Exploring Ubud

The plan was to get up early and get out quick so that we could explore ubud and fit in the tourist bits and still have time for a pool session. The reality is that trying to get up and out before 9am whilst on holiday is unrealistic!! We booked a shuttle for 10am and left at about 10.40am.

We wandered around a few temples chatting more than really concentrating on the temples and then walked around the streets popping into a few shops. The highlight of the outing was a massage we all had before lunch, the Balinese people sure know how to give a good massage! Edd and I were in one room and Cheds and Lisa in another, we all came out dazed and relaxed and very happy with the £4 it cost for an hour!

We had a traditional Balinese lunch but to be honest having cooked our own food the night before I'm not sure anything is going to live up to that meal.

We're now back at the pool having some chill out and sunbathing time (I'm in the shade!) The hotel staff are busy refreshing the little flower offerings and incense around the pool. hey seem to leave theses at the doorway of every house and shop in Bali. From the little research I've done they are Hindu offerings to the God and keep lower spirits from disturbing the living.

The making and giving of canang is a selfless act; a kind of self-sacrifice. It is part-meditation, part-escape from the humdrum buzz of everyday life; it's a gift of gratitude to the Maker.

Women, not men, make the offerings. Often several generations of a family will sit together chatting and mechanically stitching. Balinese offerings not only take an enormous amount of time, effort and money to make – but by putting something of themselves into their creations, their creators in turn offer their life-energy, and time, to God.

We also visited the ubud markets where every stall sold the same stuff but it was fun to shop around and Lisa helped me get a fan that I had wanted since Vietnam but hadn't been able to barter properly and get for a good price. She got a load of fans for her dad's wedding in Bahamas in a few weeks time! We also picked up matching bali beer vests for the boys. I can tell Edd loves his! 

This evening was lovely we went to our regular shisha bar and listened to some live music whilst waiting to meet Kim and Kris. It was so great to see them when they arrived and we spent the evening catching up on what they had been up to in Bali. Very strange being at dinner with good friends from home. We had dinner just up the road in another live music venue. The band were very good but didn't play as many sing along tunes. 

We then picked up some beers and Oreos and sat by the pool chatting for the end of our last night in Bali, last night with friends and last night in Asia! Tomorrow we have a long day ahead of us, flight to Jakarta, 9 hours wait and then a long flight to Sydney. We arrive thereSaturday morning at 6am! I have a good booked ready and we're hoping to find a lounge we can book into for the long wait (apparently Jakarta isn't worth trying to get to because it's a two hour drive and the traffic is horrendous). We'll be a bit confused by the time we make it to Sydney but we're both excited to be moving on to Australasia which was the whole point of this trip in the first place. 

I'm looking forward to some cooler weather, Bali hasn't been too bad but my dry skin hasn't coped well with the heat and sun and it will be lovely to not be so itchy. We were given coconut oil as a little gift on the cooking course and I've been using it on my skin every night which has helped a little, unfortunately I don't think we can take it into Aus with us so I've left it in the hotel. 

This hotel has been eventful, Lisa and Cheds have ended up moving bedrooms every night and although stunning is not what we had originally planned for. Besides that the bedrooms have outside bathrooms which aren't really a problem, they are still ensuites, attached to the rooms but with a bit of a breeze, the only bit I'm finding weird it that every day is a shower or toilet time with a different bug, so far we've had a couple of geckos and this morning I brushed my teeth with a praying mantis. Lisa had a spider problem in here room! 

I'm lying here now with Edd snoring and a horrible, loud lizard or toad noise. He sounds big and too close for comfort!! We spent dinner this evening discussing big bugs, spiders, snakes and lizards. I knew it was a bad idea at the time but I'm really regretting it now, my imagination is going wild!!!