Taxi? Transport?

Oh Man, What a Few days we've had. We're all sat on Holly & Steph's bed surrounded by our shopping trip to the local convenience store. We got Asian style Pringles (Their smaller) Salmon Teryaki Flavoured Chips, Iced Coffee in a can, Coffee Flavoured Pop! and some interesting looking choccy bars.

So when Holly and I arrived in Denpasar at 4:40 am from perth a little dazed and confused, we were confronted with two very nice porters wanting a fortune in tips, a hoard of men wanting to put us in their taxi and a climate feeling as though you had just walked into a dense cloud. Welcome To Bali, Suksa ma.

Happy Campers on our First Morning

So we waited from around 5am to 2:50pm for Stephanie to swan in just as dazed as we must have looked when we arrived. We jumped into our transport and headed North to Ubud where we would spend our first 4 days. If you've ever been to Indo or any country in this area of the world you'll know what I mean by the roads are crazy, these guys are insane. We should have crashed so many times but managed to stay happy and safe. We arrived our hotel being down a 'Gang', a narrow bricked alleyway, and were introduced to a small mansion and to our rooms. Our great host introduced herself almost immediately and made us feel greatly at home. Just to give you a picture, we breakfast overlooking rooftops palm trees, listen to morning prayer drums and watch as our host does the first offering of the day.

So we shot out on our first morning we walked the streets and saw what the to offer, Ubud is Bali's cultural and Arty capital, so there's heaps of crafty shops, sarong places and stuff like that. Every corner we are hasseled "massage?" "taxi? transport?" We have learned to smile and keep walking. Our first Bartering experience ended poorly, we were excited to get Oakley sunnglasses for $5, pretty bummed when we went back today (3 days later) and managed to get the lady down to 25,000 IDR. Bargain!! About $2.50. So we got another couple of pairs each.

In the afternoon, we did a jewellery course.  It was definitely not what we were expecting.  We arrived then he asked us to draw what we wanted to make. DRAW?! hello...not artsy at all. After getting over the trying to draw part it was actually quite cool.  We cut out, engraved, filed, and polished our pieces of art.  Stephanie made a pendant, Holly made a toe ring and David made a thumb ring.  He did a very good job.

Rice Paddy Fields!

Another highlight of our time here was yesterday doing an Eco Bike Tour and seeing the real Bali. We got picked up at 7:30 and drove to a Restaurant overlooking a sacred lake and a smoldering volcano, then went to a Coffee place and tried Cat Poo Coffee overlooking the rainforest. We then took a trip to the bikeshed via rice paddy fields (Amazing!!) We picked out our bikes and headed off on our way. On the trip we helped de-weed a paddy field, helped a group of ladies harvest rice, high-fived little kids in the villages we rode through, and had a tour around a typical Balinese house. It was incredible. We ended up having a big buffet lunch with smoked duck, smoked chicken Mi Goreng, Sate Tofu the Works! About half way through our bike tour it started to monsoon down with rain. Not much we could do about it.  We crossed a river and then the boys continued on an uphill bike ride while the girls took the van to the destination.

Monkey picking at David's scalp.

After we got back from the biking tour we decided to go see the monkey temple forest.  You could buy bananas and feed them but we heard that they could get a bit agro so we passed.  David managed to a get few to play with him.  It was a bit cute.  Some the mommies were holding onto their babies, babies were playing in the trees and monkeys were following you waiting for you to bring out a banana for them.  It was pretty cool to see the monkeys in the wild.

That's all for now Blog Fans, Thanks for tuning in,


David Holly & Stephanie Out xx