Slacking off

So I have been really quite slack with the blog posting... A sign of too much fun, or just laziness?? A bit of both really!

I never did make it up at 5.45am to see the herons at Petulu village. No one did. Instead I slept in until 9am in time for a last breakfast at the gorgeous Villa Sancita, which we left for greener pastures in Taro, home to the largest herd of Sumatran elephants in the world at the Elephant Safari Lodge.

The Safari Lodge allows you to get close to the elephants. Really close. Like really really close. In the course of the 2 days, we fed elephants (including the little baby ones), washed an elephant in the morning (with scrubbing brushes and a hose), rode on the back of an elephant like so:





Again, that's not us. I can't post any real photos of us at the moment because the whole take photo, transfer to computer, put on flicker and then post on blog thing has not happened this week. And we moved apartments yesterday to accommodate someone with a broken leg who wanted our ground floor apartment so it wont be happening next week either.

We also swam with the elephants like so:





I screamed every time the poor elephant moved, so the pics of me are all pretty hilarious!! Phil was a lot more subdued. My mum was hysterical on the elephant in the water - small, nervous woman on large elephant. Priceless.

The washing of the elephant was an amazing experience. Scrubbing an elephants feet is pretty much guaranteed to get the heart rate up! Especially when the elephant decides to move a bit mid scrub. One move of that foot in the wrong direction and you'd be looking at some broken bones! But all ended well and we made it back to Legian, a little exhausted, but in one piece.

We built up our strength with a wonderful lunch of tuna tartare, grilled sardines, and delicious fish at a restaurant called Sardine. This is the view. Nice, huh?





When I told people that we'd be spending an initial two months in Bali and then coming back for a total stay of close to four months, I got a fair few reactions that went 'oh, why would you want to spend two months in Bali'. Like really surprised people who could not imagine what we'd do here for any longer than 10 days. It's really not been a hardship!

So, today we are heading to Uluwatu to see a beautiful temple on a cliff face. I've been destined before but I never get sick of seeing it. It looks a bit like this:





Two more things:

1. Comments - I love the comments you all leave. It's nice to know someone's reading it. But I can't leave comments - because as soon as I arrived the whole blog site changed into Indonesian and I can't figure out how to leave comments!! So sorry about not replying to comments.

2. Happy birthday Gab!! Hope you had an awesome day. I didn't forget:)

- Posted using skills learned in a previous life

Ubud bliss

Ubud has been bliss! This is the second night staying in a villa and tomorrow we leave for an overnight stay at the elephant safari park about 20 minutes from here.

The villa we're in is a few kms north of the centre of town and is surrounded by working rice fields. The villa itself is mostly open air - ie. there are no walls closing off the living areas from outside, so the view of the rice fields and trees beyond it is uninterrupted and the sounds of the birds, crickets, frogs, geckos flow straight in. It's nighttime now and in addition to us, the villa is housing geckos in every room - mostly the tiny ones, although there are one or two large geckos, the size of... Well it's a hard size to describe. Say the size of a packet of fettucine. No, that's really not working as a description. About this size:




Thats not my hand btw and our geckos are cuter, but you get the idea. Anyway, big enough to give your heart a jump when you walk into a room, esp when you're a paranoid arachnophobe like me. (I shudder even typing the word arachnophobe) But the geckos are both harmless & beautiful.

Most of today was taken up by a long walk through a series of nearby villages. It's so beautiful walking along surrounded by lush greens, walking through a village and past a dozen or so lazy guard dogs - one of which was so hot and lazy, he actually barked himself into a frenzy all while laying down on his side. Seriously, he's barking his little doggy head off from this position and did not move from it at all:


Hilarious and not very intimidating!

Apart from guard dogs, the walk yielded, cats, roosters, baby chicks, ducks, parrots, a cow, a monkey, two squashed frogs and a pig - if you count the babi guling or suckling pig that we ate for lunch in Ubud. Soooooo good!! Between the skin, crackling and deep fried porky bits there is a punishment lurking in the form of a heart attack for this nice Jewish girl, but it was worth it.




The most interactive animal experience of the day (with live animals anyway) was passing by a bunch of kids fishing for teeny feeder fish in an irrigation channel. 3 boys about 8 or 9 y.o. fishing with a net in this little muddy channel of water and balanced carefully on a ledge was a tiny plastic cup full of fish!

No idea what they wanted them for - maybe as pets?? Phil suggested maybe to put in water logged rice paddies... In any case, they were taking the whole enterprise very seriously. One flopped out onto the grass while we were watching them, and I rescued it from the grass, only to (accidentally) drop it back in the muddy waters from whence it came.

These kids were NOT impressed with my fish handling skills - I got a look of death from the biggest kid - it was as though he'd just encountered the world's biggest moron! I had to laugh - a bit of humiliation is probably good for the soul. At least I hope so, since after the walk I realized I developed a tragic sunglasses tan, that looks a bit like this:




Okay, it's not quite that bad...

The plan for tomorrow is to get up at 5.45am and walk to a nearby village to see hundreds of roosting herons fly out of their nesting place at dawn. It's meant to be fairly spectacular. And a bit messy. As you might expect from thousands of newly awoken crapping birds.


- Posted using the wing of a bat and the eye of a squashed newt

Location:Jalan Tirta Tawar,Ubud,Indonesia

Don't hate me because I'm (somewhere) beautiful

Well, i promised some photos, so here they are, from the villa in Ubud.


The view from the villa...





And the infinity pool...





And inside...




And bedrooms...




And rose petal bath





Ahhhhhh...

- Posted using the tranquility that only views of a tropical rice paddy can provide...

Travels to Ubud

Today we're off on an epic journey to Ubud.

Ok, it's about 1 hour in an air conditioned van - still it'll be the most traveling I've done since landing in Bali two weeks ago. Ubud is north of our part of town, away from the beach and set in a landscape filled with rice paddies and picturesque village life. The centre of Ubud itself is busy - chock full of shops, restaurants, spas etc etc. We're heading to a villa for a couple of days for some peaceful, scenic... well, sitting around mostly.

Then we've booked a night at the elephant safari park - inhabited by rescued Sumatran elephants. The big draw for me is the opportunity to wash the baby elephants before breakfast!! I've been pretty slack with the photo taking so far, but I will definitely be snapping away on this one.

Phil is very keen to climb Mt Batur the following day. The goal is to arrive at the summit at sunrise, so we'd depart at about 4am. There's about 2 hours of uphill walking involved, but the views are reportedly spectacular. I have packed for the walk, but I'm not convinced I'm going to make it... Stay tuned.


- Posted using an elephant tusk and a pair of hiking boots

Location:Jalan Plawa,Kuta,Indonesia

Selamat Datang

Selamat Datang - or Welcome to Sonia, aka my mum, who arrived late last night to visit. We have already walked by the beach and through the centre of Kuta (and been offered about fifty manicures/ massage/ transport etc). She is already quite taken by Bali, despite having to endure some early morning haggling for thongs in the market in Kuta - "C'mon, you buy, lucky early morning price". A necessary evil, as she decided to bring walking boots and a stunning, but never worn, blister-inducing pair of yellow country road sandals - which she insisted on wearing with socks.

In addition to the thongs, we left the stall with completely unnecessary pair of 'Dior' sunglasses, for me. I tried to say no, I really really tried. But there was no way I was getting out of that stall empty handed. That's why I generally employ an avoidance strategy with market stalls. I fold like a cheap deck of cards. I have hidden the sunglasses from Phil, lest I awaken the GOMP**!!

Here she is, at breakfast, contemplating climate change and the importance of influencing policy. With Phil. Far too serious a breakfast conversation for my liking.






I foresee some shopping in my future over the next few days. Later on this week, we're all heading to Ubud for a few days in the slightly cooler climate away from the beach. Yay!!!!

**Grumpy old man Phil


- Posted using recycled plastics and wind power.

Location:Jalan Plawa,Kuta,Indonesia

Karma...

Well, it turns out there are punishments awaiting those who mock bogans... For beyond uncomfortable yoga class experiences, the bogans have other magicks... Specifically, right after posting yesterday's blog, I started to break out into an unsightly mega-rash all over my arms.

I won't describe further (in case someone out there is trying to eat lunch) suffice it to say, I will never, ever, ever make fun of bogans again.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure what horrible punishment is awaiting Phil, for while he did not spread his mockery into cyberspace, he did invent a hilarious and very catchy little ditty titled Bogans should wear Trojans'...

Anyway, my point is I'M REALLY SORRY.... Can I have my arms back now, please??

---

On a slightly more boring factual note, neither Phil nor I have access to our phones at all, so the only way to reach us is via email. We had planned on getting new SIM cards but we've grown addicted to the peace that comes with not hearing the phones ring or beep at all... We are on email every couple of days, if not every day though and really love hearing from everyone.

Finally, a big happy birthday to Rach!! Hope you had an awesome day - we're thinking of you!


- Posted using twine, two cans and a Swiss army knife

The challenges of a tropical paradise

Ahh... Legian. Thats the area we are staying in for most of our trip. No doubt I'll be writing about the area a bit more, on another day.

Generally, I love staying here - although the last couple of days have been marked by alot of noisy children and their bogan parents. Bogan? Gee, isn't that a bit harsh? Well, let's analyze the data... Do they sit around all day smoking? Check. Drinking? Check. Supervising their kids in the pool? Hell no, that might interfere with the smoking, drinking, ice- retrieval activities... Their kids are actually throwing rocks at each other in the pool...

Anyway all the screaming and splashing was putting a dampener on my plans for relaxation, so yesterday I headed off to a yoga class to try and focus on something calming. I've only ever done a couple of yoga classes, which I really enjoyed, but I'm no expert. So I did my research and went along to the yoga place beforehand, and asked which was the best class for a total beginner. The receptionist suggested this particular class - "good for beginners", she said. Not for this beginner. As it turns out, there is a big difference between a yoga class taught in a breezy outdoor pavilion in a gorgeous health resort in Queensland and yoga class crammed with 25 people in a hot, closed room in Bali.

The Balinese instructor kept saying after describing each move, "feel your body, feel your body, feel your body" (the words repeated three times, without fail), but the opposite was happening to me. First, I started to lose the feeling in my knees, then I started to notice my hearing was oddly fading, then the familiar feeling of gravity keeping me upright abandoned me and finally, I started feeling like I might lose my lunch. I bolted. None too subtly either. Massive fail. I lasted 20 minutes of a 90 minute class and stumbled out, dizzy, breathless and in search of water. Perhaps an activity where the majority of time is spent with your head hanging upside down is not for me... Next time I need to de-stress from a pool load of screaming kids, I think I'll go for a shiatsu.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad