Day 8-9 (Sat / Sun) – Hard Walking then Laying Low

Saturday

(Tina) After a breakfast of yummy French toast again (gotta have it when they can get the bread because there’s really only one place to get good bread in town), we set off for a nature walk. We went for a long walk through tall grass fields along a ridge. It’s hard to imagine how steep the hillsides are on either side of the ridges. They go virtually straight up and the grasses on the sides of the hills are growing practically against the ground in order to grow toward the sun. It’s hard to capture the depth in the pictures, too. We end up coming home with a bunch of pictures of green that don’t match what we saw.

We keep trying to get the kids to go on longer walks without complaining. But the heat doesn’t bring out the best little hikers in them. We’ve resorted to treats after a bit of walking – Charlie and Sophie like Fanta now, after our years of keeping them off of soda. They have this toxic looking strawberry Fanta here that Sophie likes, and it gives her little pink spots on the corners of her mouth. Just doesn’t quite compare to the fresh juices or lassis to me! The walk this morning went past a Balinese school where all the children sat in their uniforms. Then we walked past a giant banyan tree and around a temple, where it actually reasonably cool in the shade. Then we headed out through the rice on the side of the hill, on our way up to the ridge overlooking both sides of the hill. After we reach the ridge and soaked up the views all around, we walked back to Murni’s for our reward drinks.

Then we visited our first museum, the Puri Lukisan. Actually so many of the stores here seem like museums, with all of the cool artwork and statues. But this museum had some historic artwork from Ubud, and good descriptions of what was happening in each painting. The kids were very interested in the stories that the paintings told – Garuda eating a snake, battle of Boma, the Barong scenes from the dance we saw…

After all the walking we took a taxi home, then back out to dinner. Tired and hot! Jim and I were talking about how much food Ketut is making us for breakfast and said that maybe we should stop at the fruit since we fill up on that first. Sophie said, “Yeah! Let’s stop the fruit and get right to the pancakes!” We laughed. The pancakes (really they are crepes) are so good, it’s hard to imagine really passing them up. Jim walked to the store to get some supplies and stopped along the way for an hour massage. He was being extravagant spending $10 for his. Casa Luna has happy hour from 5 to 7 and all their cocktails are $5. Yippee! Jim and I had a couple of margaritas again with dinner. There is some spice used in the food here that I’m not crazy about but have no idea what it is. Eliot and Charlie had chicken last night and it tasted like that too. I think I’ll take a cooking class here to figure out what it is.

Sunday

Did you know that you can click on the pictures on the blog page to see a larger version? Just thought I’d share that.

(Tina) Charlie and Sophie had tender tummies this morning, so we just hung out close to home. We took it easy on the pancakes and went for a morning swim. Eliot’s ear hurts, so we might visit the pharmacist tomorrow to see if we can get some drops for swimmers ear. I feel bad because I’ve scared them away from the doctors here trying to emphasize hygiene and drinking enough water saying, “Trust me, you don’t want to go to the hospital in this country.” And Jim told them that the doctors were monkeys (from the monkey forest) but that they were very smart.

Papak comes over every morning to pick up the flowers from the day before and put out new flowers around the house. I don’t know how the yard produces 20 brilliant red flowers every morning! Charlie has taken to helping and now yells “Papak!” when he sees him. I think Papak is hard of hearing on top of not speaking English, but he gives Charlie a big smile anyway.

Boredom set in about 1pm. It’s hard for the kids to do “nothing” but Jim, Eliot and I are content to read or draw or bird watch. There are these brilliant blue King Fisher birds that are almost turquoise with big orange beaks that have been swooping around in front of us putting on a show. Charlie and Sophie were cranky but are taking the “You don’t have to nap” vacation policy too literally. They could use a nap once in a while but they keep reminding me that I said they didn’t HAVE to. I guess they don’t get that having to, needing to, and wanting to are very different things but are all good options.

(Jim) The kids distracted themselves for a while jumping down the super steep hill in front of the house. I was wondering if the local doctor would set a broken bone with a bamboo cast. It makes great scaffolding, why not a cast. But fortunately there were no injuries.

After lunch I noticed that we didn’t have any water. Dang! I figured out that there is a big water tank on the second floor, mostly covered. That provides the water pressure for the house, but you need to turn on a pump to fill it up from the spring water. I finally figured out the combination of the pump and valves to get the water flowing into the upstairs tank, then Papak walked by. He gestured somehow that he would watch it until the tank got full. I guess there’s no automatic shut-off. I peeked through the kitchen door once and saw Papak sitting by the washing machine, cross legged and asleep. A little while later I heard the pump turn off and look out again. Water was leaking out from the upper tank right to where Papak had been sitting. He looked at me with a big smile and said “full!” pointing to the tank. I’ll never look at those Downers Grove water towers the same again.

Dinner was at Miro’s Garden Café. We had been there many years ago and had fond memories. I love how they line the steps with flowers and candles every night.  The setting was a little nicer than the food, though it was OK. Just as we were wrapping up, the power went out. Apparently there are rolling blackouts and usually Ubud loses power every Saturday night. This week it was Sunday. Many of the restaurants and hotels fired up generators and still had light. We weren’t sure whether our house would have power or not – it was technically in the village next to Ubud.  It was still a little bit light out, so we walked down the path from Miro’s to Sama’s Cottages, the first place we stayed in Ubud in 1996. We wanted to check it out before finding some ice cream. That lane has changed so much with many new hotels, spas, and a paved road. We walked through Sama’s place and saw that they now had 10 cottages, a villa, and a swimming pool. When were there it was very rustic, basically in the middle of a rice field. Our cottage then was $12 a night which included breakfast! There was just a ceiling fan (no a/c) and a shower with only cold water. But at the time, it seemed just fine. I’m very glad to have a/c now! We talked with Wayan, Sama’s youngest son, who was holding a baby girl. We have a picture in our photo album of Sama’s first granddaughter 14 years ago, just learning to walk. Now she’s 15! Can’t believe how time flies.

Although we did have our sights on some ice cream after dinner, it started thundering and lightning. That on top of the power outage sent us in a taxi back to the house. I revealed that I had a secret stash of Oreos, so the kids weren’t too sad about missing the ice cream. On the way down our hill by the house, we saw Made riding up on his motorcycle, on his way out to get candles. OK, so tonight will be our first night in Bali with no power – a new adventure. The kids were a little scared of the dark, so after Oreos, the kids played on their Leapsters. Tina and I sat on the porch trying to catch the breeze coming up the hill. We were able to turn on a little music from the batter powered speakers, and the house was lit with candles and kerosene lamps. OK, so music and the glow from the Leapsters was not exactly roughing it. But it was pretty nice sitting in the dark watching the thunderstorm come over the hill. The rain came and went pretty quickly while we sat there. A crazy dive bombing bat on the porch sent inside for the night.  We put the kids to bed by candlelight, and blew it out after they fell asleep. It felt so pitch black, I was anticipating the “Daaaaadddddyyyy” in the middle of the night. Luckily the power came back on at 10pm, so we were able to resort to night lights and air conditioning.