've become a "local" when folks you know from a village over an hour away stop by to invite you to attend a blessing ceremony down the lane! Yes, that was how our day ended today, when Pasek's wife Ngorman (sp?) and his sister in law walked into our yard with a tray filled with offerings. Today was the day for Julie's new reception area to receive it's blessing and so Pasek's 88 year old father (who is a holy man) along with Ngorman, her sister in law, and Jati's mom had all made the trip in from the village to perform this ceremony along with Pasek and the rest of us who were gathered there. The blessing consists of much singing/chanting by the old man who is performing the rites. There are many stages of blessed water being sprinkled on all corners of the building (inside and out). There is a square of cloth that has a special design drawn onto it hung at the entrance (and that will stay there until it falls off by natural means - even if it is up there for years and nothing but tatters are left). In the end, the ceremony lasted about 2 hours in total and the last 1/2 hour or so consisted of plates of the blessed offerings being passed around to all who were present. There were oranges, apples, bananas, a mango, peanuts, hard boiled eggs (both duck and chicken), cakes, cookies, and crackers of every variety. Everyone took whatever they wanted off the tray as it was offered around and then there was a little more time just spent visiting and chatting about the ceremony itself. Lynda and I felt very honoured to be able to be there to be a part of this special event as did Julie's two guests (from the Netherlands) who couldn't get over their good fortune to have arrived on such an auspicious day!
When Lynda and I arrived back to our place we discovered that it too had been blessed. There was an offering at the entrance to our yard on our sidewalk and then there was another one on our patio right at the steps that you come up from the sidewalk on. We will both hit the hay feeling very thankful for this experience tonight!
Now for the not so nice bit of tonight....this is where I have to come clean and admit that I might have done a really bad thing.....but....it was an accident, I swear! When we were walking home from Julie's tonight along the quite dark laneway I ACCIDENTALLY stepped on a snail. A massive snail who had been just inching along minding his own business until my big feet came out of the sky and tromped right on his back end! I don't think I broke his shell and I'm hoping he will just continue along his journey once he garners up the courage to come out of hiding again. He was kind of in the shadows and I just didn't see him and in fact I didn't even realize it was a snail until after I'd passed. I actually thought it was a rock....and a fair sized rock at that! It was Lynda who could see that it was a snail once I had propelled him into the more lighted part of the path. And on my way home from a ceremonial blessing to boot!!! Sheesh! Sorry!!
Remember when you were a kid and sometimes you just felt like having a backwards day? Well, it seems that I'm going backwards through today in this blog so I'll just continue on that train. LOL.
This afternoon we got home just in time (again) as the skies literally opened up and dumped buckets of rain starting at about 3:30 pm. It seems that might be the time that mother nature likes to get that rain out of her system as we've seen a bit of a pattern developing already. We had lunched at the little warung with vespas for seats again today and it was there that we were on our way home from when the first drops began to fall. Luckily that little warung is just around the corner from us!
We decided today would be another laundry day and so we did the hard labour of gathering it up and dropping it off. LOL. Yes....we both agree we like just dropping our laundry off and having it magically washed, dried, folded and awaiting pick up by the next morning. Today we decided to try a different laundry though and the reason for that switch is because this one is called MaeMae Laundry. I couldn't resist as my middle name is Mae and my granddaughters middle name is Mae so....we had to go to MaeMae's!
After dropping off the laundry we just continued down Monkey Forest Rd....all the way down the hill and past those little monsters that everyone comes from miles around to see. We both know we're gonna have to actually go into the forest one day during our time here but we're building up to it! Today walking past the forest was enough. Those damn little monkeys were everywhere....they don't know that they're supposed to stay in the forest! There were big old ones and little tiny baby ones....there was a lot of monkeys and that was just on the road.
It was HOT and HUMID today and so we stopped often to check out a shop window or maybe something inside and at one point we even stopped for a cucumber and mint juice which was AMAZING and refreshing. We also finally made it into Coco's (the grocery/everything store) as we were in need of shampoo and toothpaste. While there Lynda had the brilliant idea to pick up a couple of little facecloths so we could carry them with us to wipe the sweat from our eyes. Yes people it is that bad! I know I sweat more than most but really....this morning I was almost blinded by my own sweat! And do you know how much it stings when you get sweat in your eyes and when it stings then your eyes start to cry as though you were peeling an onion and that just adds to the gallon of liquid that is pouring off your face. Now that I've scared you all away from wanting to come here with my description of the humidity I also have to say that it's just when you're out walking in it that you sweat that much and it's not that bad when you're out in the morning or the evening...it just happens that we were out in the worst time of the day and we were overdue for a rain so the humidity was even higher.....and.....truth be told....it actually feels good in a weird kind of way. All this sweating has to be healthy! Don't we pay a small fortune to go into saunas and steam rooms? Yes....here we're in a steam room pretty much all of the time and its free!
Our walk finally came to an end when we located the shop we were looking for. It is called Goddess on the Go and they specialize in larger size clothing and all the material they use is made of natural wood fibres. Each of us managed to find a couple of things we couldn't do without and once that chore was behind us we hit the road in search of a taxi. Luckily we found one right across the street (they're everywhere here and it is $5 to go pretty much anywhere in town). It was that taxi that brought us back up the hill to our place where we walked to the vespa lunch spot.
So now you've had our whole day in a backwards sort of way.....welcome to Bali where "everything is as it should be".
Till next time,
L & L
When Lynda and I arrived back to our place we discovered that it too had been blessed. There was an offering at the entrance to our yard on our sidewalk and then there was another one on our patio right at the steps that you come up from the sidewalk on. We will both hit the hay feeling very thankful for this experience tonight!
Now for the not so nice bit of tonight....this is where I have to come clean and admit that I might have done a really bad thing.....but....it was an accident, I swear! When we were walking home from Julie's tonight along the quite dark laneway I ACCIDENTALLY stepped on a snail. A massive snail who had been just inching along minding his own business until my big feet came out of the sky and tromped right on his back end! I don't think I broke his shell and I'm hoping he will just continue along his journey once he garners up the courage to come out of hiding again. He was kind of in the shadows and I just didn't see him and in fact I didn't even realize it was a snail until after I'd passed. I actually thought it was a rock....and a fair sized rock at that! It was Lynda who could see that it was a snail once I had propelled him into the more lighted part of the path. And on my way home from a ceremonial blessing to boot!!! Sheesh! Sorry!!
Remember when you were a kid and sometimes you just felt like having a backwards day? Well, it seems that I'm going backwards through today in this blog so I'll just continue on that train. LOL.
This afternoon we got home just in time (again) as the skies literally opened up and dumped buckets of rain starting at about 3:30 pm. It seems that might be the time that mother nature likes to get that rain out of her system as we've seen a bit of a pattern developing already. We had lunched at the little warung with vespas for seats again today and it was there that we were on our way home from when the first drops began to fall. Luckily that little warung is just around the corner from us!
We decided today would be another laundry day and so we did the hard labour of gathering it up and dropping it off. LOL. Yes....we both agree we like just dropping our laundry off and having it magically washed, dried, folded and awaiting pick up by the next morning. Today we decided to try a different laundry though and the reason for that switch is because this one is called MaeMae Laundry. I couldn't resist as my middle name is Mae and my granddaughters middle name is Mae so....we had to go to MaeMae's!
After dropping off the laundry we just continued down Monkey Forest Rd....all the way down the hill and past those little monsters that everyone comes from miles around to see. We both know we're gonna have to actually go into the forest one day during our time here but we're building up to it! Today walking past the forest was enough. Those damn little monkeys were everywhere....they don't know that they're supposed to stay in the forest! There were big old ones and little tiny baby ones....there was a lot of monkeys and that was just on the road.
It was HOT and HUMID today and so we stopped often to check out a shop window or maybe something inside and at one point we even stopped for a cucumber and mint juice which was AMAZING and refreshing. We also finally made it into Coco's (the grocery/everything store) as we were in need of shampoo and toothpaste. While there Lynda had the brilliant idea to pick up a couple of little facecloths so we could carry them with us to wipe the sweat from our eyes. Yes people it is that bad! I know I sweat more than most but really....this morning I was almost blinded by my own sweat! And do you know how much it stings when you get sweat in your eyes and when it stings then your eyes start to cry as though you were peeling an onion and that just adds to the gallon of liquid that is pouring off your face. Now that I've scared you all away from wanting to come here with my description of the humidity I also have to say that it's just when you're out walking in it that you sweat that much and it's not that bad when you're out in the morning or the evening...it just happens that we were out in the worst time of the day and we were overdue for a rain so the humidity was even higher.....and.....truth be told....it actually feels good in a weird kind of way. All this sweating has to be healthy! Don't we pay a small fortune to go into saunas and steam rooms? Yes....here we're in a steam room pretty much all of the time and its free!
Our walk finally came to an end when we located the shop we were looking for. It is called Goddess on the Go and they specialize in larger size clothing and all the material they use is made of natural wood fibres. Each of us managed to find a couple of things we couldn't do without and once that chore was behind us we hit the road in search of a taxi. Luckily we found one right across the street (they're everywhere here and it is $5 to go pretty much anywhere in town). It was that taxi that brought us back up the hill to our place where we walked to the vespa lunch spot.
So now you've had our whole day in a backwards sort of way.....welcome to Bali where "everything is as it should be".
Till next time,
L & L
Monday, November 28, 2016
November 28, 2016
Geez....it's like grand central station out in our garden this morning. Both Lynda and I slept in a little and when we emerged around 8:30 Pasek was saying goodbye to an artist friend of his. As soon as he saw us though nothing would do but that we too had to meet him which we did. Once we'd met him we then had to see all of his artwork that he was carrying in his bag. He is actually a quite famous artist whose works have been published in Margaret Meade's book and who has several pieces hanging in galleries and museums in Europe and other parts of Asia. His work is very beautiful and detailed. As he explained the process we learned that there are 6 stages to each of his paintings as he builds and builds the layers and shades as he paints. Even the black and white works (that had a little gold accent on them) were 6 layers deep. The first layer prepares the paper and is a rice water wash. The final layer is the gold accents. In between there are 4 layers of pencil, ink, and paint. As beautiful as they are we were both able to withstand the desire to buy. Wall space is at a premium and really....I want less stuff, not more.
Also in the yard was Ketut (looks after room and makes breakfast) and Jati (driver). While they were chatting Goodday (works 2 doors down at Julie's) came through to drop something off as well. And next came Julie...stopping by to see how we enjoyed the Hendrix band last night. Yep, grand central station this morning! But now just a little more than an hour later breakfast is done and the only sounds I can hear are the water feature and the 'whistling while he works' man.
In fact, it is so peaceful at the moment that a beautiful big butterfly just fluttered all around us before it settled down on the table right in front of Lynda! Beautiful! We took that butterfly as a sign that it was time to pull our Bali Blessing card for the day. Lynda got "integrity" and I got "joy" - two more great cards to reflect on over the course of this day.
Its a hot one today....not sure that the mercury is any higher in the thermometer but definitely certain the humidity is higher and the breeze is less so it feels warmer. Gonna make great use of those fans that Lynda picked up at the market yesterday.
What a lazy day it's been and because we were so lazy just staying here at the house we discovered something we would never otherwise have seen. This morning there was a massive buzzing noise and once we'd located the overhead source Ketut told us that it was just a big flying bee like thing that was making a problem for the little guys that were up in the area the big guy was hanging around at. (Keep in mind that Ketut is just learning english so something may have been lost in translation there.). Eventually that massive bee (he is more than 1 inch long!) took off and all we could hear were the birds again. A little later in the day (about 2:30) a massive swarm of little bees materialized at the same location which happens to be the top of a pillar holding up the roof of our patio. Neither Pasek nor Ketut were around so Lynda and I quickly closed up all of our windows and hunkered down inside the room where there was no chance of running amok with those hundreds of bees! After about 30 minutes the entire swarm had disappeared again. When Pasek returned he explained that it happens every day at about that time mid afternoon because those little guys are honey bees and they have their nest right up there in the roof at the top of that pillar. Pasek explained that for the Balinese it is very very lucky to have honey bees make their nest at your house. It is a sign that you will be very successful and make lots of business. The added bonus is that every once in a while Pasek climbs up there (with extra clothing on) and harvests the honey. How cool is that....good luck and yummy!
We kind of missed lunch (which seems to be fast becoming a habit here) and so by late afternoon were starting to feel a little hungry. Rather than heading out to find somewhere to eat we decided takeout would be the way to go. Lynda offered to pick up the takeaway and I offered to pay. (I got the better deal here as takeaway for two is just the equivalent of $3 and it was crazy humid so walking anywhere didn't sound like much fun). Off Lynda went to the closest little warung while I got out spoons to set the "table". It wasn't long before the thunder began to roll and then the skies opened up and I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I'd be going hungry as I knew that if she was still in the warung when this rain started there was NO WAY she'd be heading out in it! It was my lucky day though as she was already in our little laneway when the rain started so honestly she was only out in it for less than a minute. In fact, it might not yet even have hit it's stride by the time she arrived home with the food. So....we sat on our patio enjoying the MUCH cooler temperatures the rain brought with them and chowing down on our takeaway nasi goring (fried rice) that was wrapped in a butcher paper cone. (Butcher paper is that brown paper that is waxed on one side). Thanks for making the food run Lynda!
Hard to believe that I managed to get this much typed into the blog on a day that I never even left the property! Soon.....I'm gonna start to run out of things to say.....maybe. LOL
OMG....I have to tell you this bit.....every time I finish typing the blog I read it to Lynda so she can help me think of anything else that I might have forgotten. Tonight I asked her if she'd like to hear what we did today and she replied (with a chuckle), "hmpf....well that would be just one word!" "Nothing!" LOL. Perspective.....Perspective.....Perspective.
Till next time,
L & L
Also in the yard was Ketut (looks after room and makes breakfast) and Jati (driver). While they were chatting Goodday (works 2 doors down at Julie's) came through to drop something off as well. And next came Julie...stopping by to see how we enjoyed the Hendrix band last night. Yep, grand central station this morning! But now just a little more than an hour later breakfast is done and the only sounds I can hear are the water feature and the 'whistling while he works' man.
In fact, it is so peaceful at the moment that a beautiful big butterfly just fluttered all around us before it settled down on the table right in front of Lynda! Beautiful! We took that butterfly as a sign that it was time to pull our Bali Blessing card for the day. Lynda got "integrity" and I got "joy" - two more great cards to reflect on over the course of this day.
Its a hot one today....not sure that the mercury is any higher in the thermometer but definitely certain the humidity is higher and the breeze is less so it feels warmer. Gonna make great use of those fans that Lynda picked up at the market yesterday.
What a lazy day it's been and because we were so lazy just staying here at the house we discovered something we would never otherwise have seen. This morning there was a massive buzzing noise and once we'd located the overhead source Ketut told us that it was just a big flying bee like thing that was making a problem for the little guys that were up in the area the big guy was hanging around at. (Keep in mind that Ketut is just learning english so something may have been lost in translation there.). Eventually that massive bee (he is more than 1 inch long!) took off and all we could hear were the birds again. A little later in the day (about 2:30) a massive swarm of little bees materialized at the same location which happens to be the top of a pillar holding up the roof of our patio. Neither Pasek nor Ketut were around so Lynda and I quickly closed up all of our windows and hunkered down inside the room where there was no chance of running amok with those hundreds of bees! After about 30 minutes the entire swarm had disappeared again. When Pasek returned he explained that it happens every day at about that time mid afternoon because those little guys are honey bees and they have their nest right up there in the roof at the top of that pillar. Pasek explained that for the Balinese it is very very lucky to have honey bees make their nest at your house. It is a sign that you will be very successful and make lots of business. The added bonus is that every once in a while Pasek climbs up there (with extra clothing on) and harvests the honey. How cool is that....good luck and yummy!
We kind of missed lunch (which seems to be fast becoming a habit here) and so by late afternoon were starting to feel a little hungry. Rather than heading out to find somewhere to eat we decided takeout would be the way to go. Lynda offered to pick up the takeaway and I offered to pay. (I got the better deal here as takeaway for two is just the equivalent of $3 and it was crazy humid so walking anywhere didn't sound like much fun). Off Lynda went to the closest little warung while I got out spoons to set the "table". It wasn't long before the thunder began to roll and then the skies opened up and I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I'd be going hungry as I knew that if she was still in the warung when this rain started there was NO WAY she'd be heading out in it! It was my lucky day though as she was already in our little laneway when the rain started so honestly she was only out in it for less than a minute. In fact, it might not yet even have hit it's stride by the time she arrived home with the food. So....we sat on our patio enjoying the MUCH cooler temperatures the rain brought with them and chowing down on our takeaway nasi goring (fried rice) that was wrapped in a butcher paper cone. (Butcher paper is that brown paper that is waxed on one side). Thanks for making the food run Lynda!
Hard to believe that I managed to get this much typed into the blog on a day that I never even left the property! Soon.....I'm gonna start to run out of things to say.....maybe. LOL
OMG....I have to tell you this bit.....every time I finish typing the blog I read it to Lynda so she can help me think of anything else that I might have forgotten. Tonight I asked her if she'd like to hear what we did today and she replied (with a chuckle), "hmpf....well that would be just one word!" "Nothing!" LOL. Perspective.....Perspective.....Perspective.
Till next time,
L & L
Sunday, November 27, 2016
November 27, 2016
November 27, 2016
What a fun day! Had a visit from a friend from home who is in Bali for just a short time. She has been staying in Canguu (said Changu) and just hopped an Uber to come up to Ubud for lunch and a visit. What a treat!! Thanks Emily!
We were able to treat Emily to lunch at one of our little warungs and she was suitably impressed with the prices we've been enjoying. Go figure....$1.50 for a great lunch! Love it!
Not too much to report on the rest of the day other than that while I was walking back from the little shop where I took Emily so she could get some of that great natural bug spray I've been using I met up with my first face to face with a monkey on this trip. There he was blocking my path in the middle of the sidewalk. Damn! He just sat there big as life and blocking the way. He and I had a bit of a stare down and eventually he gave up and retreated to an offering that was on the ground behind him as there was a piece of banana on it. He helped himself to the banana and scurried off and around to my right which allowed me enough space to pass. Grrrrr.....little buggers!
While I was off doing that, Lynda was out shopping till she dropped but she had some great finds. One of her great finds were these fantastic fans that are larger than the ones I've had from Japan which is great as they move even more air which is important when its so hot that your sweat is sweating! She found them in the market and was able to get the vendor from $6 each to $2 each by simply repeating the question, "how much?"
Tonight we're planning to head out to the Laughing Buddha restaurant where there will be a band playing and doing a tribute to Hendrix. Supposedly they're very good and as they've come highly recommended we decided it was time to hit the Laughing Buddha where there is live music almost every night. Live music is a way of life here in Ubud. We haven't had opportunity to appreciate too much of it as yet but that is one of the joys of being here for such a length of time....we have the luxury of time.
Just back from the Laughing Buddha where we had a fun time. Ended up sitting with a young couple, Jamie and Sara. They are both from England but she is currently living and travelling in Australia so they've met here in Bali for a little R & R. The band was very good but also very loud.....reminiscent of the 70's for sure!
Always something to do....who knows what tomorrow will bring.....
Till next time,
L & L
What a fun day! Had a visit from a friend from home who is in Bali for just a short time. She has been staying in Canguu (said Changu) and just hopped an Uber to come up to Ubud for lunch and a visit. What a treat!! Thanks Emily!
We were able to treat Emily to lunch at one of our little warungs and she was suitably impressed with the prices we've been enjoying. Go figure....$1.50 for a great lunch! Love it!
Not too much to report on the rest of the day other than that while I was walking back from the little shop where I took Emily so she could get some of that great natural bug spray I've been using I met up with my first face to face with a monkey on this trip. There he was blocking my path in the middle of the sidewalk. Damn! He just sat there big as life and blocking the way. He and I had a bit of a stare down and eventually he gave up and retreated to an offering that was on the ground behind him as there was a piece of banana on it. He helped himself to the banana and scurried off and around to my right which allowed me enough space to pass. Grrrrr.....little buggers!
While I was off doing that, Lynda was out shopping till she dropped but she had some great finds. One of her great finds were these fantastic fans that are larger than the ones I've had from Japan which is great as they move even more air which is important when its so hot that your sweat is sweating! She found them in the market and was able to get the vendor from $6 each to $2 each by simply repeating the question, "how much?"
Tonight we're planning to head out to the Laughing Buddha restaurant where there will be a band playing and doing a tribute to Hendrix. Supposedly they're very good and as they've come highly recommended we decided it was time to hit the Laughing Buddha where there is live music almost every night. Live music is a way of life here in Ubud. We haven't had opportunity to appreciate too much of it as yet but that is one of the joys of being here for such a length of time....we have the luxury of time.
Just back from the Laughing Buddha where we had a fun time. Ended up sitting with a young couple, Jamie and Sara. They are both from England but she is currently living and travelling in Australia so they've met here in Bali for a little R & R. The band was very good but also very loud.....reminiscent of the 70's for sure!
Always something to do....who knows what tomorrow will bring.....
Till next time,
L & L
November 26, 2016
November 26, 2016
Ketut had our breakfast ready in time for us to be settled into the car with Jati and Pasek by 9:00 this morning. We were off on a day of exploring and the volcano (Mt Buta), a coffee plantation, the natural hot springs, and Pasek's village were all on our agenda.
Once we left the hustle and bustle of the city behind we began to climb in elevation and the higher we went the windier the road became. Some of those hairpin turns were pretty "hairy" alright! In fact, the vehicles all use their horns to communicate as they go round corners here. They give a honk prior to entering into the corner in the hope that anyone coming in the opposite direction will be able to hear and be forewarned of oncoming traffic. Most of the vehicles on these windy mountain roads are motorbikes and scooters and we're thankful for that because the roads are NOT wide enough for two full sized vehicles to pass. On the occasion that we did meet a full sized vehicle coming toward us one of the two of us would have to pull as far off the road as we could until the other inched by before we were able to proceed again. Now don't get me wrong....that was not the only roads we were on....many of them were great; nicely paved and plenty wide enough for vehicles of all size to pass comfortably.
As we climbed in elevation the vegetation changed quite a lot as the temperature dropped. There were areas where massive jackfruit hung from the trees in abundance. There were miles and miles of mandarin orange groves along both sides of the road in other areas. And once we reached about 1300 meters elevation we kind of felt like we could have been driving around Stanley Park in Vancouver! Certainly the vegetation was a little thicker and made up of plants that are a little more tropical but honestly many of the plants and the trees looked like something we could have seen in Vancouver!
The volcano's most recent eruption was in 1999-2000 at which time it caused significant devastation to the people and the island of Bali. In true Balinese fashion though the people were able to reframe even this catastrophe and so their silver lining to that cloud was that the volcanic ash resulted in regenerating the soil and as a result the next year's crops were abundant. The people of Bali are masters at seeing the positive in every circumstance and when you couple that with their philosophy of "everything is in order - there are no coincidences", it is a culture that leaves this visitor feeling very much 'at peace'.
Arrival at the hot springs that sits adjacent and offers a great view of the lake that provides food and income for local villagers was marked by the fact that we were directly across the lake from Goodday's village. (Goodday works at Julie's and we know he is home in his village today to redo the fish traps for a reason that I will go into in a minute). The hot springs consists of four pools, the hottest of which we decided to avoid. The others though were lovely and we spent a good two hours there. It was great floating around in the water of the deepest coolest pool and it was relaxing to lounge in the warmer waters where hot water cascaded out of a bamboo spout about 6 feet overhead. That cascading water was a natural massage and it felt good. It all felt good until much later that night when both Lynda and I realized that we may have overdone it a little as the sunburn began to materialize. Not to worry though....we're both okay....not badly burned....just enough to remind us not to be so foolish as to not pay better attention to the fact that we're just 8 degrees off the equator for heaven sake!
The reason Goodday had returned home to redo his families fish traps is because according to the Balinese lunar calendar today is a special day that comes around just once every 210 days. Today is "Animal Day" and so the best day of the year to redo your traps and to make an offering to any and all animals. For instance, this morning as we walked out of our little alleyway we were met with a much larger than usual offering on the ground. This special offering was in honour of this special day for animals. Goodday will have been having a special ceremony for the fish in the lake and as you'll see later in this post we even got to participate in honouring some cattle. The Balinese have about 5 or 6 of these special days each year and each of them comes around 210 days after the last time it was celebrated. One of them is for metal objects, another of them is for ancestral spirits, and yet another for musical instruments, one for plants (especially flowering plants), and there is even one for shadow puppets! Ceremonies and celebrations are a way of life in Bali!
Also across the lake from the hot spring is another village that can be reached only by boat. That village practices some very traditional and unique norms. Every village does something a little different with their dead and it is just once every 5 years that there is a big ceremony to honour all who have died in that 5 year term. Some villages cremate their dead and then recreate likenesses that will be re-cremated on that special 5 year day. Other villages bury their dead and then dig up the remnants for cremation on that 5 year day. And then there is this one village that was across from the hot spring and reachable only by boat where their dead are placed on top of the ground in a sacred space. Magically, their dead will decompose but there will be no odour or interference by wildlife etc. The Balinese believe that it is some kind of special magic place and also acknowledge that there is a specific tree growing there that is known for its fragrance. Whether magic or science....it is all so interesting and we're loving that we get to learn so much straight from our Balinese friends. Jati and Pasek have been so forthcoming with anything we want to learn about - it is a real treat!
The views of the volcano all through our drive today have been majestic. Sometimes the summit is completely encased in cloud and other times it is bathed in sunshine. Interestingly, there are two distinct calderas atop this volcano. As we enjoyed the views of this spectacular and majestic geography.....there was something else to note too. We had just come from the hot springs and you know how hard it is to get out of a wet suit? Well, I had opted to just keep my bathing suit top on as it is kind of like a shirt - sort of. Lynda on the other hand had shed her suit and was quickly digging out a scarf and a jacket to combat the cool winds at this high elevation. By the time she was done, she had her shirt and her sweater and her jacket and her scarf. Oh ya...and her hood was up! I on the other hand, was wearing a wet bathing suit. Lynda says she was dressed just like all the other people up there but heh....I'm a person too and I wasn't dressed like that! LOL. We had a good laugh about the fact that this is not the first time we've been at elevation and wearing opposite attire. Different strokes for different folks. LOL. In fact, as I type this I am sitting here sweating (so I've turned the ceiling fan up a notch) and Lynda is huddled into her jacket and threatening to climb under her covers! Yep, we're all unique!
Our next stop was Pasek's home where we were welcomed by the entire extended family. We were given a tour of the family compound where Pasek and his wife have a beautiful traditional home. It is comprised of three separate buildings. One for their outdoor dining room and indoor bedrooms, another for their outdoor living room and indoor guest room, and a third for their kitchen. Pasek's brother and his family also have a home there that consists of two buildings (bedrooms and kitchen) and Pasek's parents also have their home there which is just one single building. Pasek's father is 88 years old and he has lived on this family compound (that gets passed from father to son for as long as there are sons) since he was a teenager. Each family compound also has it's own temple area as well as an extended family temple area and that is over and above the village temple area. Temples are beautiful and very obvious here and a huge part of daily life. I'd be remiss not to add that Pasek is an amazing craftsman! He built all of the buildings in their home himself but the one that stands out is the living room/guest room. The detail relief work that he has done on the door (in wood) and on the walls (in stone) are impossible to do justice with mere words. The number of hours/weeks/months/years he must have spent on this one building alone - I cannot imagine! Also, remember....he lives most of his time in Ubud where he works. All of this building has been done during his short visits home! Pasek and his family honoured us with coffee, fruit and fried bananas which we enjoyed heartily. After our coffee, Pasek's father invited us to observe the ceremony that he would be doing for their cattle and we jumped at the opportunity. (Remember it is Animal Day). The two cows were fed an extra helping of the long grass that is their usual sustenance and then Pasek's dad performed a ceremonial rite that included a blessing, a sprinkle of water, some paint on their foreheads, and an offering that hung from the corner of the roof of their shelter. Again, we felt very honoured to be guests and able to witness this special day in the lives of this lovely Balinese family.
From Pasek's place we hopped back in the car and were off to Jati's family compound where his mom, his brother and his sister in law made us feel warmly welcomed once more. Again, we were honoured with coffee, steamed bananas, boiled peanuts, raw peanuts, and two kinds of cookies. Again....it was all delicious and in the end the leftovers were packed up to come home with us! We had a great visit and while we were there Ketut's parents (who live right next door to Jati's family) came by to join in the party. Ketut is the young man who brings us breakfast every morning. His parents invited us to come see their home too and so when we left Jati's we walked down the hill a little way and had the opportunity to visit at Ketut's home too. From there we were gifted with two pineapples to bring home with us. There is no question that the Balinese are incredibly generous people and we learned that it is rude to turn down a gift so we just said thank you yet again as we headed off back to the car. One of the things we learned about while we were here in this village is that water is a real issue and so every home has a substantial eavestrough that they've constructed from bamboo. That eavestrough runs from the buildings and over to the well or cistern. Their cisterns range in size and style. Some are above ground and concrete while others are more like a well. The similarity is that all water is precious and treated accordingly. Another thing we learned is that the ground here is quite porous so the rains can be absorbed. The preference though is to have a harder packed ground that can be swept and that is easy to walk on. To accommodate that, they haul in clay and hard pack it atop the natural ground. This clay would not allow the heavy rains to dissipate though and so there are drains (like a shower drain) put into the layer of clay. These drains allow the water to get down to the layer of earth that can accommodate the heavy rain. Clever folks!
As if we hadn't already had enough coffee for one day we made one more final stop on the way back home. This one was at a coffee plantation and yes folks....we had a cup of the most expensive coffee in the world! This very tasty little cup of coffee is also fondly known as "catpooccino". Yes....we drank the coffee that comes from the poop of the lewak! Before you gag....you need to know that the coffee isn't really their poop....it is made from coffee beans that went through their systems and were never chewed or digested before they were pooped out. The coffee bean has two skins on it. One of those skins is still in tact when the bean is pooped out. It is washed 3-5 times before that skin is peeled from it (by hand) and then it is roasted (by hand) and then it is crushed (by hand) into the powder that is used to make Bali style coffee. Neither of us believed it until we tried it but there is a distinct difference in the flavour (in a good way) between regular Bali coffee and Lewak coffee. As well, the catpooccino is also naturally decaffinated by the process of passing through the lewak. Yep....we did it and we're glad we did!
What a day! What a full full day! A great day! Lucky Lucky - that's what we are!
Till next time,
L & L
Ketut had our breakfast ready in time for us to be settled into the car with Jati and Pasek by 9:00 this morning. We were off on a day of exploring and the volcano (Mt Buta), a coffee plantation, the natural hot springs, and Pasek's village were all on our agenda.
Once we left the hustle and bustle of the city behind we began to climb in elevation and the higher we went the windier the road became. Some of those hairpin turns were pretty "hairy" alright! In fact, the vehicles all use their horns to communicate as they go round corners here. They give a honk prior to entering into the corner in the hope that anyone coming in the opposite direction will be able to hear and be forewarned of oncoming traffic. Most of the vehicles on these windy mountain roads are motorbikes and scooters and we're thankful for that because the roads are NOT wide enough for two full sized vehicles to pass. On the occasion that we did meet a full sized vehicle coming toward us one of the two of us would have to pull as far off the road as we could until the other inched by before we were able to proceed again. Now don't get me wrong....that was not the only roads we were on....many of them were great; nicely paved and plenty wide enough for vehicles of all size to pass comfortably.
As we climbed in elevation the vegetation changed quite a lot as the temperature dropped. There were areas where massive jackfruit hung from the trees in abundance. There were miles and miles of mandarin orange groves along both sides of the road in other areas. And once we reached about 1300 meters elevation we kind of felt like we could have been driving around Stanley Park in Vancouver! Certainly the vegetation was a little thicker and made up of plants that are a little more tropical but honestly many of the plants and the trees looked like something we could have seen in Vancouver!
The volcano's most recent eruption was in 1999-2000 at which time it caused significant devastation to the people and the island of Bali. In true Balinese fashion though the people were able to reframe even this catastrophe and so their silver lining to that cloud was that the volcanic ash resulted in regenerating the soil and as a result the next year's crops were abundant. The people of Bali are masters at seeing the positive in every circumstance and when you couple that with their philosophy of "everything is in order - there are no coincidences", it is a culture that leaves this visitor feeling very much 'at peace'.
Arrival at the hot springs that sits adjacent and offers a great view of the lake that provides food and income for local villagers was marked by the fact that we were directly across the lake from Goodday's village. (Goodday works at Julie's and we know he is home in his village today to redo the fish traps for a reason that I will go into in a minute). The hot springs consists of four pools, the hottest of which we decided to avoid. The others though were lovely and we spent a good two hours there. It was great floating around in the water of the deepest coolest pool and it was relaxing to lounge in the warmer waters where hot water cascaded out of a bamboo spout about 6 feet overhead. That cascading water was a natural massage and it felt good. It all felt good until much later that night when both Lynda and I realized that we may have overdone it a little as the sunburn began to materialize. Not to worry though....we're both okay....not badly burned....just enough to remind us not to be so foolish as to not pay better attention to the fact that we're just 8 degrees off the equator for heaven sake!
The reason Goodday had returned home to redo his families fish traps is because according to the Balinese lunar calendar today is a special day that comes around just once every 210 days. Today is "Animal Day" and so the best day of the year to redo your traps and to make an offering to any and all animals. For instance, this morning as we walked out of our little alleyway we were met with a much larger than usual offering on the ground. This special offering was in honour of this special day for animals. Goodday will have been having a special ceremony for the fish in the lake and as you'll see later in this post we even got to participate in honouring some cattle. The Balinese have about 5 or 6 of these special days each year and each of them comes around 210 days after the last time it was celebrated. One of them is for metal objects, another of them is for ancestral spirits, and yet another for musical instruments, one for plants (especially flowering plants), and there is even one for shadow puppets! Ceremonies and celebrations are a way of life in Bali!
Also across the lake from the hot spring is another village that can be reached only by boat. That village practices some very traditional and unique norms. Every village does something a little different with their dead and it is just once every 5 years that there is a big ceremony to honour all who have died in that 5 year term. Some villages cremate their dead and then recreate likenesses that will be re-cremated on that special 5 year day. Other villages bury their dead and then dig up the remnants for cremation on that 5 year day. And then there is this one village that was across from the hot spring and reachable only by boat where their dead are placed on top of the ground in a sacred space. Magically, their dead will decompose but there will be no odour or interference by wildlife etc. The Balinese believe that it is some kind of special magic place and also acknowledge that there is a specific tree growing there that is known for its fragrance. Whether magic or science....it is all so interesting and we're loving that we get to learn so much straight from our Balinese friends. Jati and Pasek have been so forthcoming with anything we want to learn about - it is a real treat!
The views of the volcano all through our drive today have been majestic. Sometimes the summit is completely encased in cloud and other times it is bathed in sunshine. Interestingly, there are two distinct calderas atop this volcano. As we enjoyed the views of this spectacular and majestic geography.....there was something else to note too. We had just come from the hot springs and you know how hard it is to get out of a wet suit? Well, I had opted to just keep my bathing suit top on as it is kind of like a shirt - sort of. Lynda on the other hand had shed her suit and was quickly digging out a scarf and a jacket to combat the cool winds at this high elevation. By the time she was done, she had her shirt and her sweater and her jacket and her scarf. Oh ya...and her hood was up! I on the other hand, was wearing a wet bathing suit. Lynda says she was dressed just like all the other people up there but heh....I'm a person too and I wasn't dressed like that! LOL. We had a good laugh about the fact that this is not the first time we've been at elevation and wearing opposite attire. Different strokes for different folks. LOL. In fact, as I type this I am sitting here sweating (so I've turned the ceiling fan up a notch) and Lynda is huddled into her jacket and threatening to climb under her covers! Yep, we're all unique!
Our next stop was Pasek's home where we were welcomed by the entire extended family. We were given a tour of the family compound where Pasek and his wife have a beautiful traditional home. It is comprised of three separate buildings. One for their outdoor dining room and indoor bedrooms, another for their outdoor living room and indoor guest room, and a third for their kitchen. Pasek's brother and his family also have a home there that consists of two buildings (bedrooms and kitchen) and Pasek's parents also have their home there which is just one single building. Pasek's father is 88 years old and he has lived on this family compound (that gets passed from father to son for as long as there are sons) since he was a teenager. Each family compound also has it's own temple area as well as an extended family temple area and that is over and above the village temple area. Temples are beautiful and very obvious here and a huge part of daily life. I'd be remiss not to add that Pasek is an amazing craftsman! He built all of the buildings in their home himself but the one that stands out is the living room/guest room. The detail relief work that he has done on the door (in wood) and on the walls (in stone) are impossible to do justice with mere words. The number of hours/weeks/months/years he must have spent on this one building alone - I cannot imagine! Also, remember....he lives most of his time in Ubud where he works. All of this building has been done during his short visits home! Pasek and his family honoured us with coffee, fruit and fried bananas which we enjoyed heartily. After our coffee, Pasek's father invited us to observe the ceremony that he would be doing for their cattle and we jumped at the opportunity. (Remember it is Animal Day). The two cows were fed an extra helping of the long grass that is their usual sustenance and then Pasek's dad performed a ceremonial rite that included a blessing, a sprinkle of water, some paint on their foreheads, and an offering that hung from the corner of the roof of their shelter. Again, we felt very honoured to be guests and able to witness this special day in the lives of this lovely Balinese family.
From Pasek's place we hopped back in the car and were off to Jati's family compound where his mom, his brother and his sister in law made us feel warmly welcomed once more. Again, we were honoured with coffee, steamed bananas, boiled peanuts, raw peanuts, and two kinds of cookies. Again....it was all delicious and in the end the leftovers were packed up to come home with us! We had a great visit and while we were there Ketut's parents (who live right next door to Jati's family) came by to join in the party. Ketut is the young man who brings us breakfast every morning. His parents invited us to come see their home too and so when we left Jati's we walked down the hill a little way and had the opportunity to visit at Ketut's home too. From there we were gifted with two pineapples to bring home with us. There is no question that the Balinese are incredibly generous people and we learned that it is rude to turn down a gift so we just said thank you yet again as we headed off back to the car. One of the things we learned about while we were here in this village is that water is a real issue and so every home has a substantial eavestrough that they've constructed from bamboo. That eavestrough runs from the buildings and over to the well or cistern. Their cisterns range in size and style. Some are above ground and concrete while others are more like a well. The similarity is that all water is precious and treated accordingly. Another thing we learned is that the ground here is quite porous so the rains can be absorbed. The preference though is to have a harder packed ground that can be swept and that is easy to walk on. To accommodate that, they haul in clay and hard pack it atop the natural ground. This clay would not allow the heavy rains to dissipate though and so there are drains (like a shower drain) put into the layer of clay. These drains allow the water to get down to the layer of earth that can accommodate the heavy rain. Clever folks!
As if we hadn't already had enough coffee for one day we made one more final stop on the way back home. This one was at a coffee plantation and yes folks....we had a cup of the most expensive coffee in the world! This very tasty little cup of coffee is also fondly known as "catpooccino". Yes....we drank the coffee that comes from the poop of the lewak! Before you gag....you need to know that the coffee isn't really their poop....it is made from coffee beans that went through their systems and were never chewed or digested before they were pooped out. The coffee bean has two skins on it. One of those skins is still in tact when the bean is pooped out. It is washed 3-5 times before that skin is peeled from it (by hand) and then it is roasted (by hand) and then it is crushed (by hand) into the powder that is used to make Bali style coffee. Neither of us believed it until we tried it but there is a distinct difference in the flavour (in a good way) between regular Bali coffee and Lewak coffee. As well, the catpooccino is also naturally decaffinated by the process of passing through the lewak. Yep....we did it and we're glad we did!
What a day! What a full full day! A great day! Lucky Lucky - that's what we are!
Till next time,
L & L
Friday, November 25, 2016
November 25, 2016
November 25, 2016
It is hard to believe we've been here a week already and in other ways it seems as though we've been here for much longer than that. The routine of our days has settled upon us and life feels very normal.
This morning while Lynda was out for her very early walk, she picked up a Balinese breakfast for us. It consists of a brown paper cone filled with stickier than usual rice and a little selection of condiments ranging from chicken to peanuts and chilies to onion. The condiments are separated from the rice by a piece of banana leaf and once you've mixed them all together it really is quite delicious! Typically a Balinese would eat this right out of the paper cone and with the fingers of their right hand. (More on this later.....). But Ketut took pity on us and so provided us with plates, a fork and a spoon to be able to maneuver a little more easily. He also added our fresh fruit salad into the breakfast mix so once again....we had a delicious breakfast on our little patio. Lynda paid $1 each for the brown paper dishes and there were many Balinese lined up to get their breakfast alongside her this morning.
Now for the "right hand" reference. Like in India, people here use their left hand to wipe their bottom in the bathroom so that hand is never used for anything else. Not to pass anything to anyone (like money to a shopkeeper) or to put food in your mouth.
A couple of other customs that I think are interesting include:
Never touch a Balinese on the head (not even a child). The head is sacred and is their connection with the gods.
Never point your feet at anyone. That is don't sit on the ground with the bottom of your feet pointing at someone. Or never put your feet up on the table or on a foot stool with your feet pointing at another. Actually, just don't put your feet up on anything ever! The reason for this is that the feet are considered to be unclean and connected with the underworld so you wouldn't want to "direct" that unclean or underworld energy toward anyone.
Every day after a Balinese person prays, they put flowers behind their ears and a piece of white rice in the centre of their forehead. The flowers just stay there until they fall apart and disappear and the rice has been dampened with the water that is part of the prayer ceremony so it too just sticks there until it falls away. Those decorations are to show that they've made their prayers for the day and to honour that process.
Prayers, blessings, and offerings are all a part of daily life here. At every turn you find another example of this taking place. Whether it's the girl at the hotel tasked with putting offerings at a wide array of locations on the property or the shopkeeper placing them at the entrance to their store, or every person on their property ensuring that both the upper and the lower realms have received their offering for the day via the temples that are everywhere...it is a way of life for the Balinese. Every property has some kind of a temple that is placed up high (might be a very small temple or it might be something more substantial). This is where the offerings to the gods above goes. The offering to the gods below goes on the floor/ground. Once that offering on the ground has been placed it is not a big deal if someone accidentally steps on it as it has already done it's "job" in that it was offered. Thats not to say that it is okay to intentionally step on the offerings but rather that there is no need to worry if you mistakenly step on one or kick it from where it was placed while you're out walking.
Having these offerings and daily practices of ongoing blessings as part of life....it doesn't take long for the Balinese way to wend its way into your soul and your heart. They are a very generous and happy culture who seem to have an uncanny ability to exist in the present moment - a gift many of us aspire to.
The Balinese people are also very adept with languages. From what I understand they all have at least two languages (even in the villages). They all speak Balinese as well as Bahasa Indonesian. Often Bahasa Indonesian is simply referred to as Bahasa but the word Bahasa really means language so we could say I speak Bahasa English. But for ease, everyone just refers to Indonesian as Bahasa.
When we say Selamat (a greeting) we are speaking Bahasa and if we want to speak Balinese we would say Om swastiestu. Typically the greeting in either language would be accompanied by hands together (like you're praying) and a nod of the head. One interesting thing about the Balinese greeting is that if you break the word down a little you can see it's root. "Om" is a word we're all familiar with in meditation and yoga practice. "Swastiestu" has at the beginning of it the same start as swastika which is an honoured symbol here (and many other places in the world). It was just in recent history when Hitler turned it into something ugly. Here the swastika symbol represents balance and four root philosophies in the Hindu (and Buddhist) faiths. I'm way over my head here in explaining this so I'll stop at this point and encourage any who are interested in more info to do their own research.
Goodday was just here and is heading off to his village which is about one hour away. The "boys" as we've come to call them go home often to see family and/or to do a job that needs to be done. Yesterday Jati went home for a part of his sister's wedding ceremony. There are several different parts to a wedding and this was just one of the blessings that moved her further along the path to marriage. Today Goodday is heading home to put a new house for the fish in the lake that is adjacent to his village. After a little interrogation we were able to discern that the fish house he is putting in the lake today is really some kind of trap to catch the fish as the 25th is the best day in the Balinese calendar to put out a new fish trap. His family sells the fish they catch as part of their income. It seems that income diversification is a way of life in Bali.
Time to pull a card......
LOL! I pulled the card "abundance" which is in perfect harmony with the Balinese fishing philosophy. The 25th is the day for abundance!
Lynda's card today is "gentleness". And no...you're not having deja vu....she did have that same card show up just two days ago. Hmmmmm....opportunity to practice gentleness in a very gentle culture. How nice is that! Or in Lynda's own words, "It's hard not to practice gentleness here!"
Just back from lunch where we were introduced to lemon bintang (which tastes like a really good shandy). So much for the healthy drinks from this point on!! LOL. Hopefully we'll be able to exercise a little restraint and continue with the water etc but boy that bintang was yummy!
Rain has started to fall again. Just lightly today so we are happy to sit under the roof of our patio. Pasek (our host) has just offered to bring us a coffee. This could get to be a habit!
The hu yung continues to fall and we've just finished our coffee with Pasek. Life in Bali seems to be one of minimal planning....more going with the flow. For example, we have a tour booked with Jati tomorrow but as we're here for so long we're able to say "weather dependent". If we wake up to a full day of drizzle we will postpone our tour tomorrow to a day that starts with clear skies and sunshine.
Another thing that I don't think we've mentioned yet is that the door sill we step over to get into our house is a full 14 + inches high. Not 100% sure of the reason for that but if I were to make a guess it might be to ensure no water gets inside during high rains (with winds) and to potentially keep out some of the creatures that might make their way through if it were just a flat surface. The first day we had to step over that sill it felt like doing a high jump but now only after just one week it almost feels easy. What will be really funny is when we're back home in Summerland and high stepping over every door sill we cross! LOL!!
You won't believe what we did tonight! It is Friday night and the rain had just stopped so we thought....hmmmmm....what would be fun to do on a Friday? And voila it came to us.....we could go to a movie and so we did. The Paradiso is a restaurant/bar/movie house where patrons sit on comfy chairs and couches. You can order anything you'd like to drink or eat (the selection is vast) and of course we opted for popcorn. The popcorn was delicious! We chose salty vs sweet and when it arrived it was still warm from being freshly popped. The movie was Danny Collins starring Al Pacino and it was excellent. The other excellent thing about this place is that the cost of your entrance into the movie ($5 each) is credited to your food bill so in our case we had 2 medium popcorns and 2 bottles of water for $2.28 CAD on top of our $10 admission for two. We'll be back to Paradiso for sure!
We made our way to Paradiso on foot which took us along roads and lanes we'd never seen before. One of those lanes is nicknamed "eat street" for the incredible number of eateries found there. Once the movie was finished we made our way back to 'eat street' and located another great little restaurant where the portions were larger than usual and the prices mid range. The food and the atmosphere was fantastic and the place was packed. It was a fun night. Once dinner was over we walked over to another street that runs parallel to Monkey Forest road. It is often called Main Rd and the traffic on that road (cars) is one way just like Monkey Forest runs the other way. Cars have to make a big loop up Monkey Forest and down Main to go pretty much anywhere in Ubud. We hadn't walked too far before a nice young fellow offered us a taxi so we jumped at it as we were still a long way from home and because the lemon bintangs we'd enjoyed with dinner were making us feel a little lethargic.
Back at Rumah Kita now and ready to get into something loose and comfortable. It's not as hot or humid tonight but I'm still pretty sticky so getting out of these clothes and into p.j.'s sounds like a heck of a plan! Eeeek! Something big just made a lot of noise in the trees behind where Lynda is sitting across from me at the table on our patio. It's probably that damn squeaky toy up to no good!
Till next time,
L & L
It is hard to believe we've been here a week already and in other ways it seems as though we've been here for much longer than that. The routine of our days has settled upon us and life feels very normal.
This morning while Lynda was out for her very early walk, she picked up a Balinese breakfast for us. It consists of a brown paper cone filled with stickier than usual rice and a little selection of condiments ranging from chicken to peanuts and chilies to onion. The condiments are separated from the rice by a piece of banana leaf and once you've mixed them all together it really is quite delicious! Typically a Balinese would eat this right out of the paper cone and with the fingers of their right hand. (More on this later.....). But Ketut took pity on us and so provided us with plates, a fork and a spoon to be able to maneuver a little more easily. He also added our fresh fruit salad into the breakfast mix so once again....we had a delicious breakfast on our little patio. Lynda paid $1 each for the brown paper dishes and there were many Balinese lined up to get their breakfast alongside her this morning.
Now for the "right hand" reference. Like in India, people here use their left hand to wipe their bottom in the bathroom so that hand is never used for anything else. Not to pass anything to anyone (like money to a shopkeeper) or to put food in your mouth.
A couple of other customs that I think are interesting include:
Never touch a Balinese on the head (not even a child). The head is sacred and is their connection with the gods.
Never point your feet at anyone. That is don't sit on the ground with the bottom of your feet pointing at someone. Or never put your feet up on the table or on a foot stool with your feet pointing at another. Actually, just don't put your feet up on anything ever! The reason for this is that the feet are considered to be unclean and connected with the underworld so you wouldn't want to "direct" that unclean or underworld energy toward anyone.
Every day after a Balinese person prays, they put flowers behind their ears and a piece of white rice in the centre of their forehead. The flowers just stay there until they fall apart and disappear and the rice has been dampened with the water that is part of the prayer ceremony so it too just sticks there until it falls away. Those decorations are to show that they've made their prayers for the day and to honour that process.
Prayers, blessings, and offerings are all a part of daily life here. At every turn you find another example of this taking place. Whether it's the girl at the hotel tasked with putting offerings at a wide array of locations on the property or the shopkeeper placing them at the entrance to their store, or every person on their property ensuring that both the upper and the lower realms have received their offering for the day via the temples that are everywhere...it is a way of life for the Balinese. Every property has some kind of a temple that is placed up high (might be a very small temple or it might be something more substantial). This is where the offerings to the gods above goes. The offering to the gods below goes on the floor/ground. Once that offering on the ground has been placed it is not a big deal if someone accidentally steps on it as it has already done it's "job" in that it was offered. Thats not to say that it is okay to intentionally step on the offerings but rather that there is no need to worry if you mistakenly step on one or kick it from where it was placed while you're out walking.
Having these offerings and daily practices of ongoing blessings as part of life....it doesn't take long for the Balinese way to wend its way into your soul and your heart. They are a very generous and happy culture who seem to have an uncanny ability to exist in the present moment - a gift many of us aspire to.
The Balinese people are also very adept with languages. From what I understand they all have at least two languages (even in the villages). They all speak Balinese as well as Bahasa Indonesian. Often Bahasa Indonesian is simply referred to as Bahasa but the word Bahasa really means language so we could say I speak Bahasa English. But for ease, everyone just refers to Indonesian as Bahasa.
When we say Selamat (a greeting) we are speaking Bahasa and if we want to speak Balinese we would say Om swastiestu. Typically the greeting in either language would be accompanied by hands together (like you're praying) and a nod of the head. One interesting thing about the Balinese greeting is that if you break the word down a little you can see it's root. "Om" is a word we're all familiar with in meditation and yoga practice. "Swastiestu" has at the beginning of it the same start as swastika which is an honoured symbol here (and many other places in the world). It was just in recent history when Hitler turned it into something ugly. Here the swastika symbol represents balance and four root philosophies in the Hindu (and Buddhist) faiths. I'm way over my head here in explaining this so I'll stop at this point and encourage any who are interested in more info to do their own research.
Goodday was just here and is heading off to his village which is about one hour away. The "boys" as we've come to call them go home often to see family and/or to do a job that needs to be done. Yesterday Jati went home for a part of his sister's wedding ceremony. There are several different parts to a wedding and this was just one of the blessings that moved her further along the path to marriage. Today Goodday is heading home to put a new house for the fish in the lake that is adjacent to his village. After a little interrogation we were able to discern that the fish house he is putting in the lake today is really some kind of trap to catch the fish as the 25th is the best day in the Balinese calendar to put out a new fish trap. His family sells the fish they catch as part of their income. It seems that income diversification is a way of life in Bali.
Time to pull a card......
LOL! I pulled the card "abundance" which is in perfect harmony with the Balinese fishing philosophy. The 25th is the day for abundance!
Lynda's card today is "gentleness". And no...you're not having deja vu....she did have that same card show up just two days ago. Hmmmmm....opportunity to practice gentleness in a very gentle culture. How nice is that! Or in Lynda's own words, "It's hard not to practice gentleness here!"
Just back from lunch where we were introduced to lemon bintang (which tastes like a really good shandy). So much for the healthy drinks from this point on!! LOL. Hopefully we'll be able to exercise a little restraint and continue with the water etc but boy that bintang was yummy!
Rain has started to fall again. Just lightly today so we are happy to sit under the roof of our patio. Pasek (our host) has just offered to bring us a coffee. This could get to be a habit!
The hu yung continues to fall and we've just finished our coffee with Pasek. Life in Bali seems to be one of minimal planning....more going with the flow. For example, we have a tour booked with Jati tomorrow but as we're here for so long we're able to say "weather dependent". If we wake up to a full day of drizzle we will postpone our tour tomorrow to a day that starts with clear skies and sunshine.
Another thing that I don't think we've mentioned yet is that the door sill we step over to get into our house is a full 14 + inches high. Not 100% sure of the reason for that but if I were to make a guess it might be to ensure no water gets inside during high rains (with winds) and to potentially keep out some of the creatures that might make their way through if it were just a flat surface. The first day we had to step over that sill it felt like doing a high jump but now only after just one week it almost feels easy. What will be really funny is when we're back home in Summerland and high stepping over every door sill we cross! LOL!!
You won't believe what we did tonight! It is Friday night and the rain had just stopped so we thought....hmmmmm....what would be fun to do on a Friday? And voila it came to us.....we could go to a movie and so we did. The Paradiso is a restaurant/bar/movie house where patrons sit on comfy chairs and couches. You can order anything you'd like to drink or eat (the selection is vast) and of course we opted for popcorn. The popcorn was delicious! We chose salty vs sweet and when it arrived it was still warm from being freshly popped. The movie was Danny Collins starring Al Pacino and it was excellent. The other excellent thing about this place is that the cost of your entrance into the movie ($5 each) is credited to your food bill so in our case we had 2 medium popcorns and 2 bottles of water for $2.28 CAD on top of our $10 admission for two. We'll be back to Paradiso for sure!
We made our way to Paradiso on foot which took us along roads and lanes we'd never seen before. One of those lanes is nicknamed "eat street" for the incredible number of eateries found there. Once the movie was finished we made our way back to 'eat street' and located another great little restaurant where the portions were larger than usual and the prices mid range. The food and the atmosphere was fantastic and the place was packed. It was a fun night. Once dinner was over we walked over to another street that runs parallel to Monkey Forest road. It is often called Main Rd and the traffic on that road (cars) is one way just like Monkey Forest runs the other way. Cars have to make a big loop up Monkey Forest and down Main to go pretty much anywhere in Ubud. We hadn't walked too far before a nice young fellow offered us a taxi so we jumped at it as we were still a long way from home and because the lemon bintangs we'd enjoyed with dinner were making us feel a little lethargic.
Back at Rumah Kita now and ready to get into something loose and comfortable. It's not as hot or humid tonight but I'm still pretty sticky so getting out of these clothes and into p.j.'s sounds like a heck of a plan! Eeeek! Something big just made a lot of noise in the trees behind where Lynda is sitting across from me at the table on our patio. It's probably that damn squeaky toy up to no good!
Till next time,
L & L
Thursday, November 24, 2016
November 24, 2016
November 24, 2016
Clarity is gonna have to be big for us today! This morning before Lynda pulled her card, I opened the book to see if I could guess what she might get.....and I did.....she pulled clarity! Then when it came time for me to pull a card....guess what I pulled too? Yep you guessed it...clarity! Jeez! What does that mean?! I guess it means that we need to pay special attention to clarity today...the definition of clarity from the little book that accompanies our Bali Blessing Cards states.....Clarity is the quality of being easily understood. The quality of being expressive, remembered, and understood in a very exact way: the quality of being easily seen or heard. "Calm provides clarity." - Anonymous
Turns out that clarity for each of us is a pretty reflective process. One of those insidious things that oozes through all that you see and do in a given day. The kind of thing that you can't really describe specifically at the end of a day but rather something that you can feel confident whether you were intentional with or not. One specific example of clarity that we both exercised today was with Ketut at breakfast time. He is attending english classes every week and so we have offered to help him with anything at any time that he'd like. This morning he learned the difference in the sound between paper and pepper and butter and better. Easy for us but not so easy when english is not your first language!
"I love my coffee after the rain when it's cold out" says Lynda while I roll my eyes to keep the sweat from running into them! Her comment was precipitated by Ketut coming out to ask if we'd like something warm to drink as it is a little chilly right now. LOL!!! His idea of chilly and mine are a little different! In truth though it is definitely a little cooler after the rain and this afternoon was another downpour. Lynda made it back from her spa time just before the rain hit and I made it into my reflexology appointment about 2 minutes before the skies opened too.
There is the thunder booming overhead again....we're both guessing that might be something we'll get used to over the coming months as a daily tune that the weather gods sing. And here comes the rain again....it is so nice to be able to sit out here on our patio with the rain falling around us. At the moment it is just a gentle little rain but there is no doubt that it could change at any second into a torrential downpour. We truly feel like we're in the rainy season now. The first few days when we had no rain it was hard to understand why it is called the rainy season but after yesterday and today we definitely feel the truth of that term. This morning though was clear and sunny and the rain didn't hit till early/mid afternoon which supposedly is very typical. It seems to last 30-60 minutes and then turns into this sort of misty reality where everything is wet but the skies are not dumping down on us. Really thankful for the aromatherapy natural bugbegone product we're spraying pretty much all the time as the bugs like this after the rain weather big time!
Lynda spent her spa time with Mariana at the same spa I went to that first day and she loved her time there as much as I did. It really is a nice place - much nicer than the one we spontaneously visited last night after our meal at the vespa warung. Where last night there were just curtains around our space and noise from the road or people in the restaurant floating in over the curtains the spa she was in today is separate little cabins with nicer beds and I believe more skilled therapists. Bottom line....my hunch is that we'll be back at that place once or twice more during our time in Ubud!
My reflexology appointment was AMAZING! I wish I'd written down my therapists name as I can't remember more than that it started with a J so I'm just going to call him J for now. He is the same guy I had almost a week ago when we first arrived and I will be making weekly visits to him during my time here. His skill is without question and the 60 minute treatment I had today was divided between focus on knees and lower legs as well as reflexology. Knees take a bit of a beating here with all the uneven sidewalks so I was doubly thankful for his skill! On my way to see him my knee was giving me some trouble and on my way back home...it was almost as good as new. Wahoo!
Before my reflexology appointment I joined Lynda at her spa location for lunch and what a nice lunch we had at poolside where Lynda had spent the morning lounging before her massage. (I had client meetings this morning so stayed at the room where I could have privacy and good wifi). Our lunch at poolside was delicious! I had a chicken cutlet with a spicy sweet and sour sauce and rice and Lynda had a chicken salad. Even though we didn't really have any room left we shared a crepe with a scoop of ice cream for dessert and were glad we did as it was the perfect ending to a delicious meal. The crepes here are very different from ours. These ones are much more dense and heavier. As a result they are substantial and quite chewy but honestly they're delicious!
Last night there was a dripping noise all through the night and we thought it had to do with the heavy rains that had fallen but by the light of day it turned out to be a leak from the water reservoir for the house so as a result the water had to be turned off today so repairs could be made. Goodday has just come to turn the water back on (it was off for about 7 hours) so our assumption is that there will be no dripping noises tonight. Last night we laughed as we wondered if our perfect little oasis had an achilles heel after all and whether we were going to have to just get used to some kind of water torture sounds every time it rained during the rainy season! Thankfully, this achilles heel was repairable and so no more water torture for us. LOL!
Till next time,
L & L
P.S.
Wrong on the 'no dripping noise tonight' front. We just returned from a late dinner at local warung and once again Lady Luck was with us. Less than 5 mins after our return the skies opened up and the deluge began. It was bone dry while we were out. Loving the rain (even the sound of it on the walls....can't say the roof as we are on the ground floor of a two storey house.).
Funny story from tonight. While we were sitting in the little warung waiting for the little old man and the little old lady to make our meal from scratch (and I do mean from scratch! Nothing is prepared ahead of time from what I can see and the smells wafting out of the kitchen are divine!) a young woman peeked over an opening in the wall of the building across the little laneway this warung is in. She waved hello to us and called out something to the little old woman who proceeded to put a number of pkgs in a small grocery bag. Once she had filled the "order" that little old woman tossed the bag across the laneway and over the wall where the younger woman must have caught it. The younger woman then balled up her money and threw it across the divide to the little old woman's waiting hands. I'd say they've done that maneuver once or twice before!
On our way home we came across Ketut and Goodday sitting in front of the corner store at the end of our laneway. We chatted for a bit and then asked if we could get them a treat from in the store as they're always doing stuff for us. They finally agreed to some ice cream with Ketut choosing a Cornetto (drumstick) and Goodday going for the Magnum ice cream bar. See....young people the world over like much of the same stuff!
.....and now this really is the end of today so till next time.....
L & L
Clarity is gonna have to be big for us today! This morning before Lynda pulled her card, I opened the book to see if I could guess what she might get.....and I did.....she pulled clarity! Then when it came time for me to pull a card....guess what I pulled too? Yep you guessed it...clarity! Jeez! What does that mean?! I guess it means that we need to pay special attention to clarity today...the definition of clarity from the little book that accompanies our Bali Blessing Cards states.....Clarity is the quality of being easily understood. The quality of being expressive, remembered, and understood in a very exact way: the quality of being easily seen or heard. "Calm provides clarity." - Anonymous
Turns out that clarity for each of us is a pretty reflective process. One of those insidious things that oozes through all that you see and do in a given day. The kind of thing that you can't really describe specifically at the end of a day but rather something that you can feel confident whether you were intentional with or not. One specific example of clarity that we both exercised today was with Ketut at breakfast time. He is attending english classes every week and so we have offered to help him with anything at any time that he'd like. This morning he learned the difference in the sound between paper and pepper and butter and better. Easy for us but not so easy when english is not your first language!
"I love my coffee after the rain when it's cold out" says Lynda while I roll my eyes to keep the sweat from running into them! Her comment was precipitated by Ketut coming out to ask if we'd like something warm to drink as it is a little chilly right now. LOL!!! His idea of chilly and mine are a little different! In truth though it is definitely a little cooler after the rain and this afternoon was another downpour. Lynda made it back from her spa time just before the rain hit and I made it into my reflexology appointment about 2 minutes before the skies opened too.
There is the thunder booming overhead again....we're both guessing that might be something we'll get used to over the coming months as a daily tune that the weather gods sing. And here comes the rain again....it is so nice to be able to sit out here on our patio with the rain falling around us. At the moment it is just a gentle little rain but there is no doubt that it could change at any second into a torrential downpour. We truly feel like we're in the rainy season now. The first few days when we had no rain it was hard to understand why it is called the rainy season but after yesterday and today we definitely feel the truth of that term. This morning though was clear and sunny and the rain didn't hit till early/mid afternoon which supposedly is very typical. It seems to last 30-60 minutes and then turns into this sort of misty reality where everything is wet but the skies are not dumping down on us. Really thankful for the aromatherapy natural bugbegone product we're spraying pretty much all the time as the bugs like this after the rain weather big time!
Lynda spent her spa time with Mariana at the same spa I went to that first day and she loved her time there as much as I did. It really is a nice place - much nicer than the one we spontaneously visited last night after our meal at the vespa warung. Where last night there were just curtains around our space and noise from the road or people in the restaurant floating in over the curtains the spa she was in today is separate little cabins with nicer beds and I believe more skilled therapists. Bottom line....my hunch is that we'll be back at that place once or twice more during our time in Ubud!
My reflexology appointment was AMAZING! I wish I'd written down my therapists name as I can't remember more than that it started with a J so I'm just going to call him J for now. He is the same guy I had almost a week ago when we first arrived and I will be making weekly visits to him during my time here. His skill is without question and the 60 minute treatment I had today was divided between focus on knees and lower legs as well as reflexology. Knees take a bit of a beating here with all the uneven sidewalks so I was doubly thankful for his skill! On my way to see him my knee was giving me some trouble and on my way back home...it was almost as good as new. Wahoo!
Before my reflexology appointment I joined Lynda at her spa location for lunch and what a nice lunch we had at poolside where Lynda had spent the morning lounging before her massage. (I had client meetings this morning so stayed at the room where I could have privacy and good wifi). Our lunch at poolside was delicious! I had a chicken cutlet with a spicy sweet and sour sauce and rice and Lynda had a chicken salad. Even though we didn't really have any room left we shared a crepe with a scoop of ice cream for dessert and were glad we did as it was the perfect ending to a delicious meal. The crepes here are very different from ours. These ones are much more dense and heavier. As a result they are substantial and quite chewy but honestly they're delicious!
Last night there was a dripping noise all through the night and we thought it had to do with the heavy rains that had fallen but by the light of day it turned out to be a leak from the water reservoir for the house so as a result the water had to be turned off today so repairs could be made. Goodday has just come to turn the water back on (it was off for about 7 hours) so our assumption is that there will be no dripping noises tonight. Last night we laughed as we wondered if our perfect little oasis had an achilles heel after all and whether we were going to have to just get used to some kind of water torture sounds every time it rained during the rainy season! Thankfully, this achilles heel was repairable and so no more water torture for us. LOL!
Till next time,
L & L
P.S.
Wrong on the 'no dripping noise tonight' front. We just returned from a late dinner at local warung and once again Lady Luck was with us. Less than 5 mins after our return the skies opened up and the deluge began. It was bone dry while we were out. Loving the rain (even the sound of it on the walls....can't say the roof as we are on the ground floor of a two storey house.).
Funny story from tonight. While we were sitting in the little warung waiting for the little old man and the little old lady to make our meal from scratch (and I do mean from scratch! Nothing is prepared ahead of time from what I can see and the smells wafting out of the kitchen are divine!) a young woman peeked over an opening in the wall of the building across the little laneway this warung is in. She waved hello to us and called out something to the little old woman who proceeded to put a number of pkgs in a small grocery bag. Once she had filled the "order" that little old woman tossed the bag across the laneway and over the wall where the younger woman must have caught it. The younger woman then balled up her money and threw it across the divide to the little old woman's waiting hands. I'd say they've done that maneuver once or twice before!
On our way home we came across Ketut and Goodday sitting in front of the corner store at the end of our laneway. We chatted for a bit and then asked if we could get them a treat from in the store as they're always doing stuff for us. They finally agreed to some ice cream with Ketut choosing a Cornetto (drumstick) and Goodday going for the Magnum ice cream bar. See....young people the world over like much of the same stuff!
.....and now this really is the end of today so till next time.....
L & L
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
November 23, 2016
November 23, 2016
"Believe" and "Gentleness". Two pretty safe cards today. Whew! Both of these themes for the day kept us in a pretty quiet state.
While picking up the laundry this morning we learned something new. Our place is called Rumah Kita and we knew from the time we booked it but what we didn't know is that the english translation of Rumah Kita is "my home". How perfect is that?!
Happy to report....all 13 pieces were returned from laundry. It really is amazing to think how they're able to keep all of it straight!
Something else to report is a bit of a funny story on Lynda. Yesterday while we were out walking Lynda thought she'd do a little shopping for an umbrella....we are here during rainy season after all and wouldn't it be nice to have an umbrella in case you wanted to run to the store or something while it was raining. It was a great idea and so at the first shop she saw with umbrellas she asked the very sweet elderly man who was watching the shop how much the umbrellas were. He replied that they were 60,000. Lynda was aghast when she heard the price, so much so that she didn't even want to barter with him. She just told him outright that it was way too much money and she turned to leave. It was sometime later in the evening when it dawned on her that 60,000 is not $60 as she'd thought, but rather it was $6 which isn't too much to begin the bartering at all. Understandably she felt so bad because she had reacted so strongly to his price. The good news is that early this morning while she was out for her walk she saw him at the shop again and she was able to share the story with him and they both had such a good laugh about it that his wife even came out from the back to see just what was going on. She too got in on the story and in the end everyone was laughing and happy. We still don't have umbrellas but Lynda's got the money all figured out now.
This afternoon we walked down the lane to Julie's place and had a tour of her garden where we learned a couple of new tidbits of information. When she first built her place she had a holy man come in to bless it (a very common practice in Bali-everything receives a blessing at various stages of it's building/development/lifespan). The blessings typically include some kind of decoration and that decoration is never removed once placed there during the blessing. Over time it will deteriorate and fall and eventually disappear but until it does....it will be left where it is. Sometimes it might stay there for years! Another thing we learned is about managing the evil spirits that might come to wreak havoc. Julie has a statue of Ganesh sitting just inside her front gate. The path curves to the right and Ganesh sits straight ahead from the gate. The belief there is that evil spirits cannot turn corners and so when/if they enter the gate they will bump into Ganesh and be forced to retreat back out the gate. Humans can turn the corner so Ganesh does not interfere with their entrance. Julie's place is lovely in spite of the fact that she's currently got construction going on. She is having a new outdoor reception area built and it was interesting to watch the workers in their process. For those of you who saw the photo of the guy carrying the huge roll of something down the lane way this morning....that was going to Julie's place. It will be used on the roof if I understood correctly. Also in Julie's garden there is a section that is walled off for the spirits use and within that area there are two temples maybe about 7-8 feet tall. The decision was made when the property was under construction that just these two temples would need to be maintained on site as all of the other many many temples that need a spot are covered off back in the village of the owners of the property. For example, there needs to be a temple for the ancestors and there is one of those back in the village that is being maintained by the family and so no need to have another one here in town on this property too. The two that were necessary though are: one for the gods of the mountains and above and one for the gods of the land and below. The third aspect of addressing the need to observe that which is important is covered off by us humans. The belief is that if all is good with the gods above (addressed through the temple for the mountain and above) and all is good with fellow man (addressed by each of us in the way we greet and treat one another) and if all is good with the land and the gods below (addressed through that particular temple) then all is good with the world. It really is a nice way to move through life when you think about it! Julie also introduced us to several different variety of fruit trees on her property as well as the massive snails that live among them. In fact, we're now thinking that the thing the cat was eating the other day might have been a massive snail that he had extracted from its shell.......ewwwwwww!
After our tour at Julie's she invited us up to see her private residence too and join her for a drink on her balcony which we were happy to do. The fresh fruit juice that Goodday served us was delicious! There were four of us as Julie had also invited her new friend Joanna who'd just arrived from France for a 2 week visit at a villa just outside Ubud. We were having a lovely visit up there on the balcony when Lynda noticed that the sky was changing quite quickly and not in a good way. Within minutes it was as though someone had turned on the taps up above and the skies literally opened up. The torrential rain that blew in with those grey skies meant that we weren't going anywhere for a bit! So, in Balinese fashion, we used the rain as an excuse to have just one more juice and wait it out. Sure enough within 1/2 hour the rain had stopped and we were able to head back to our own home to see what damage had been done to the stuff we'd left out on our patio. As luck would have it the overhang of the roof over our patio protected all of our belongings and so we got off easy and learned a lesson about leaving anything outside during the rainy season - even if you're just planning to go for a few minutes!
We located another little local warung for a late lunch/early dinner. This one featured a number of antique Vespas (motorbikes) some of which you could use as seats at the bar while you enjoyed your dinner. As I read back over this....it sounds like it might be kind of fancy but its not. It's super clean and comfortable but it is very rustic at the same time. Once again our meal was fantastic and this time we topped it off with an order of black rice pudding that was AMAZING! In the end, after 2 appies, 2 mains, 2 waters, 1 dessert, and 1 coffee our total bill was 98,000 or $10 which works out to $5 each for our total food costs for the day! The only way that can get any better is if we don't eat anything at all which neither of us is willing to do given that the food here is delicious!
Somehow after that late lunch/early dinner we both found ourselves face down on massage tables! Not sure just how that happened but it was nice. LOL. 90 minutes later we had one direction in mind. Back home! Shower! Blog! Bed!
Soooo.....nighty night,
L & L
"Believe" and "Gentleness". Two pretty safe cards today. Whew! Both of these themes for the day kept us in a pretty quiet state.
While picking up the laundry this morning we learned something new. Our place is called Rumah Kita and we knew from the time we booked it but what we didn't know is that the english translation of Rumah Kita is "my home". How perfect is that?!
Happy to report....all 13 pieces were returned from laundry. It really is amazing to think how they're able to keep all of it straight!
Something else to report is a bit of a funny story on Lynda. Yesterday while we were out walking Lynda thought she'd do a little shopping for an umbrella....we are here during rainy season after all and wouldn't it be nice to have an umbrella in case you wanted to run to the store or something while it was raining. It was a great idea and so at the first shop she saw with umbrellas she asked the very sweet elderly man who was watching the shop how much the umbrellas were. He replied that they were 60,000. Lynda was aghast when she heard the price, so much so that she didn't even want to barter with him. She just told him outright that it was way too much money and she turned to leave. It was sometime later in the evening when it dawned on her that 60,000 is not $60 as she'd thought, but rather it was $6 which isn't too much to begin the bartering at all. Understandably she felt so bad because she had reacted so strongly to his price. The good news is that early this morning while she was out for her walk she saw him at the shop again and she was able to share the story with him and they both had such a good laugh about it that his wife even came out from the back to see just what was going on. She too got in on the story and in the end everyone was laughing and happy. We still don't have umbrellas but Lynda's got the money all figured out now.
This afternoon we walked down the lane to Julie's place and had a tour of her garden where we learned a couple of new tidbits of information. When she first built her place she had a holy man come in to bless it (a very common practice in Bali-everything receives a blessing at various stages of it's building/development/lifespan). The blessings typically include some kind of decoration and that decoration is never removed once placed there during the blessing. Over time it will deteriorate and fall and eventually disappear but until it does....it will be left where it is. Sometimes it might stay there for years! Another thing we learned is about managing the evil spirits that might come to wreak havoc. Julie has a statue of Ganesh sitting just inside her front gate. The path curves to the right and Ganesh sits straight ahead from the gate. The belief there is that evil spirits cannot turn corners and so when/if they enter the gate they will bump into Ganesh and be forced to retreat back out the gate. Humans can turn the corner so Ganesh does not interfere with their entrance. Julie's place is lovely in spite of the fact that she's currently got construction going on. She is having a new outdoor reception area built and it was interesting to watch the workers in their process. For those of you who saw the photo of the guy carrying the huge roll of something down the lane way this morning....that was going to Julie's place. It will be used on the roof if I understood correctly. Also in Julie's garden there is a section that is walled off for the spirits use and within that area there are two temples maybe about 7-8 feet tall. The decision was made when the property was under construction that just these two temples would need to be maintained on site as all of the other many many temples that need a spot are covered off back in the village of the owners of the property. For example, there needs to be a temple for the ancestors and there is one of those back in the village that is being maintained by the family and so no need to have another one here in town on this property too. The two that were necessary though are: one for the gods of the mountains and above and one for the gods of the land and below. The third aspect of addressing the need to observe that which is important is covered off by us humans. The belief is that if all is good with the gods above (addressed through the temple for the mountain and above) and all is good with fellow man (addressed by each of us in the way we greet and treat one another) and if all is good with the land and the gods below (addressed through that particular temple) then all is good with the world. It really is a nice way to move through life when you think about it! Julie also introduced us to several different variety of fruit trees on her property as well as the massive snails that live among them. In fact, we're now thinking that the thing the cat was eating the other day might have been a massive snail that he had extracted from its shell.......ewwwwwww!
After our tour at Julie's she invited us up to see her private residence too and join her for a drink on her balcony which we were happy to do. The fresh fruit juice that Goodday served us was delicious! There were four of us as Julie had also invited her new friend Joanna who'd just arrived from France for a 2 week visit at a villa just outside Ubud. We were having a lovely visit up there on the balcony when Lynda noticed that the sky was changing quite quickly and not in a good way. Within minutes it was as though someone had turned on the taps up above and the skies literally opened up. The torrential rain that blew in with those grey skies meant that we weren't going anywhere for a bit! So, in Balinese fashion, we used the rain as an excuse to have just one more juice and wait it out. Sure enough within 1/2 hour the rain had stopped and we were able to head back to our own home to see what damage had been done to the stuff we'd left out on our patio. As luck would have it the overhang of the roof over our patio protected all of our belongings and so we got off easy and learned a lesson about leaving anything outside during the rainy season - even if you're just planning to go for a few minutes!
We located another little local warung for a late lunch/early dinner. This one featured a number of antique Vespas (motorbikes) some of which you could use as seats at the bar while you enjoyed your dinner. As I read back over this....it sounds like it might be kind of fancy but its not. It's super clean and comfortable but it is very rustic at the same time. Once again our meal was fantastic and this time we topped it off with an order of black rice pudding that was AMAZING! In the end, after 2 appies, 2 mains, 2 waters, 1 dessert, and 1 coffee our total bill was 98,000 or $10 which works out to $5 each for our total food costs for the day! The only way that can get any better is if we don't eat anything at all which neither of us is willing to do given that the food here is delicious!
Somehow after that late lunch/early dinner we both found ourselves face down on massage tables! Not sure just how that happened but it was nice. LOL. 90 minutes later we had one direction in mind. Back home! Shower! Blog! Bed!
Soooo.....nighty night,
L & L
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
November 22nd cont'd.....
November 22nd cont'd.....
Well just when you thought you were done with us for this day.....SURPRISE! We're back. LOL
Honestly I was going to wait until tomorrow morning to report out on tonight's adventures but...there is no way I could go to bed with this story roiling around in my head....I'd never get to sleep!
You know how Lynda pulled the adventure card earlier today? Well, if it's adventure she is supposed to have then that is what she will get....to the extreme!
It all started when we decided to go to a Balinese cultural performance tonight. I really wanted to see the Fire Dance. I've been talking about it and thinking about it ever since Bali was decided as the destination. So I asked Pasek, "how far is it to see this performance?" He said it was a bit too far to walk and so he would give us a ride for no charge. "Oh no", we exclaimed "we will pay you because we would have to pay a taxi". "No no no," said Pasek. "I will take you and I will get my friend to come too because there are two of you". "Are we going in your car?" I asked. "No, on my bike", replied Pasek.
Agggghhhhh was what my inside voice was saying but outside I just said, "Pasek, I have never been on one before and look at me, I think I am much bigger than you. It will be too difficult and maybe dangerous." "Oh no" reassured Pasek. "It will be okay", he added with a smile.
Through all of this Lynda had been pretty quiet. I was hoping she was quietly thinking about how she's supposed to engage in adventure today and run with this crazy scheme as it appeared we both had motorcycles waiting for us.
We walked down our back lane way and out to the alley where Pasek instructed me to, "hop on", which I did. Lynda followed Pasek's friend across the Monkey Forest road to where his bike was parked and did the same on his bike.
You gotta stop here for a minute to get the full picture in your mind. Here we are...two grannies....large size.....on the back of motorcycles where the drivers are no more than 1/2 our size and in Lynda's case definitely not half our ages either! Lynda was wearing a skirt and so had to hike it up to swing her leg over the bike and then keep it up as she straddled the back of that thing. At first I was holding onto Pasek so tightly I'm sure he must have been worried I might strangle him but by the time we'd made it safely through the first corner and past the first death trap I was settling in for the ride and almost enjoying it. I guess I haven't yet told you the best part. Monkey Forest road is a one way street but when it comes to bikes...there are no rules like that so yes you guessed it folks....we were driving the wrong way down a one way street the entire journey!!! We passed a monkey on the side of the road and as we did he was eying up my earrings so I braced myself in case he was bold enough to attack. (He didn't - whew!). We passed about a million people and at least half of them actually stopped to watch these two old women straddling the backs of those bikes heading the wrong way down hills and up hills and around corners and past oncoming traffic when there is barely enough room for one vehicle let alone a bike with my big knees and elbows sticking out from it!
In the end we were delivered safe and sound to our destination where we purchased two tickets for the hour long show for $15. Best $15 I've spent in a long while! What a show! There were more than 75 in the cast but they're not really the cast...they're just regular people who although they're doing this for the tourists they're also doing it for themselves as it is a part of their cultural practice.
The show opened with a massive candelabra in the centre of the floor. There was a stage at the back but the majority of the performance took place on the very large floor space that was in front of the stage. Remember how this is Lynda's day for adventure? Well, we decided to go for seats front row and centre of house so we'd have the best view....and we did! The temple where this is taking place has no walls...just a very high roof. We are seated on three sides of the floor area. There are about 30 people in the audience so fewer than 1/2 of what is in the cast.
Within minutes of the lights being dimmed, men began to stream out from three doors at the back of the stage. They were all dressed alike. Black and white check sarongs wrapped around their waist with a crimson sash tied at the waist. You may recall that the black and white symbolizes balance and the sash at their middle is meant to accent the separation of top from bottom. The men spill onto the floor area and take a seat on the floor sitting in three concentric circles around the burning candelabra. The men begin their chant and story telling and maintain that chant using their voices as the only instrument for the entire performance. The men sway along with their rounds of chanting and the mood is definitely conducive to moving in the direction of a trance-like state. Several of the men appear to enter into a trance. The men maintain this song for the full hour and that fact in itself is more than impressive. The rest of the performance consists of dancers in amazing costumes that range from beautiful princesses to demons and monkeys to birds. The Balinese dancers are beautiful! Their grace and ability to express with their body, face, and hands is second to none. Even their eye movement was synchronized and appeared to play a role in the story they were telling through their performance. In a nutshell, the storyline is that of Rama and Sita (a Hindu prince and his beautiful bride). Rama and Sita are walking in the forest with Rama's brother and Sita talks Rama into going off into the forest to get her a golden deer. In the end he finally agrees as long as his brother promises to stay to look after Sita which he does. Unfortunately, the evil demon who has been lusting after Sita tricks Rama's brother into leaving her alone in the woods at which time he comes and steals her away. Sita is able to resist the demons advances no matter what tricks he tries and eventually in the end, Rama and his friends, the monkey gods, defeat the demon and rescue Sita to return her to the arms of Rama.
So that's the storyline but honestly....it was captivating and beautifully done! I'm pretty sure it is called the Fire Dance because my eyes were on fire the entire time. I was afraid to blink for fear I'd miss something!
Are you thinking that it's over? If you are...you'd be wrong! Remember that Lynda is all about adventure today and so the fire dance part of this show is yet to take place. A man came out with a massive bag of coconut husks and then doused them in gasoline while another guy threw matches at the pile that was soon ablaze with flames shooting at least 10 feet high. Once the husks were well and truly burning, another man (who seemed to definitely be in a trance as he had his eyes closed the entire time) came out onto the floor (and remember....we are in the front row). This man was riding a kind of horse made of sticks and that had a full mane and tale of paper streamers. Every time he got close to the fire we were sure his horses mane and tale would catch on fire but they never did. What did happen though was that this guy started kicking that pile of burning husks (with his bare feet) and he kicked them and walked through them and kicked them and walked through them and then did it again. All of these kicked coconut husks were skimming across the floor right in the direction of the crazy "adventurous" folk who where sitting in the front row! And that was us! I didn't want to do a fire dance! I don't want to burn my feet or melt my flip flops! People all around us were kicking back the burning balls of fire and we just both held our breath and hoped that none of those balls would find their way to our bare feet! Once the man had destroyed the pile of burning husks we heaved a sigh of relief but it was only seconds later that we realized this was not yet finished. Men came out with pushers and pushed all those burning husks back into a pile at which time the crazy trance guy on the horse just did it all again. That process repeated at least three more times before the husks were pretty well completely burned and the man on the horse was done with his "fire walk".
I'm pretty sure we both held our breath for most of the last 15 minutes of that performance and neither of us had a word to say other than "Wow" after it was all finished.
What a show! Jeez....I wonder what card Lynda will pull tomorrow?
Now this truly is the end so....Till next time,
L & L
Well just when you thought you were done with us for this day.....SURPRISE! We're back. LOL
Honestly I was going to wait until tomorrow morning to report out on tonight's adventures but...there is no way I could go to bed with this story roiling around in my head....I'd never get to sleep!
You know how Lynda pulled the adventure card earlier today? Well, if it's adventure she is supposed to have then that is what she will get....to the extreme!
It all started when we decided to go to a Balinese cultural performance tonight. I really wanted to see the Fire Dance. I've been talking about it and thinking about it ever since Bali was decided as the destination. So I asked Pasek, "how far is it to see this performance?" He said it was a bit too far to walk and so he would give us a ride for no charge. "Oh no", we exclaimed "we will pay you because we would have to pay a taxi". "No no no," said Pasek. "I will take you and I will get my friend to come too because there are two of you". "Are we going in your car?" I asked. "No, on my bike", replied Pasek.
Agggghhhhh was what my inside voice was saying but outside I just said, "Pasek, I have never been on one before and look at me, I think I am much bigger than you. It will be too difficult and maybe dangerous." "Oh no" reassured Pasek. "It will be okay", he added with a smile.
Through all of this Lynda had been pretty quiet. I was hoping she was quietly thinking about how she's supposed to engage in adventure today and run with this crazy scheme as it appeared we both had motorcycles waiting for us.
We walked down our back lane way and out to the alley where Pasek instructed me to, "hop on", which I did. Lynda followed Pasek's friend across the Monkey Forest road to where his bike was parked and did the same on his bike.
You gotta stop here for a minute to get the full picture in your mind. Here we are...two grannies....large size.....on the back of motorcycles where the drivers are no more than 1/2 our size and in Lynda's case definitely not half our ages either! Lynda was wearing a skirt and so had to hike it up to swing her leg over the bike and then keep it up as she straddled the back of that thing. At first I was holding onto Pasek so tightly I'm sure he must have been worried I might strangle him but by the time we'd made it safely through the first corner and past the first death trap I was settling in for the ride and almost enjoying it. I guess I haven't yet told you the best part. Monkey Forest road is a one way street but when it comes to bikes...there are no rules like that so yes you guessed it folks....we were driving the wrong way down a one way street the entire journey!!! We passed a monkey on the side of the road and as we did he was eying up my earrings so I braced myself in case he was bold enough to attack. (He didn't - whew!). We passed about a million people and at least half of them actually stopped to watch these two old women straddling the backs of those bikes heading the wrong way down hills and up hills and around corners and past oncoming traffic when there is barely enough room for one vehicle let alone a bike with my big knees and elbows sticking out from it!
In the end we were delivered safe and sound to our destination where we purchased two tickets for the hour long show for $15. Best $15 I've spent in a long while! What a show! There were more than 75 in the cast but they're not really the cast...they're just regular people who although they're doing this for the tourists they're also doing it for themselves as it is a part of their cultural practice.
The show opened with a massive candelabra in the centre of the floor. There was a stage at the back but the majority of the performance took place on the very large floor space that was in front of the stage. Remember how this is Lynda's day for adventure? Well, we decided to go for seats front row and centre of house so we'd have the best view....and we did! The temple where this is taking place has no walls...just a very high roof. We are seated on three sides of the floor area. There are about 30 people in the audience so fewer than 1/2 of what is in the cast.
Within minutes of the lights being dimmed, men began to stream out from three doors at the back of the stage. They were all dressed alike. Black and white check sarongs wrapped around their waist with a crimson sash tied at the waist. You may recall that the black and white symbolizes balance and the sash at their middle is meant to accent the separation of top from bottom. The men spill onto the floor area and take a seat on the floor sitting in three concentric circles around the burning candelabra. The men begin their chant and story telling and maintain that chant using their voices as the only instrument for the entire performance. The men sway along with their rounds of chanting and the mood is definitely conducive to moving in the direction of a trance-like state. Several of the men appear to enter into a trance. The men maintain this song for the full hour and that fact in itself is more than impressive. The rest of the performance consists of dancers in amazing costumes that range from beautiful princesses to demons and monkeys to birds. The Balinese dancers are beautiful! Their grace and ability to express with their body, face, and hands is second to none. Even their eye movement was synchronized and appeared to play a role in the story they were telling through their performance. In a nutshell, the storyline is that of Rama and Sita (a Hindu prince and his beautiful bride). Rama and Sita are walking in the forest with Rama's brother and Sita talks Rama into going off into the forest to get her a golden deer. In the end he finally agrees as long as his brother promises to stay to look after Sita which he does. Unfortunately, the evil demon who has been lusting after Sita tricks Rama's brother into leaving her alone in the woods at which time he comes and steals her away. Sita is able to resist the demons advances no matter what tricks he tries and eventually in the end, Rama and his friends, the monkey gods, defeat the demon and rescue Sita to return her to the arms of Rama.
So that's the storyline but honestly....it was captivating and beautifully done! I'm pretty sure it is called the Fire Dance because my eyes were on fire the entire time. I was afraid to blink for fear I'd miss something!
Are you thinking that it's over? If you are...you'd be wrong! Remember that Lynda is all about adventure today and so the fire dance part of this show is yet to take place. A man came out with a massive bag of coconut husks and then doused them in gasoline while another guy threw matches at the pile that was soon ablaze with flames shooting at least 10 feet high. Once the husks were well and truly burning, another man (who seemed to definitely be in a trance as he had his eyes closed the entire time) came out onto the floor (and remember....we are in the front row). This man was riding a kind of horse made of sticks and that had a full mane and tale of paper streamers. Every time he got close to the fire we were sure his horses mane and tale would catch on fire but they never did. What did happen though was that this guy started kicking that pile of burning husks (with his bare feet) and he kicked them and walked through them and kicked them and walked through them and then did it again. All of these kicked coconut husks were skimming across the floor right in the direction of the crazy "adventurous" folk who where sitting in the front row! And that was us! I didn't want to do a fire dance! I don't want to burn my feet or melt my flip flops! People all around us were kicking back the burning balls of fire and we just both held our breath and hoped that none of those balls would find their way to our bare feet! Once the man had destroyed the pile of burning husks we heaved a sigh of relief but it was only seconds later that we realized this was not yet finished. Men came out with pushers and pushed all those burning husks back into a pile at which time the crazy trance guy on the horse just did it all again. That process repeated at least three more times before the husks were pretty well completely burned and the man on the horse was done with his "fire walk".
I'm pretty sure we both held our breath for most of the last 15 minutes of that performance and neither of us had a word to say other than "Wow" after it was all finished.
What a show! Jeez....I wonder what card Lynda will pull tomorrow?
Now this truly is the end so....Till next time,
L & L
November 22, 2016
November 22, 2016
Well here it is 10:00 a.m and we just lost power for the first time which may be a blessing in disguise for me with this blogging business as it forced me to figure out another way to capture the text without wifi. So here I am in a word processing document instead which will allow me to edit more easily than it has been typing directly into the blogpost! Now when you find spelling errors or layout issues....you'll truly know that they are my fault and not the fault of working in a slightly less than friendly online environment. LOL. How's that for "owning" my posts?!
This morning has been great. Really this is just the start of day 5 and already we have a little routine worked out. Our place here is so roomy and with the inside and outside areas we really do have space to do our own thing. Even just considering the inside space, with the sitting room area between the beds it is as though we have two rooms in there. We really have to pinch ourselves as we recognize just how lucky we are to have such a great place for such a great price. Speaking of which....because we are here for such an extended period of time and because we only use the A/C during the nighttime we were able to get an even better price than we had for that first week so to all our friends and family out there.....just know that we really are doing okay on the "staying within the budget" front.
I know that I've been painting a pretty rosy picture of all that there is here and that has been easy to do as it really is an amazing and beautiful place. Just like anywhere else though, some things have to be forfeited in pursuit of others. For example, the power being out today....I know you'll all think, "well our power goes down here too" but it is different. I'm pretty sure this happens quite frequently and so is definitely just accepted as a part of the day. And then there is that damned squeaky toy and all his cousins (one of which just broke into "song" as I'm typing this). To get this tropical paradise...you gotta be okay with sharing it with an abundance of nature ranging from those lizards and geckos to ants, centipedes, monkeys, whatever it was the cat ate yesterday, and about a million other things that we have yet to see. Or....you know how you can just turn on the tap to brush your teeth or get a drink. Well that's not the case here. We have to be conscious all the time about water, especially the stuff you drink. And, like I mentioned yesterday with the uneven ground/sidewalks....as much as WCB and all the safety legislation can make us crazy....boy it's nice to be able to look up while you walk. Showering is another thing we take for granted at home. You know how we have room to splash and get clean without thinking about it? Well, here we have a tub to stand in and a handheld shower. Now don't get me wrong....it's all perfectly good and at the same time it is very different from the abundance we have on all fronts at home. I'd be remiss not to mention the sweating too. Did you know your sweat can sweat?! Honestly, sometimes the humidity on top of the heat can be overwhelming when you're out. It's not so bad when you're just sitting around but having to walk (or work) in it isn't all that much fun. But it is that heat and humidity that provide us with the array of tropical flowers and bushes we have surrounding us in our little oasis so please know this isn't a complaint it is just simply recognition of the fact that we have to give to get.....and isn't that a great life lesson/reminder. Another 'not so nice' aspect here is the termites. They're in pretty much all the buildings and so for example on one end of our outdoor couch there is a constant "shower" of termite droppings. Tiny grains of wood (like sand) fall from the roof and onto the couch so you always have to remember to brush it off before you sit (and maybe you choose not to sit in that exact spot). And then there is the itching....from mosquitos to the irritation of always being sweaty or the different detergent used for the linens and the falling termite dust....there are plenty of reasons to scratch.
So there....that's all the 'not so nice' bits I can think of to share. Are you still feeling envious of us on this adventure? I hope so as I can honestly say that sitting here on the patio right now I am ever so thankful for the opportunity to have the rest of my day as a blank canvas just waiting for me to paint it with whatever tropical colours and tones speak to me at this very moment. Being in a place like Ubud might have it's "itchy" moments but the calm and serenity that abounds dwarfs those scratchy bits in comparison. Having the opportunity to experience new people, new culture, new tastes, sights, and sounds leaves both Lynda and I ever so grateful to be on our own unique Balinese journey.
Right next door (behind the tropical trees) is another little rental house. The fellow who looks after it is currently cleaning and as he does every day he is whistling while he works and occasionally humming a little tune. I think that about sums it up....this is a happy happy place.
Till sometime later today.....
A few more things to report in on since I last wrote:
1) I have more than $52,000,000.00 in my checking account! Wahoo!! (Shhhhhh....don't tell me that its rupiahs and not dollars)
2) The cat definitely didn't eat that damn squeaky toy and in fact I'm pretty sure he's got friends over for a visit tonight!
3) Natural bug spray from the aromatherapy store just down the road seems to be working! Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!!!
4) Not all spas are created equal. Lynda looked into one today and just shook her head "no" with the same frightened look on her face that she had when we were in that doctors office in El Nido and he was talking about doing surgery on the desk when needed. (If you don't know that story...you'll have to go and read the lorrieinphilippines blog. LOL
5) The bag they used at the aromatherapy store was made out of an old newspaper and it felt very boutique and high end. Recycle/Reuse in action!
6) We dropped off our laundry across the street today and our total bill for 13 pieces was $3. Why would anyone ever do their own laundry here?!
7) Today we found some "Bali" cards and bought them just for fun. Each morning you're supposed to select one out of the bowl and it will tell you your "lesson" or "thing to focus on" for the day. Today Lynda got 'adventure' and I got 'forgiveness'. I get the adventure card...we're having a great one of those and this morning while she was out for a walk in the cool quiet part of the day her adventure was that she ran into monkey traffic! We are located just a few minutes walk from Monkey Forest and neither of us is looking forward to making a visit to that popular destination as neither of us is overly fond of monkeys! In fact, I'll go so far as to say we really don't like them at all....they're sneaky little buggers and they steal your glasses and jewellery right off your body! But, we'll likely have to make one trip into the forest while here so I'll leave all of the monkey business for another post. For now I'll just say that Lynda's run in with 5 of the little buggers was in keeping with her card for adventure. Not sure who I need to forgive though and I sure hope it isn't Trump cuz I can't seem to make my way there.....oh.....just a minute....I almost forgot.....I'm working on my "unf*!%#withable'ness" while here. For those of you who are not yet familiar with that term, its definition is: (adj) when you're truly at peace and in touch with yourself, and nothing anyone says or does can bother you, and no negativity or drama can touch you. Yep, that's a muscle worth working! LOL
8) We have yet to see much rain here even though this is the rainy season. Today mother nature is sure teasing us though as the skies are overcast and we can hear thunder rolling across the sky (thankfully it's a ways away). The skies did open up the other night while we were at the Guinean cultural performance but we were untouched as the show was under a roof and by the time the show was over so was the rain.
Sitting here listening to the guy next door puttering around and whistling while he works again. His happy refrain along with the bazillion birds (yes, I'm sure there are at least that many) I can hear singing right now....gotta pinch myself again to make sure this isn't a dream.
Till next time,
Lorrie & Lynda
Well here it is 10:00 a.m and we just lost power for the first time which may be a blessing in disguise for me with this blogging business as it forced me to figure out another way to capture the text without wifi. So here I am in a word processing document instead which will allow me to edit more easily than it has been typing directly into the blogpost! Now when you find spelling errors or layout issues....you'll truly know that they are my fault and not the fault of working in a slightly less than friendly online environment. LOL. How's that for "owning" my posts?!
This morning has been great. Really this is just the start of day 5 and already we have a little routine worked out. Our place here is so roomy and with the inside and outside areas we really do have space to do our own thing. Even just considering the inside space, with the sitting room area between the beds it is as though we have two rooms in there. We really have to pinch ourselves as we recognize just how lucky we are to have such a great place for such a great price. Speaking of which....because we are here for such an extended period of time and because we only use the A/C during the nighttime we were able to get an even better price than we had for that first week so to all our friends and family out there.....just know that we really are doing okay on the "staying within the budget" front.
I know that I've been painting a pretty rosy picture of all that there is here and that has been easy to do as it really is an amazing and beautiful place. Just like anywhere else though, some things have to be forfeited in pursuit of others. For example, the power being out today....I know you'll all think, "well our power goes down here too" but it is different. I'm pretty sure this happens quite frequently and so is definitely just accepted as a part of the day. And then there is that damned squeaky toy and all his cousins (one of which just broke into "song" as I'm typing this). To get this tropical paradise...you gotta be okay with sharing it with an abundance of nature ranging from those lizards and geckos to ants, centipedes, monkeys, whatever it was the cat ate yesterday, and about a million other things that we have yet to see. Or....you know how you can just turn on the tap to brush your teeth or get a drink. Well that's not the case here. We have to be conscious all the time about water, especially the stuff you drink. And, like I mentioned yesterday with the uneven ground/sidewalks....as much as WCB and all the safety legislation can make us crazy....boy it's nice to be able to look up while you walk. Showering is another thing we take for granted at home. You know how we have room to splash and get clean without thinking about it? Well, here we have a tub to stand in and a handheld shower. Now don't get me wrong....it's all perfectly good and at the same time it is very different from the abundance we have on all fronts at home. I'd be remiss not to mention the sweating too. Did you know your sweat can sweat?! Honestly, sometimes the humidity on top of the heat can be overwhelming when you're out. It's not so bad when you're just sitting around but having to walk (or work) in it isn't all that much fun. But it is that heat and humidity that provide us with the array of tropical flowers and bushes we have surrounding us in our little oasis so please know this isn't a complaint it is just simply recognition of the fact that we have to give to get.....and isn't that a great life lesson/reminder. Another 'not so nice' aspect here is the termites. They're in pretty much all the buildings and so for example on one end of our outdoor couch there is a constant "shower" of termite droppings. Tiny grains of wood (like sand) fall from the roof and onto the couch so you always have to remember to brush it off before you sit (and maybe you choose not to sit in that exact spot). And then there is the itching....from mosquitos to the irritation of always being sweaty or the different detergent used for the linens and the falling termite dust....there are plenty of reasons to scratch.
So there....that's all the 'not so nice' bits I can think of to share. Are you still feeling envious of us on this adventure? I hope so as I can honestly say that sitting here on the patio right now I am ever so thankful for the opportunity to have the rest of my day as a blank canvas just waiting for me to paint it with whatever tropical colours and tones speak to me at this very moment. Being in a place like Ubud might have it's "itchy" moments but the calm and serenity that abounds dwarfs those scratchy bits in comparison. Having the opportunity to experience new people, new culture, new tastes, sights, and sounds leaves both Lynda and I ever so grateful to be on our own unique Balinese journey.
Right next door (behind the tropical trees) is another little rental house. The fellow who looks after it is currently cleaning and as he does every day he is whistling while he works and occasionally humming a little tune. I think that about sums it up....this is a happy happy place.
Till sometime later today.....
A few more things to report in on since I last wrote:
1) I have more than $52,000,000.00 in my checking account! Wahoo!! (Shhhhhh....don't tell me that its rupiahs and not dollars)
2) The cat definitely didn't eat that damn squeaky toy and in fact I'm pretty sure he's got friends over for a visit tonight!
3) Natural bug spray from the aromatherapy store just down the road seems to be working! Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!!!
4) Not all spas are created equal. Lynda looked into one today and just shook her head "no" with the same frightened look on her face that she had when we were in that doctors office in El Nido and he was talking about doing surgery on the desk when needed. (If you don't know that story...you'll have to go and read the lorrieinphilippines blog. LOL
5) The bag they used at the aromatherapy store was made out of an old newspaper and it felt very boutique and high end. Recycle/Reuse in action!
6) We dropped off our laundry across the street today and our total bill for 13 pieces was $3. Why would anyone ever do their own laundry here?!
7) Today we found some "Bali" cards and bought them just for fun. Each morning you're supposed to select one out of the bowl and it will tell you your "lesson" or "thing to focus on" for the day. Today Lynda got 'adventure' and I got 'forgiveness'. I get the adventure card...we're having a great one of those and this morning while she was out for a walk in the cool quiet part of the day her adventure was that she ran into monkey traffic! We are located just a few minutes walk from Monkey Forest and neither of us is looking forward to making a visit to that popular destination as neither of us is overly fond of monkeys! In fact, I'll go so far as to say we really don't like them at all....they're sneaky little buggers and they steal your glasses and jewellery right off your body! But, we'll likely have to make one trip into the forest while here so I'll leave all of the monkey business for another post. For now I'll just say that Lynda's run in with 5 of the little buggers was in keeping with her card for adventure. Not sure who I need to forgive though and I sure hope it isn't Trump cuz I can't seem to make my way there.....oh.....just a minute....I almost forgot.....I'm working on my "unf*!%#withable'ness" while here. For those of you who are not yet familiar with that term, its definition is: (adj) when you're truly at peace and in touch with yourself, and nothing anyone says or does can bother you, and no negativity or drama can touch you. Yep, that's a muscle worth working! LOL
8) We have yet to see much rain here even though this is the rainy season. Today mother nature is sure teasing us though as the skies are overcast and we can hear thunder rolling across the sky (thankfully it's a ways away). The skies did open up the other night while we were at the Guinean cultural performance but we were untouched as the show was under a roof and by the time the show was over so was the rain.
Sitting here listening to the guy next door puttering around and whistling while he works again. His happy refrain along with the bazillion birds (yes, I'm sure there are at least that many) I can hear singing right now....gotta pinch myself again to make sure this isn't a dream.
Till next time,
Lorrie & Lynda
Monday, November 21, 2016
November 21, 2016
It is just 7:00 pm but I'm beat! It was a hot one today and given that we walked a fair bit the heat was even more uncomfortable.
Last night was a long one....remember that damn squeaky toy I told you about? Well, last night someone kept stomping on him at about 30 minute intervals almost all night long! And....he was right outside my window - in fact from the sound of him...he could have been in the bed with me! In the end I fell asleep and once the sandman took over I slept like the dead and nothing could have wakened me!
This morning Ketut brought us toast and a hard boiled egg along with our fresh fruit salad so that was a first and it too was yummy. The fact that it is being made and cleaned up by someone else helps on the yummy front too! LOL
Our morning was spent in quiet reflection with each of us doing our own thing and then at 10:00 we did some planned Facetime calls with family. What a treat this facetime is! It makes the world seem like such a tiny place even when you're on opposite sides of it. In fact, when I spoke to my 2 year old granddaughter, Danyka, she wasn't sure it was really me as usually when we facetime we are in the same time zone and she can recognize my surroundings. This time it was night for her but full sunshine for me and I was obviously surrounded by jungle type trees and there were birds in the background. She knew it was me but she also knew something was very different. Kids are smart! Last night I'd had the opportunity to talk to my son and his family too and as a result got all the updates on their upcoming move to Regina. Lynda too had a chance to visit with one of her kids and 2 grandkids in Vancouver. Joanna (Lynda's daughter in law) just finished a run with a play she's been working on and so we were able to hear all about that too as she shifts into R & R mode now that the
play is finished.
Once all the technology stuff was done Lynda and I headed out. We located a new little warung further up Monkey Forest Rd and had another fantastic meal. I won't bore you with the full menu again but just say that the final bill was consistent with what we've been experiencing everywhere we've been so far. Wahoo!
Post lunch we continued our wander up Monkey Forest rd making our way past the soccer field and all the way to the palace at the end. Across from the palace is the start of the market - the one that Julia Roberts was filmed in during the movie Eat, Pray, Love. It's a busy place! Hard to believe this is the slow season! I'm actually glad that we'll be heading north over the Xmas break...it might be a little quieter up there when the tourists arrive in droves for the holidays.
The market is filled with vendors all wanting to sell their wares. I was excited to see a few mangosteens on one vendors table so I bought four of those from her along with 4 of the snake fruit as well. That snake fruit is fast becoming something I could get very very used to! I have no idea if I overpaid for those 8 pieces of fruit or not but I'm a firm believer that as long as I feel good about what I paid..it was a fair price. She originally wanted 100,000 ($10) for just the 4 mangosteen and I said no but that I would also take 4 snake fruits and give her 50,000 for all 8 pieces. She argued vehemently but in the end I got them for $5 so I'm pretty sure that was an okay price from her perspective too and for me.....I'd pay at least $2.50 or $3 for one mangosteen at home so this felt like I was.getting a very good price! I also picked up a super light dress that I'd be able to throw on when hanging around the room. That asking price was also cut in half from $20 to $10 for the final sale so I'm starting to see a pattern develop in terms of knowing just how far over they're going with their original "ask" and that will be helpful going forward over the coming months as we negotiate any number of things.
Healthy drinks are very popular here and so every restaurant (and there is a restaurant about every 50 feet) has them on the menu. This afternoon I opted for the "energy boost" that was apple, lime, and ginger. It was delicious and honestly....I felt a little boosted or at least refreshed. LOL. Lynda's choice was a Green Tea Iced Latte and it too was tasty. As you can see....there is no shortage of options for us to consider ont he food and beverage front. Well....on any front actually.
In addition to the many restaurants there are even more spas where massage is the top item on the menu. In fact, Bali is touted as having more spas per square mile than anywhere else in the world! We could go to a different spa every day we're in Bali and not even visit all the ones in Ubud alone! And we're here for 150 days folks....that's a lot of spa time!
Other places we located today were the post office (which I needed to find) and Bali Buda which we also needed to find as that is where we can connect with Komang (Julie's friend who is an agent that deals in visa extensions). We struck out at the post office as it had already closed and struck out with Komang too as she is only there from 2 - 4 and it was after 5 by the time we found Bali Buda. Lynda had better luck on locating the Radiantly Alive Yoga studio though as it was still open and so she was able to get herself a mat for our great spot right here at home as well as a package of tickets to attend classes that fit her interests.
We started the walk back but I decided I'd had enough and so caught a taxi to bring us back to the alley that leads to our little place. Pretty much everything in the town of Ubud is 50,000 ($5) and I figured it was worth it to just get back and put my feet up. I guess I should tell you that walking here isn't like walking at home. Here you have to look down when you're walking and if you want to look up or in a store window etc you have to stop walking. The reason for this is the sidewalk (if there is one) is VERY VERY rough. Often the sidewalk is just missing a piece and there is nothing there but a massive hold that is big enough for a child to fall into. If the sidewalk is in tact it is very likely got a pile of dirt on it or a motorbike parked across it or some kind of construction material or piping stacked or a guy repairing it or Balinese offerings to the gods laying on it or.....well.....you get the picture. It reminds us so much of the time we were at the pyramids in Egypt and our guide made very clear the importance of stopping to look up as the evidence of people who didn't do that was all around. Broken arms, broken noses, scratches and bruises.....yes that trip was like a PHD in traversing uneven ground and the ground here is pretty uneven!
Hmmmmm .....what else can I tell you today. Well this morning one of the two cats that wanders between here and Julie's caught and ate something that neither of us had ever seen before. We think it must have been some kind of lizard or gecko. Heh...maybe the cat was kept awake by the little bugger last night too and so decided to get rid of him! LOL The other thing you might find interesting was as we were walking along the narrow sidewalk along the soccer field. As it common in most of the world, people are expected to be smart and look after themselves. I mean...make smart choices around safety etc. It is different than in Canada. Here it's not the law that dictates a choice to wear a seatbelt...it is your choice. Anyway...along that same vein, there are really no railings or other safety measures. WCB or the likes would have a hayday and a heart attack here...everywhere you look there are safety rules being broken (because there are really no safety rules). Well...along that very narrow sidewalk we had to make a choice...to take the inside track and risk falling over the edge (about a 5 - 6 foot drop) or take the outside and risk being hit by a scooter or a car. We both opted for the collision course and took the outside because that inside track felt a lot like walking a tightrope!
I've about run out of content for today so until next time,
L & L
Last night was a long one....remember that damn squeaky toy I told you about? Well, last night someone kept stomping on him at about 30 minute intervals almost all night long! And....he was right outside my window - in fact from the sound of him...he could have been in the bed with me! In the end I fell asleep and once the sandman took over I slept like the dead and nothing could have wakened me!
This morning Ketut brought us toast and a hard boiled egg along with our fresh fruit salad so that was a first and it too was yummy. The fact that it is being made and cleaned up by someone else helps on the yummy front too! LOL
Our morning was spent in quiet reflection with each of us doing our own thing and then at 10:00 we did some planned Facetime calls with family. What a treat this facetime is! It makes the world seem like such a tiny place even when you're on opposite sides of it. In fact, when I spoke to my 2 year old granddaughter, Danyka, she wasn't sure it was really me as usually when we facetime we are in the same time zone and she can recognize my surroundings. This time it was night for her but full sunshine for me and I was obviously surrounded by jungle type trees and there were birds in the background. She knew it was me but she also knew something was very different. Kids are smart! Last night I'd had the opportunity to talk to my son and his family too and as a result got all the updates on their upcoming move to Regina. Lynda too had a chance to visit with one of her kids and 2 grandkids in Vancouver. Joanna (Lynda's daughter in law) just finished a run with a play she's been working on and so we were able to hear all about that too as she shifts into R & R mode now that the
play is finished.
Once all the technology stuff was done Lynda and I headed out. We located a new little warung further up Monkey Forest Rd and had another fantastic meal. I won't bore you with the full menu again but just say that the final bill was consistent with what we've been experiencing everywhere we've been so far. Wahoo!
Post lunch we continued our wander up Monkey Forest rd making our way past the soccer field and all the way to the palace at the end. Across from the palace is the start of the market - the one that Julia Roberts was filmed in during the movie Eat, Pray, Love. It's a busy place! Hard to believe this is the slow season! I'm actually glad that we'll be heading north over the Xmas break...it might be a little quieter up there when the tourists arrive in droves for the holidays.
The market is filled with vendors all wanting to sell their wares. I was excited to see a few mangosteens on one vendors table so I bought four of those from her along with 4 of the snake fruit as well. That snake fruit is fast becoming something I could get very very used to! I have no idea if I overpaid for those 8 pieces of fruit or not but I'm a firm believer that as long as I feel good about what I paid..it was a fair price. She originally wanted 100,000 ($10) for just the 4 mangosteen and I said no but that I would also take 4 snake fruits and give her 50,000 for all 8 pieces. She argued vehemently but in the end I got them for $5 so I'm pretty sure that was an okay price from her perspective too and for me.....I'd pay at least $2.50 or $3 for one mangosteen at home so this felt like I was.getting a very good price! I also picked up a super light dress that I'd be able to throw on when hanging around the room. That asking price was also cut in half from $20 to $10 for the final sale so I'm starting to see a pattern develop in terms of knowing just how far over they're going with their original "ask" and that will be helpful going forward over the coming months as we negotiate any number of things.
Healthy drinks are very popular here and so every restaurant (and there is a restaurant about every 50 feet) has them on the menu. This afternoon I opted for the "energy boost" that was apple, lime, and ginger. It was delicious and honestly....I felt a little boosted or at least refreshed. LOL. Lynda's choice was a Green Tea Iced Latte and it too was tasty. As you can see....there is no shortage of options for us to consider ont he food and beverage front. Well....on any front actually.
In addition to the many restaurants there are even more spas where massage is the top item on the menu. In fact, Bali is touted as having more spas per square mile than anywhere else in the world! We could go to a different spa every day we're in Bali and not even visit all the ones in Ubud alone! And we're here for 150 days folks....that's a lot of spa time!
Other places we located today were the post office (which I needed to find) and Bali Buda which we also needed to find as that is where we can connect with Komang (Julie's friend who is an agent that deals in visa extensions). We struck out at the post office as it had already closed and struck out with Komang too as she is only there from 2 - 4 and it was after 5 by the time we found Bali Buda. Lynda had better luck on locating the Radiantly Alive Yoga studio though as it was still open and so she was able to get herself a mat for our great spot right here at home as well as a package of tickets to attend classes that fit her interests.
We started the walk back but I decided I'd had enough and so caught a taxi to bring us back to the alley that leads to our little place. Pretty much everything in the town of Ubud is 50,000 ($5) and I figured it was worth it to just get back and put my feet up. I guess I should tell you that walking here isn't like walking at home. Here you have to look down when you're walking and if you want to look up or in a store window etc you have to stop walking. The reason for this is the sidewalk (if there is one) is VERY VERY rough. Often the sidewalk is just missing a piece and there is nothing there but a massive hold that is big enough for a child to fall into. If the sidewalk is in tact it is very likely got a pile of dirt on it or a motorbike parked across it or some kind of construction material or piping stacked or a guy repairing it or Balinese offerings to the gods laying on it or.....well.....you get the picture. It reminds us so much of the time we were at the pyramids in Egypt and our guide made very clear the importance of stopping to look up as the evidence of people who didn't do that was all around. Broken arms, broken noses, scratches and bruises.....yes that trip was like a PHD in traversing uneven ground and the ground here is pretty uneven!
Hmmmmm .....what else can I tell you today. Well this morning one of the two cats that wanders between here and Julie's caught and ate something that neither of us had ever seen before. We think it must have been some kind of lizard or gecko. Heh...maybe the cat was kept awake by the little bugger last night too and so decided to get rid of him! LOL The other thing you might find interesting was as we were walking along the narrow sidewalk along the soccer field. As it common in most of the world, people are expected to be smart and look after themselves. I mean...make smart choices around safety etc. It is different than in Canada. Here it's not the law that dictates a choice to wear a seatbelt...it is your choice. Anyway...along that same vein, there are really no railings or other safety measures. WCB or the likes would have a hayday and a heart attack here...everywhere you look there are safety rules being broken (because there are really no safety rules). Well...along that very narrow sidewalk we had to make a choice...to take the inside track and risk falling over the edge (about a 5 - 6 foot drop) or take the outside and risk being hit by a scooter or a car. We both opted for the collision course and took the outside because that inside track felt a lot like walking a tightrope!
I've about run out of content for today so until next time,
L & L
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Novembe 20th yet again.....
OMG....are you sick of hearing from us yet today?! Just had to do one more quick post tonight. (Karen, this is just for you....cuz you know....I'm building a fence....not just putting up posts. LOL)
Just returned from dinner. Ended up at LOL which is a restaurant that regularly features live music. Tonight was reggae night so we couldn't resist. Don't worry family and friends....there are no drugs in Bali so we were okay to go to reggae night.
Had great meals with 2 appies as well. Appies were spring rolls and a papaya with shrimp salad that were as good as they sound. Meals were Thai chicken curry with rice and an Indonesian dish called Gado Gado. It is a vegetarian dish consisting of a number of different vegetables (potatoes, carrots, cabbage, a spinach like leaf, green beans and bean sprouts, as well as a hard boiled egg, some crispy shrimp chips, and two types of lumpia (which is a tofu type protein). In the middle of this veg medley was an amazing peanut sauce that had just enough spice to be perfect! Also we both had bottled water, Lynda had an iced tea and a latte, and I had a mango mohito. We also had live music from the time we finished our dinner until we left and the band took their first break (so a little more than an hour). Total bill (including tip for wait staff and band) was less than $40. Jeez...where else can you go out for dinner, drinks and entertainment for $20?! Loving Bali!!
Hopefully there won't be another one tonight,
L & L
P.S.
Have not yet mentioned in any of the posts about the apparant lost squeaky toy that is outside our house. It shows up at about the same time every day (5 pm'ish) and we have yet to see what is stepping on it to make it squeak. We can't even see the squeaky toy! Honestly though.....its not really a squeaky toy......there are two types of geckos here. The kind we are used to seeing (the cute little ones that run all over the walls in Hawaii or Mexico) are called house lizards here. Those little guys make a chirping sound for any of you who have yet to run in to them. In Bali, geckos are much larger than house lizards and they make an entirely different noise. It really is kind of like a super irritating dog toy but not quite as squeaky...more croaky....but not as croaky as a frog. So if you can imagine all of that....you'll know exactly what a Balinese gecko sounds like. Maybe he'll keep you awake for a while tonight too. LOL
L & L
Just returned from dinner. Ended up at LOL which is a restaurant that regularly features live music. Tonight was reggae night so we couldn't resist. Don't worry family and friends....there are no drugs in Bali so we were okay to go to reggae night.
Had great meals with 2 appies as well. Appies were spring rolls and a papaya with shrimp salad that were as good as they sound. Meals were Thai chicken curry with rice and an Indonesian dish called Gado Gado. It is a vegetarian dish consisting of a number of different vegetables (potatoes, carrots, cabbage, a spinach like leaf, green beans and bean sprouts, as well as a hard boiled egg, some crispy shrimp chips, and two types of lumpia (which is a tofu type protein). In the middle of this veg medley was an amazing peanut sauce that had just enough spice to be perfect! Also we both had bottled water, Lynda had an iced tea and a latte, and I had a mango mohito. We also had live music from the time we finished our dinner until we left and the band took their first break (so a little more than an hour). Total bill (including tip for wait staff and band) was less than $40. Jeez...where else can you go out for dinner, drinks and entertainment for $20?! Loving Bali!!
Hopefully there won't be another one tonight,
L & L
P.S.
Have not yet mentioned in any of the posts about the apparant lost squeaky toy that is outside our house. It shows up at about the same time every day (5 pm'ish) and we have yet to see what is stepping on it to make it squeak. We can't even see the squeaky toy! Honestly though.....its not really a squeaky toy......there are two types of geckos here. The kind we are used to seeing (the cute little ones that run all over the walls in Hawaii or Mexico) are called house lizards here. Those little guys make a chirping sound for any of you who have yet to run in to them. In Bali, geckos are much larger than house lizards and they make an entirely different noise. It really is kind of like a super irritating dog toy but not quite as squeaky...more croaky....but not as croaky as a frog. So if you can imagine all of that....you'll know exactly what a Balinese gecko sounds like. Maybe he'll keep you awake for a while tonight too. LOL
L & L
November 20th continued...
I'm back...... and ready to report on a fantastic afternoon!
Lynda decided to stay here at our "house" but I was determined to hit the spa and the pool this afternoon so off I went with bag of bathing gear in hand. I wound my way down our little lane way and popped out onto Monkey Forest road where I turned right and had to go only about 1 minute up before I located my destination. We had taken a quick tour of it the other day so I knew exactly where I was headed. Within minutes I'd signed up for a 90 minute Balinese massage with Komang, a 23 year old Balinese woman who has been working as a massage therapist for four years, two of which are at this location.
Komang led me along the natural and slightly rustic path past the accomodations section where staff and guests go quietly about their day. There is the scent of incense lingering in the air mixed with the aromas from the kitchen, the spa, and the tropical gardens. The sound of moving water follows us up the path and once we cross the little bridge leading into my private spa room there is an added scent of aromatherapy - perhaps from an earlier treatment or maybe just because that is the way the room smells. My massage bed was substantial in size which was nice to see. There have been times that I've had to lie on the floor for massage and other times when the table seemed flimsy or so narrow that there was the fear of falling off the edge every time you move!
This was to be my first ever Balinese massage so I wasn't 100% sure of what to expect. I thought...how different can it be from any other type of massage I've had Thailand or Laos or Vietnam or Canada for that matter.....but I will say that in the end.....this was the oiliest massage I've ever experienced! Now, I'm not complaining at all about that but I have to say.....I was pretty slick by the time it was all said and done. LOL. Even my hair was thoroughly oiled so on top of the massage (that was amazing by the way) I had a hot oil treatment on my hair. (I say hot oil because it was oil and it is HOT out!). What else can I tell you about this massage....well.....Komang covered me with a sarong at the start and then she climbed aboard. Yep....she just climbed right up onto the table so she was 1/2 on the table and 1/2 on me. She is a little bit of a thing so I can see why she would have to do that to be able to get the leverage she needed to give as strong a massage as she gave me. That 90 minutes was pure bliss and was just long enough. I'm glad I hadn't opted for 60 as that would not have been long enough!
When we were all finished Komang asked if I'd like tea and I asked if I could have it at poolside to which she replied "of course". Did I mention that because I was having a massage I was also entitled to use their pool and lounge chairs at no charge? I donned my bathing suit....well....I guess I more kind of slithered into it and almost as soon as I'd found myself a chair at poolside Komang appeared with my tea and a plate of fresh fruit (papaya and watermelon) compliments of the house. She gave me a towel for the pool and told me to stay as long as I liked which I did. And.....for most of my 3 hours at poolside I was the only person there! I swam and I lounged and I swam and I read and I swam and I lounged....well.....you get the picture.
When it came time for me to head back to the "house" I paid my tab which in addition to the massage was for a lunch of chicken and pineapple salad and an iced latte. The bill was as follows: 90 minute massage 150,000, salad 35,000, coffee 25,000, tip 10,000 for a grand total of just over $20 CAD for my spa day including lunch! I am a happy camper...albeit a slippery one.
I am sure I left a grease trail all the way back home and when I arrived there I found that Lynda had gone out and appropriately locked the door. I was feeling pretty mellow and so didn't worry about the fact that I couldn't get into the room at all. I'd just laze around on our patio waiting for her return. Bonus! Pasek had brought us a gift of a couple new fruits to try so I decided to try them. One is a snakefruit (named for the look of its skin) and the other's name I am not sure of but it is much like a custard apple only not as sweet and creamy as a custard apple if any of you have ever had one of those before. While both fruits are good the snake fruit is my favourite!! I could eat a small mountain of those. The thin skin comes off fairly easily and there is a stone inside that you have to be careful not to bite into but the flesh of the fruit is some kind of delicious! If an apple and a pineapple had a baby I think it might be a snake fruit! The flavour is like a really mild pineapple and the texture is more like an apple or a barely ripe pear. Bottom line....one of those just tastes like more! While the other fruit was tasty (more citrusy) it was filled with about a million seeds (like the size of grape seeds) and so I struggled with that one until Pasek came by and told me that I could eat the seeds too....just suck out the fruit and swallow. Once I got that technique down I enjoyed it much more but have to say that I still love the snake fruit the best!
Lynda still wasn't back and I'd been home an hour and I really needed to get out of my wet suit so I found Pasek and got another key to the room. It was shortly after I'd finished my shower that I heard Lynda at the door. She was sick with worry as she had been having a wonderful afternoon too and hadn't even considered that I wouldn't be able to get into the room. We had a good laugh and were reminded of other times when we've only had a single key for our shared accomodation. We're all good now though as Pasek has given us each our own key so we can march to the beat of our own drums as we choose and not worry about keys.
So what did Lynda do you're wondering??? Well...she was off making friends as Lynda is a master at. She finished doing what she wanted to here at the "house" and decided a little lunch back at the warung we found the other day might be nice. She sent me a message on FB but as luck would have it the wifi at the pool was not great and so I never rec'd her message. (Not that she would have wanted me to join her for lunch as I would have likely slipped off the chair!). So she made her way to the warung and then spent the next couple of hours enjoying another plate of their tasty wares and chatting with a family from Belgium who were also enjoying a meal. The owners at the warung were thrilled to see her back there again as they had felt so badly that they'd had to rush us out of the there the day before.
So in the end....both Lynda and I had fantastic days. She wins the prize for most interesting and I win the prize for most oily. LOL! Seriously, we're both filled with gratitude tonight as we think about what we'd like to do for dinner and evening entertainment. Maybe it is time to head out to one of the many venues that sport live music daily so....till next time,
L & L
Lynda decided to stay here at our "house" but I was determined to hit the spa and the pool this afternoon so off I went with bag of bathing gear in hand. I wound my way down our little lane way and popped out onto Monkey Forest road where I turned right and had to go only about 1 minute up before I located my destination. We had taken a quick tour of it the other day so I knew exactly where I was headed. Within minutes I'd signed up for a 90 minute Balinese massage with Komang, a 23 year old Balinese woman who has been working as a massage therapist for four years, two of which are at this location.
Komang led me along the natural and slightly rustic path past the accomodations section where staff and guests go quietly about their day. There is the scent of incense lingering in the air mixed with the aromas from the kitchen, the spa, and the tropical gardens. The sound of moving water follows us up the path and once we cross the little bridge leading into my private spa room there is an added scent of aromatherapy - perhaps from an earlier treatment or maybe just because that is the way the room smells. My massage bed was substantial in size which was nice to see. There have been times that I've had to lie on the floor for massage and other times when the table seemed flimsy or so narrow that there was the fear of falling off the edge every time you move!
This was to be my first ever Balinese massage so I wasn't 100% sure of what to expect. I thought...how different can it be from any other type of massage I've had Thailand or Laos or Vietnam or Canada for that matter.....but I will say that in the end.....this was the oiliest massage I've ever experienced! Now, I'm not complaining at all about that but I have to say.....I was pretty slick by the time it was all said and done. LOL. Even my hair was thoroughly oiled so on top of the massage (that was amazing by the way) I had a hot oil treatment on my hair. (I say hot oil because it was oil and it is HOT out!). What else can I tell you about this massage....well.....Komang covered me with a sarong at the start and then she climbed aboard. Yep....she just climbed right up onto the table so she was 1/2 on the table and 1/2 on me. She is a little bit of a thing so I can see why she would have to do that to be able to get the leverage she needed to give as strong a massage as she gave me. That 90 minutes was pure bliss and was just long enough. I'm glad I hadn't opted for 60 as that would not have been long enough!
When we were all finished Komang asked if I'd like tea and I asked if I could have it at poolside to which she replied "of course". Did I mention that because I was having a massage I was also entitled to use their pool and lounge chairs at no charge? I donned my bathing suit....well....I guess I more kind of slithered into it and almost as soon as I'd found myself a chair at poolside Komang appeared with my tea and a plate of fresh fruit (papaya and watermelon) compliments of the house. She gave me a towel for the pool and told me to stay as long as I liked which I did. And.....for most of my 3 hours at poolside I was the only person there! I swam and I lounged and I swam and I read and I swam and I lounged....well.....you get the picture.
When it came time for me to head back to the "house" I paid my tab which in addition to the massage was for a lunch of chicken and pineapple salad and an iced latte. The bill was as follows: 90 minute massage 150,000, salad 35,000, coffee 25,000, tip 10,000 for a grand total of just over $20 CAD for my spa day including lunch! I am a happy camper...albeit a slippery one.
I am sure I left a grease trail all the way back home and when I arrived there I found that Lynda had gone out and appropriately locked the door. I was feeling pretty mellow and so didn't worry about the fact that I couldn't get into the room at all. I'd just laze around on our patio waiting for her return. Bonus! Pasek had brought us a gift of a couple new fruits to try so I decided to try them. One is a snakefruit (named for the look of its skin) and the other's name I am not sure of but it is much like a custard apple only not as sweet and creamy as a custard apple if any of you have ever had one of those before. While both fruits are good the snake fruit is my favourite!! I could eat a small mountain of those. The thin skin comes off fairly easily and there is a stone inside that you have to be careful not to bite into but the flesh of the fruit is some kind of delicious! If an apple and a pineapple had a baby I think it might be a snake fruit! The flavour is like a really mild pineapple and the texture is more like an apple or a barely ripe pear. Bottom line....one of those just tastes like more! While the other fruit was tasty (more citrusy) it was filled with about a million seeds (like the size of grape seeds) and so I struggled with that one until Pasek came by and told me that I could eat the seeds too....just suck out the fruit and swallow. Once I got that technique down I enjoyed it much more but have to say that I still love the snake fruit the best!
Lynda still wasn't back and I'd been home an hour and I really needed to get out of my wet suit so I found Pasek and got another key to the room. It was shortly after I'd finished my shower that I heard Lynda at the door. She was sick with worry as she had been having a wonderful afternoon too and hadn't even considered that I wouldn't be able to get into the room. We had a good laugh and were reminded of other times when we've only had a single key for our shared accomodation. We're all good now though as Pasek has given us each our own key so we can march to the beat of our own drums as we choose and not worry about keys.
So what did Lynda do you're wondering??? Well...she was off making friends as Lynda is a master at. She finished doing what she wanted to here at the "house" and decided a little lunch back at the warung we found the other day might be nice. She sent me a message on FB but as luck would have it the wifi at the pool was not great and so I never rec'd her message. (Not that she would have wanted me to join her for lunch as I would have likely slipped off the chair!). So she made her way to the warung and then spent the next couple of hours enjoying another plate of their tasty wares and chatting with a family from Belgium who were also enjoying a meal. The owners at the warung were thrilled to see her back there again as they had felt so badly that they'd had to rush us out of the there the day before.
So in the end....both Lynda and I had fantastic days. She wins the prize for most interesting and I win the prize for most oily. LOL! Seriously, we're both filled with gratitude tonight as we think about what we'd like to do for dinner and evening entertainment. Maybe it is time to head out to one of the many venues that sport live music daily so....till next time,
L & L
Saturday, November 19, 2016
November 20, 2016
Started today with Banana pancakes and fresh fruit salad again. Could get used to this life! Ketut seems to be everywhere.....he magically materializes as soon as we're outside in the morning and at the ready to make our breakfast exactly when we want it. Or every evening at 5 pm somehow our windows are all closed to make sure no mosquitos get into the room as they come out about that time. Or equally as magically there is a new fresh flower arrangement waiting for us on our patio. And somehow the water feature gets turned on as soon as we come out in the morning so we have the sound of running water to add to the birds and quiet village life noises of the morning. Yep.....kinda feeling the love for this very special place and its people.
Last night was great! We met up with Julie as planned and were off with Agud (driver) to the ARMA Museum where the cultural performance was to take place. What a venue! Honestly there is nothing I could say here that would give you a sense of the majesty of that facility. It is a combination art museum, cultural centre, hotel, 2 restaurants, a couple of private residences, a park and amazing gardens. There are three separate gates/entrances going into the property that is MASSIVE. I'm not sure but I'd say it is more than a block square. All of the buildings on site are majestic in size and there are cultural touches everywhere you look. For example one of the bridges we crossed, as we approached the open air auditorium where the performance would take place, had a hanging drum of sorts (I think it was called a kuk kuk) that is typical of the entrance to any traditional village. That "drum" was decorated with a piece of black and white checked fabric wrapped around it like a skirt. The drum would have been used as a method of communication as need arose and there were different tones and rhythms used to communicate different messages and different tones and rhythms used to differentiate between villages. For example there would be one sound if a fire broke out in a particular village to alert everyone within earshot of the kuk kuk. Or if there was a birth there would be another beat, or a death would be communicated by its own unique sound and so on. The other interesting thing about this is that there is a reason for the black and white check cloth too. Black and white are symbolic of the balance that is found in dark and light, day and night, hot and cold, life and death, etc. Balance is a key teaching in the Balinese Hindu faith so those two colours often show up in cultural practices and rituals.
Anyway....back to the performance last night. It was a group of young people (20 somethings) who had come from western New Guinea. The New Guinea tourism office is wanting to grow awareness of what that region has to offer and so they were hosted here in Ubud in support of increasing their international exposure. There were three dances in total and even though that sounds so few...the show was a full hour long. Each dance was a demonstration of physical fitness as much as an artistic statement! The first dance was a social dance that would be typical of what young people in the village might do. In it's earliest origins some elements of it would have come from war dances but when the Portugese and the Dutch arrived those type of dances were forbidden and so the social dance was born. Interestingly....there were definite similarities between this dance and the traditional dances we've seen in Mexico. Possibly the influence of Portugese and Spanish?? I think so. The second dance was the fire dance and this one was very tribal! The dancers were all painted with white designs on their skin and the men had feather headdresses, loin cloths and fire tipped spears. The women wore what looked like a traditional fabric sarong. This colourful dance was accompanied by a lone drummer and was quite dramatic in its presentation. The third dance was with the troupe wearing all their same fire dance costumes and doing their traditional dance steps in a line dance formation to modern music. I absolutely loved this dance! The smiles on the faces of the performers was wider than it had been and the way that they engaged their bodies in the pure joy of the dance was nothing short of beautiful. It was such a treat to be able to see all of them doing the same dance to the same music at the same time but each of them was uniquely themselves in their interpretation of the music and the motion. All in all it was a great show and both Lynda and I felt very lucky to have been able to attend. Julie assures us that if we liked that one we're gonna LOVE the traditional Balinese dance and performances that we will see while we're here. We're looking forward to those as well and I have no doubt that we'll see them all. There is something happening every night here in Ubud. Music and the arts are a huge part of the culture here.
Speaking of which I should add that our driver last night is actually a world famous painter and his works hang in galleries all over the world. In fact the sale of his work has in large part funded that facility we were in last night. I think it speaks volumes that he continues to work as a driver here....there seems to be no ego in the Balinese culture....they are very beautiful people.
After the performance we were all feeling a little hungry and so decided to cross the street to a restaurant called Urbana. It is another equally breathtaking venue. The restaurant has incorporated nature into the facility by eliminating walls and using majestic trees and ponds as the backdrop to their garden section. We sat our there amidst the sounds of tropical birds, water features and an eclectic blend of music. Wow! I felt like I'd "arrived" whatever that means! We had a delicious meal that kind of blew the budget as for the two of us it was the equivalent of $56 CAD. As good as it was ....I have to tell the truth and say that I think I liked our lunch at the warung a little better though and that meal was just $8 for the both of us! The meal at Urbana was delicious but just different from the one at the warung where it was definitely traditional Balinese style of food and less expensive ingredients.
After dinner Julie called to get us a ride back to our place but once again they had anticipated our potential need and already Jati was there waiting for us with the car. Yep....these guys are 1/2 magician and I like it!
Today is going to be a spa day so am going to sign off for now and head off for a little walk down the alley and around the corner to a hotel/restaurant/spa that has a gorgeous pool. There I will plan to spend the day in massage and lounging at poolside with a book. Yep....that is the only thing that is left on my 'to do' list for this day so I'm feeling pretty good about sticking with my plan for self-care on this Balinese adventure. This morning I did my meditation with the sun shining in on me, I've had a healthy breakfast, I'm going for a nice little walk and then I'm gonna get more relaxed that you can imagine under the healing hands of one of these amazing people. Oh ya...and a little dip in the pool in between massage treatments is gonna help with the self-care too. LOL! Life is good...very very good!
Till next time,
L & L
Last night was great! We met up with Julie as planned and were off with Agud (driver) to the ARMA Museum where the cultural performance was to take place. What a venue! Honestly there is nothing I could say here that would give you a sense of the majesty of that facility. It is a combination art museum, cultural centre, hotel, 2 restaurants, a couple of private residences, a park and amazing gardens. There are three separate gates/entrances going into the property that is MASSIVE. I'm not sure but I'd say it is more than a block square. All of the buildings on site are majestic in size and there are cultural touches everywhere you look. For example one of the bridges we crossed, as we approached the open air auditorium where the performance would take place, had a hanging drum of sorts (I think it was called a kuk kuk) that is typical of the entrance to any traditional village. That "drum" was decorated with a piece of black and white checked fabric wrapped around it like a skirt. The drum would have been used as a method of communication as need arose and there were different tones and rhythms used to communicate different messages and different tones and rhythms used to differentiate between villages. For example there would be one sound if a fire broke out in a particular village to alert everyone within earshot of the kuk kuk. Or if there was a birth there would be another beat, or a death would be communicated by its own unique sound and so on. The other interesting thing about this is that there is a reason for the black and white check cloth too. Black and white are symbolic of the balance that is found in dark and light, day and night, hot and cold, life and death, etc. Balance is a key teaching in the Balinese Hindu faith so those two colours often show up in cultural practices and rituals.
Anyway....back to the performance last night. It was a group of young people (20 somethings) who had come from western New Guinea. The New Guinea tourism office is wanting to grow awareness of what that region has to offer and so they were hosted here in Ubud in support of increasing their international exposure. There were three dances in total and even though that sounds so few...the show was a full hour long. Each dance was a demonstration of physical fitness as much as an artistic statement! The first dance was a social dance that would be typical of what young people in the village might do. In it's earliest origins some elements of it would have come from war dances but when the Portugese and the Dutch arrived those type of dances were forbidden and so the social dance was born. Interestingly....there were definite similarities between this dance and the traditional dances we've seen in Mexico. Possibly the influence of Portugese and Spanish?? I think so. The second dance was the fire dance and this one was very tribal! The dancers were all painted with white designs on their skin and the men had feather headdresses, loin cloths and fire tipped spears. The women wore what looked like a traditional fabric sarong. This colourful dance was accompanied by a lone drummer and was quite dramatic in its presentation. The third dance was with the troupe wearing all their same fire dance costumes and doing their traditional dance steps in a line dance formation to modern music. I absolutely loved this dance! The smiles on the faces of the performers was wider than it had been and the way that they engaged their bodies in the pure joy of the dance was nothing short of beautiful. It was such a treat to be able to see all of them doing the same dance to the same music at the same time but each of them was uniquely themselves in their interpretation of the music and the motion. All in all it was a great show and both Lynda and I felt very lucky to have been able to attend. Julie assures us that if we liked that one we're gonna LOVE the traditional Balinese dance and performances that we will see while we're here. We're looking forward to those as well and I have no doubt that we'll see them all. There is something happening every night here in Ubud. Music and the arts are a huge part of the culture here.
Speaking of which I should add that our driver last night is actually a world famous painter and his works hang in galleries all over the world. In fact the sale of his work has in large part funded that facility we were in last night. I think it speaks volumes that he continues to work as a driver here....there seems to be no ego in the Balinese culture....they are very beautiful people.
After the performance we were all feeling a little hungry and so decided to cross the street to a restaurant called Urbana. It is another equally breathtaking venue. The restaurant has incorporated nature into the facility by eliminating walls and using majestic trees and ponds as the backdrop to their garden section. We sat our there amidst the sounds of tropical birds, water features and an eclectic blend of music. Wow! I felt like I'd "arrived" whatever that means! We had a delicious meal that kind of blew the budget as for the two of us it was the equivalent of $56 CAD. As good as it was ....I have to tell the truth and say that I think I liked our lunch at the warung a little better though and that meal was just $8 for the both of us! The meal at Urbana was delicious but just different from the one at the warung where it was definitely traditional Balinese style of food and less expensive ingredients.
After dinner Julie called to get us a ride back to our place but once again they had anticipated our potential need and already Jati was there waiting for us with the car. Yep....these guys are 1/2 magician and I like it!
Today is going to be a spa day so am going to sign off for now and head off for a little walk down the alley and around the corner to a hotel/restaurant/spa that has a gorgeous pool. There I will plan to spend the day in massage and lounging at poolside with a book. Yep....that is the only thing that is left on my 'to do' list for this day so I'm feeling pretty good about sticking with my plan for self-care on this Balinese adventure. This morning I did my meditation with the sun shining in on me, I've had a healthy breakfast, I'm going for a nice little walk and then I'm gonna get more relaxed that you can imagine under the healing hands of one of these amazing people. Oh ya...and a little dip in the pool in between massage treatments is gonna help with the self-care too. LOL! Life is good...very very good!
Till next time,
L & L
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