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Hi Everyone
We arrived back in Legian today after a great weekend away in Ubud.Ubud is a lush inland town in Bali, bursting with rice paddies, art studios, and restaurants.It's a nice quiet scene in Ubud and temperatures although stifling during the day, become cooler at night which is a relief from Legian's constant 24 hour heat.
We spent much of our time there sitting on our second floor veranda overlooking the town with its coconut palms, banana trees and rice paddies.Dawn was an especially nice time as the whole town came alive with the sounds of chirping insects and crowing roosters.We also took a wander out among the rice paddy fields to the botanical garden which held some true delights - like the meditation garden set into a rock face surrounded by lush plants and fern covered statues.There was also a lily pond, a hedge maze (very English!), we found a 7 legged spider which was huge.There were countless butterflies and dragonflies and an orchard house.The real highlight of the trip though was walking back to town and seeing local village life, the temples which were every 500 metres, and of course the iconic rice paddies.
Our room in Ubud was in a small complex built in typical Balinese stone work with elaborate windows and doors that were a delight to the eye.The carving was so intricate depicting colourful flowers and winged dragons and they closed on the inside with big wooden slide bolts.The interior of our room was like 101 ways with cane.Cane beds, cane walls, cane ceilings, cane wardrobe, cane seat...you get the picture (and if you don't check the photo blog to see the cane frenzy).We had a small wasp nest in our bathroom (the wasps here are large and red) which was a little unnerving at first but as it turned out the wasps kept to themselves and didn't bother us.
The hotel (which only has 6 rooms) was run by Yauman, a 30 something Balinese guy.He was just lovely and on our arrival insisted we go down the road to witness the local cremation ceremony being held that day.He was taking part in carrying one of the floats and insisted it was ok for us to go along and no, it would not be sad.Well he was right - it was the happiest cremation in the world!People were laughing and cheering and it looked more like a celebration rather than a sad occasion.Apparently the man whose ceremony it was, died two weeks ago and all the mourning was done then..(?) and now was a time to cremate his bones and celebrate his life.It seemed like a really healthy approach to things, but to my western sensibility it would be quite hard to rustle up a jolly mood for a loved one's cremation.Still, joyous it was, and we loved it.You can see the pictures on the photo blog.
Yauman's breakfasts are worthy of note also - his fruit salad's were an artistic towering posey of tropical fruit - cheers went up every morning when he arrived with brekkie on our balcony.He gets 10 points for presentation and the food was delicious too.
Continuing my resolution on this trip to try new food, I have since tasted Blueberry Fanta (very nice) and jackfruit curry (now here's a weird one).Jackfruit curry turns the normally yellow jackfruit grey and it's spicy.It looks like you are eating lumps of rubber but the texture is quite ok.Not sure I would go back for it again.
I'm constantly fascinated by the wildlife here.Passing a posh jewellery shop one of the nights in Ubud I stopped to look in the window.On the tiled floor were two frolicking brown rats.They were tearing around after each other and jumping about.Brian and I were like:"cripes, look at those rats!".We couldn't see a shop assistant inside so Brian opened the door and a young girl pops up from behind the counter when she hears the door open.Brian very politely says "um, did you know you have two rats here on the floor?"The girls smiles and says "its ok, we have many rats here in Ubud"."Erm … ok" says Brian and quietly shuts the door again.We were in stitches outside on the pavement afterwards.Who can be blasé about rats???There is an art in being in touch with your environment and I'm all for that, but rats have now joined cockroaches in my list of non-tolerated animals in my living space.
So now we are back in Legian and enjoying being back near the beach again and Brian's back at work in the villa and so life continues its gentle pace.
Lots of love
Kerry and Brian
xx
PS.I am having trouble with uploading photos so these will follow once the internet behaves itself.It has been down for 4 days and now that is working its really really slow.Still, no rush, I'm on Bali time now!
- comments
Nicky I am thinking that the rats may have eaten the spider's other leg!
Angus! I have a much better chance of catching the dealing with the cockroaches.
Sue Hello Kerry Thank you for the update: sounds wonderful. We miss you!! Safe and happy travels. Best wishes Sue