Today will be the last day we have this whole place to ourselves so we are feeling a little sad about that but....the good news is that the guests who will be arriving tomorrow are only staying for two days. Yeah! Already we've become quite possessive about our little home away from home.
This place in Lovina is our Christmas gift to ourselves....can't remember if I already told you or not but it is a lot more expensive than we've been paying in Ubud. Almost 4 times as much in fact! As much as I've been whining about the heat and my sweating self....please know that we're enjoying it very much and all my whining is nothing more than that....just whining. :-)
Yummy....Lynda just arrived with a little pot of coffee for us to have with our Balinese cake. Not 100% sure what is in that cake but our best guess is some kind of rice flour cake with palm sugar, coconut, and dates. It is chewy and absolutely delicious! Coffee, cake, and a game of scrabble...sounds like a great way to while away the rest of this morning since there is a light mist falling on our pool at the moment.
Butterflies float on a tropical breeze,
Bamboo leaves sing the song of the trees.
Little birds flit from flower to flower,
I could just sit here for hours and hours!
Well...that was it folks.....my moment of artistic inspiration in this little corner of paradise.
What a great afternoon! Pretended to do some stretches in the water but really....it was more like just floating around. Once all that hard work was done....managed to make it as far as the lounge chair where the temperatures were perfect for a couple of hours at poolside. I'm so surprised here that neither of us are getting burned at all. Well, we did have that one day when we were at the hot springs for a long time and that was in full sun and with the reflection off the water we both got a little burn on our shoulders but other than that....it's all been good. Its not like we're out in the sun for extended periods but one would think that when you're just 8 degrees off the equator that even a few minutes without some heavy duty sunscreen would be a problem!
Lynda managed to kick my butt at Scrabble this afternoon so now we are even at one game apiece (cuz I kicked her butt yesterday). Maybe by the time 3 weeks here is finished we'll both be masters at Scrabble. LOL....well....maybe not masters but hopefully I'll be a little better than I am now at being able to see those really good opportunities to get points for two words at a time. Lynda is already pretty masterful at that art!
Ohhhhhh.....I see Lynda is bringing out the fruit that was leftover from breakfast this morning so we can have a little pre-dinner snack. Oh yummy....there is one of those hard shelled things that you suck the fruit (seeds and all) out once it is cut in half and oh yes....my fav....a mangosteen. I'm going for that one first!
You may be thinking....what are those girls doing? They've been there a month and they've hardly seen anything touristy. We're happy to say that when you have longer than the usual couple of weeks people spend here....you have the luxury of taking it in small bites and truly getting to immerse in the culture. By taking our time we're able to just stay in the moment and really absorb the feel of this land and its people. We both know how fortunate we are to have this opportunity and we're appreciating it every step of the way.
Our two staff here at Saraswati (Kadeck and Gooday) have already moved into a routine with us now that they know that we're not being driven by a busy agenda and that we're happy to just go with the flow and seize opportunity as it presents.
As I sit here typing this there is a crazy bird singing his very awkward song overhead. There is also another smaller bird adding his sweet song to the mix. Put that together with the throaty croak (aka squeaky toy) that is kind of like the drum to their song....we've got our own little jungle band. There are bamboo trees that are at least 60 feet tall (that's like a 6 storey building folks!) surrounding one side of our yard. Lynda's words to describe them is "spectacular" and she says they're like "fairy giants"...."massive and ominous in their own way but sooo dainty at the same time." Orchids are spilling out of pots around the pool area and have attached themselves as "hitch-hikers" or parasites on the many flowering frangipani trees and other trees and vines that are scattered throughout the yard. Yes, it is really that beautiful and we're just sitting here sucking it all up! :-)
Time to make a move and head out for a little walk and to find some dinner. We may have blown the budget on our room but we're still making up for it with meal costs. Since we only need to purchase one meal a day (breakfasts are sooo substantial) and since we mostly frequent warungs offering local fare we continue to pay approximately $15/meal for two people (including tip). If you're questioning yourself on the math....don't....you got it right.....about $7.50 each for food per day.
For those of you who are following along with this blog...happy to have you along for our Bali adventure. Sorry there are no photos included in the blog. I have such a problem getting them to load into the site that I've pretty much given up on that and have just been posting them to Facebook so if you'd like to see the photos too and if you're not already a friend on Facebook....let me know and we can fix that.
Heh...Lynda just found a little package of Balinese spiced peanuts that I got at the fruit stand on our way here so we've cracked them open and they are yummy! They have lots of flavour and no spice when you're eating them but after you're finished and they're long swallowed there is a really nice subtle little heat that lingers. There are little pieces of kaffir lime leaves in there too....super delish! Gonna have to look for these again!
We can hear kids playing soccer on the field that is located on the other side of those 60 foot tall bamboo trees. They gather there every night to play and it sounds like they're having lots of fun. From the sound of their voices there is quite an age range and lots of laughter. Nice!
Just returned from dinner down by the beach. As much as we've been bragging about sticking to our budget and doing so good on the spending for meals front....we kind of blew it tonight. We opted for the fresh jumbo prawns (6 of them per order) complete with potatoes, veggies, salad, and spring rolls for an appetizer. In addition we each had a freshly made lemonade and an iced mocha which consisted of chocolate syrup drizzled around the inside of the glass and then a blended concoction of espresso and ice cream poured into that chocolate drizzled vessel. Oh ya...and I guess we kind of shared a dessert of fresh pineapple fritters too. Yep....we definitely blew the budget tonight but even having done that our total food bill was $17 each for the whole of today so still not too shabby! :-)
It is very obvious that Lovina is hurting for business and so as we walked down to and along the beach every single person tried to engage us in a buying conversation. They would take us out to see the dolphins, they would do our laundry, they would sell us some pearls or this beautiful bracelet, or would we come into their restaurant to have a meal.....the pressure is definitely greater here because it appears the need is greater as there just aren't many tourists at all. The restaurant we ended up choosing is called Shri Ganesh and Komang (the manager) was as entertaining as the food was delicious. We will definitely be back to the Shri Ganesh during our time here in Lovina. Next time I'll be choosing the lobster for sure because the seafood here is amazing! We are situated right on the Java Sea so seafood of every variety is abundant.
Lynda just reminded me to challenge you all to something..... Take a minute and feel your elbows. Are they kind of rough? That's how both of ours were when we left home but somehow through the magic of sweating and the added moisture humidity offers our elbows are soft as a baby's bum! That is a silver lining to all this humidity for sure! LOL. Tonight I also realized that another silver lining to all this sweating is to get to know the contrast of how wonderful it feels when you're not sweating. That's how it was when we were sitting under a fan in the Shri Ganesh tonight....not sweating a bit and feeling like a million bucks with our baby soft elbows. :-)
So on that note we will say good night. Till next time....
L & L
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