Today we drove to Canggu and found a very special place to stay for our last night.
We all played in the pool for a while, enjoyed a late afternoon snack, and then Daniel and I sat on the beach while Dave surfed a bit. This hotel has a small area in front with some bales and some beach chairs. We made art drawings and shared our drawing things with a cute, naked, 3 year old little girl. She was shy at first, but we knew she wanted to paint with us, finally…she came over to make her parents some artwork.
Last night was our last night here. Dave and I sat on the balcony while Daniel slept and enjoyed listening to the waves and talking about what a great vacation this has been.
Today we left Lombok on the local $3 ferry to Bali….interesting! since our flight was cancelled, and we had decided to go to Candidasa, taking the ferry was a good idea. It comes right into a town 5 minutes from Candidasa. But you get what you pay for with a $3 , 4 hour long, ferry ride.
What an interesting experience! I’m not even sure where to start, I think videos and photos are necessary to capture the essence of the day.
Dave and Steve went to the other side of the island for some great surfing. A number of people went to 2 villages, which I would have loved to show Daniel but he really needed a simple chill pool day. And that’s exactly what we did…all…day…long. I think, accept for lunch, we were in the pool for 8 hours!!! The greatest part of being in the pool all day is that Daniel is now so much more comfortable in the water, most especially because he got a swim lesson from Dave Frank, who used to teach kids how to swim in a previous job.
Daniel and Brenda hung out at the pool in the morning, while Dave and Steve went surfing at airports. The pools at the intercontinental are phenomenal, and super fun for a 7 year old. There are several pool areas with little waterfalls, sprayers, fountaints, etc.
We got up early this morning to take a walk thru the rice patties. The light is beautiful in the early morning although Daniel didn’t quite understand why were taking a little hike before breakfast! We kept pointing out the view, but all he was interested in was eating J . One of the coolest things about this particular walk thru the rice patties are the random painting galleries that pop up. We bought a painting of 2 girls wearing wedding head-dresses (since we are here for a wedding, we thought that was appropriate).
Daniel made the hats that he and I are wearing :
After a delicious breakfast at the beautiful lotus café (what a view!), we took Daniel to the Ubud market to make some deals. He bought a really cool wooden puzzle and a bicycyle. They had a really cool tuk tuk, but it was too much rupias even after trying to really bargain.
After dropping Daniel off at camp, we went to the ubud market. The Ubud market is a multi level experience, easy to get lost in all the twisty turny passageways. It has food and clothes and artwork and jewelry. Basically everything you find in the stores, but at bargain prices. Typically the stores have the best choices, but the market has much of the same things for less. Dave really enjoyed the bargaining aspect of the Market. We bought some art and some clothes and will Daniel back tomorrow because it’s really a thing a see. I think we’ll give him 100,000 RP (which is like $10) to see what he’ll do with it.
Daniel went to the green school today. He made some really beautiful kites. I'll let him tell you more.
We walked around Ubud , shopped a little, packed and moved to diff hotel. Dinner at casa luna. Saw legong dance at palace at night.
We let our little volcanologist make the decision to hike up the volcano to look inside. A very tiring hour long hike up up up about 3000 feet. Super cool!
On the way, we stopped at a coffee plantation and saw a cacao bean for the first time!
Why I love this hotel….first of all, the location is one of the best locations in Ubud, right at the intersection of Hanoman street and Monkey Forest Road. The staff is incredibly kind and accommodating and helpful. And the room…..I want to move in. (Julie Fisher – take a good look, cause this is the kind of house I want you to build for me one day).
The villa is probably about 1500 sq feet and the space is planned in a beautiful and efficient manner. All the rooms face a central area which consists of a gorgeous pool. The doors facing the inside are all sliding doors made of wood and mostly windows, they retract into the wall and are hidden when you want to open up the whole place. All the doors on the outside perimeter turn to open, with views of the rice paddies. So, you can have the entire place open to the outdoors, or the rooms can be walled (and airconditioned). The details are what really make the place…all the doors are tall, or have wood above them so that they look tall and elegant. The hardware is simple and modern. The wood choices and craftsmanship are perfect. I love the light fixtures – they are made of metal, black on the outside and glowing gold on the inside. The furniture is slightly 50s, which isn’t my favorite, but it really works well in this setting and feels warm and comfortable. There a built in shelves in key places, one with a pass thru from the kitchen to the living room. The kitchen / living room shares one space with a few steps up and a half wall dividing the spaces. The half wall serves as bench in the kitchen, and a sofa in the living room. The kitchen is simple, with a poured concrete counter. The fridge is hidden behind some doors. There is a wooden deck with umbrella at one end of the pool, and the deck itself has 2 sections that can fold up into the back of a deck chair. Too much to write…I’ll finish this post later…
This morning we met up with Mike and Maryam and their tour group. Mike walked us throught the monkey forest. The monkeys are very territorial , we several fights between the monkeys over food or trees. We also saw them cleaning themselves. The afternoon was relaxing - walking around, swimming, Dave got a massage. In the evening, we went to a temple Odelan, which is a big celebration that happens every 210 days. It was beautiful, the size of the offerings that the women carried on their heads were incredible. It takes them 6 weeks to prepare for this celebration (temple birthday). Even the youngest children are dressed up in the celebration garb. We all got dressed up too. We sat with the Balinese who were praying, lit incense, and had holy water dripped on us. A little boy gave us flowers and incense and helped us with the rice (you put it on your forehead). We may not have done it all correctly, cause he giggled at us. After that, we saw a Balinese Reggae band and had a late night snack.
Daniel:
It was a little funny actually and a little scary because our friend had a bag of coins in his pocket and the monkey thought it was food cause he saw the bag. And he grabbed the bag of coins and he tore open the bag and he tried to eat the coins but he couldn’t eat them so he was like ‘well these aren’t food’ and he threw the coins off the balcony into the water – almost. We also saw a monkey cemetery. It was cool. They had the dates of their deaths on the stones, but not the dates they were born. A went swimming with a friend, Daniel, from Singapore. The temple Odelan (birthday) was cool and fun. They must get ready 6 weeks before the temple birthday.
This morning Dave woke up super early to go surfing with the guys. Sounds like it was some pretty big surf! Daniel and Brenda went shopping in Seminyak. Grandpa gave Daniel $20 (which is a whopping 200,000 rupias!) to spend on his trip. He has determined he will purchase 1 toy + 1 instrument + 1 piece of artwork. He’s got all his interests covered: music, art, and toys. It proved to be a bit difficult to navigate Seminyak due to all the traffic, but he found a nice piece of art. I’m proud to say, my boy has good tasteJ. Then after a yummy lunch, we went to Ubud. After some miscommunications with the hotel, and a very confused and lost driver (first day on the job), we finally made it. This is the most incredible hotel , which I will decribe in more detail tomorrow. This evening we enjoyed a puppet show, they are so special here, such detail in the puppets. Now we are all cozy in our villa and about to go to bed.
In general, the surfing has been a little frustrating. Really big waves but Dave has been having trouble catching them, battling a lot of waves to stay out and having a hard time. We’ve been to Canggu, Dreamland and Airports. We took a cab to the beach in Kuta, and paid a outrigger to take us out to the break. The waves were pretty huge, a few feet overhead, but somewhat easy. But I got inside of the big sets many many times. Steve and Dave have caught a lot more waves than I did and had a great day.
