5/20/10 (ubud)

Ubud

Our home stay is right in the middle of rice paddies and from our verandah and bedroom window we could see rice fields. The fields are so close that if we were to jump from our window we would land right in the middle of a rice paddy. With the nice view of the paddies comes the frogs croaking all night and chickens chirping at 5am. I guess this is country living. Some roosters are relentless and keep going at it all day long. There are also lots of beautiful dragonflies and at night we can see lightning bugs.

Each morning we can choose from four different breakfast items: banana crepes, eggs and toast, fried rice or fried noodles, or yogurt along with fruit or juice of the day and tea/coffee. Today we tried the banana crepes and fresh fruit and chatted with Suma who was taking care of the place while the owners were back in the states. Then we were off on a two-hour circular rice paddy walk around Ubud Kaja. The first part of the walk was through many rice fields and we could also see Gunung Agung, which is the highest volcanic mountain in Bali. Since it was the end of the harvest season people were gathering the rice by shaking the leaf against a basket. We thought the rice would be white but it’s actually yellow. After they remove the rice from the leaves it is laid out in the sun to dry. Also, along the way we saw many artist studios with beautiful paintings of rice fields or religious figures. After the rice fields it was another hour walk through a village to get back to our home stay. We had been sweating profusely and that’s when it dawned on me that I could create a weight management system called Bali Diet. You just have to come to Bali and eventually you will start losing weight since you sweat so much. It’s organic and all natural! You do have to keep hydrated though preferably and more effectively with water or Pocari Sweat (like Gatorade) than with Bin Tang (Balinese local beer).

When we got back to our home stay another guest had arrived and she was renting a motorbike from Suma’s friend. It was less than $8 a day to rent which included $200 insurance coverage so if we go into an accident we would pay up to $200 for the damages. We decided to rent a motorbike as well for a few days. I tried driving a motorbike once and I dropped it during a turn and since then hadn’t driven one. Jon has had some experience so he took it out for a test drive first before I hopped one. As he was coming back to the house there was a dog coming in the opposite direction and because the road was only about two feet wide Jon swerved and jumped into a muddy rice field to avoid hitting the dog. He kept the motorbike on the path as he jumped into the paddy so the bike was fine but Jon was in mud up to his thighs. We all ran out to see what happened and it was quite a sight. Luckily, Jon was wearing his swim trunks and after we got him cleaned up Jon got back on the horse. We road the bike down the rice paddy path we were on earlier today to Sari Organik, which had a beautiful view of the paddies. It was just a few minutes drive and Jon was driving like a pro. The restaurant is fairly well known since they grow their own produce and almost everything on the menu is homemade including the tofu. We had a great delicious organic meal consisting of a Thai salad and vegetable curry with rice cooked in banana leaves. 

After lunch we met up with Dewa, our driver from a few days ago, at the Monkey Forest since we had left a camera lens cap in his car. Luckily, he was taking some tourist to the forest so it worked out nicely.

For dinner Suma recommended Murni’s Warung, which is a multi-tiered restaurant built into a river valley. It felt like you were in the middle of the forest. I think I caught a case of the Bali belly so I just had steamed vegetables with white rice. Jon ordered his usual nasi goreng. At the bar were two ex-patriots from Australia and we all started talking. It was very interesting hearing their perspective on the Balinese culture since one had lived here for 16 years and Andrew lived here for 9 years. The gentleman who lived here for 16 years worked at the restaurant though I can’t remember his name or figure out his job title since he sat the bar the entire night smoking and drinking coffee. He was a very nice man originally from Aireys Inlet down by the Great Ocean Road in Victoria and you could tell he really enjoys his life in Bali. The other guy was named Andrew who grew up in Perth and was a university lecturer in journalism. He now lives in Bali and is about to write a book called Brush Off. They had a great sense of humor and said that there were many ex-pats from the US who never found their way home from Burning Man and came straight to Bali. They also gave us some recommendations of things to do in Bali, yoga not being one of them. There were some lively discussions about Rupert Murdock and before we knew it we closed down the restaurant at 11pm.