Salamat, from within the early morning frost covered rice paddies of Ubud whilst I sip on my Bali Coffee from my new Starbucks Plunger :)

I'm so happy to hear that so many of you want me to keep my journal going. I have tried to download 800 photos from my iPhone yesterday, however it took hours and I needed my phone in the interim, so I'll do it overnight tonight.

The photo above is actually approppriate for todays blog, as we overlooked THIS actual terraced rice paddy on our return drive home, it sits next to a cute little village (can't remember the name!) full of Warungs and Gift Stores. We did a half day tour up Mt Batur and had lunch at Kintamani Village (which is perched 1500m above sea level, on the lip of Mt Batur). We sat in a REAL local restaurant, however the rain was so heavy the fog completely covered the Crater, so it was difficult to see the Lake within. Once I appoint our Nanny, I will take a drive back up to Batur and do the Volcano Climb! (it's far too hard for the girls to climb).

There are hot mineral pools in the crater which are down a very treacherous road, so I'll wait until I get my new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited before we venture down the crater for a hot soak in the mineral pools. In Kintamani we were the ONLY "Orang Asing" in the village. So yes, the girls with their beautiful blonde hair and blue/green eyes were very much the centre of attention, unfortunately a now very "brunette Erica" blended in with the locals a little more ....who said Brunette was more fun? :) We sat on raised tables under Bales and ate REAL local food. Brookie did really well at least trying new foods, Sienna however was only interested in "chippies" (fries) and the huge jar of Vegemite that I have to carry around in my handbag, whilst drawing faces with very large ears in the misted up restaurant windows. She certainly left her mark on Mt Batur!

It's amazing how your children manage to entertain themselves when all their computers, toys, bikes, electronic gadgets, iTouch etc are all removed from them for a few hours. The NEW entertainment for the Yeats Girls is stopping on the side of the road and feeding cows, finding GIANT snails and catching fireflies, watching the Koi fish in the numerous ponds, playing with wind up windows in Taxis, sitting on the motorbike pretending to be riding it, or pulling faces out the back window of the taxi to all the "Gila" (aka crazy) locals on motorbikes who drive for hours behind your cab ...just to pull faces at your kids. They love it! The indonesians really are all BIG children. The men are so playful. The women so gentle. It's not uncommon for Wayan (our Villa Manager) to scoop up Sienna in one arm and carry the food shopping in another. It's just natural for ALL to take responsibility for any child. The neighbours nanny (also Wayan) takes the girls next door (with her little 7 year old) and keeps them entertained for hours, just because she loves it. The pool is full of black rocks, which the kids have collected and made an underwater world! Not an iTouch or Wii in sight!!!

On our way up Mt Batur, we were fortunate enough to witness an bi-annual religious purification ceremony at Tirta Empul (Water Spring Temple). Everyone dressed in their best ascend on the water baths which are believed to have magical powers. Under the water fountains, men women and children of all ages work their way along the flowing pipes and dunk their head under the waterflow. Brook, Sienna and I should have got in too as the rains were so heavy we were saturated as we stood under our giant Banana leaf umbrella. We were were the ONLY tourists there.... so we stood out like sore thumbs! But the locals loved having us witness their goings-on and greeted us with their usual very large smiles.....next time we'll take our boardies and t-shirts and join them in the beautiful fresh mountain water.

My nephew Sean called to say he's joining us in Bali soon to practice Muay Thai. The girls and I are soooooo excited! He's a foodie, so we'll sit everynight in little cute local Warungs and try all the local food together.

Brooklyn had her first taste of a Hornet sting, can you believe she thought it was a Butterfly, it was so big. Yes, my baby girl felt the nasty effects and swelling of a very large Hornet whose nest has taken over the Offerings Temple outside our front door - how our cute little "Toothless Elder" doesn't get stung each day when she "smokes" the nest out with her Incense sticks, beats me?

There is a cute school (for locals and expats) just across the road called Pelangi, which offer a 20-day short term visitors programme, so next week we are off to visit Pelangi and maybe Brookie and Sienna may want to join in all the school fun for a few weeks to meet local/expat friends. The school teachers/parents are very social and the afternoons and weekends are consumed with "play dates" galore. So very soon, we will really be intergrating into the "local family activities" around Ubud ....and Erica will be able to smash a daily Yoga and Meditation class at the Yoga Barn! yeah :)

"Da-Da" from the beautiful island of Bali.... we wait with anticipation to see what the day will unfold for us?
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