The greatest adventure of all - Part 2

Day three. Wake up at 5am again. Lay in bed until the sun rises. Get up and wander.

Eat breakfast at Biku with the Shodas (excellent food and teas!). Get a personalized Indonesian tea ceremony when Bethany orders the right tea. Wander around Seminyak for a bit when Laura and Seth join us. Decide we're going to go to Tanah Lot for the day and split up to see who can haggle for the best transportation cost. (Shodas win.)

Reconvene and take the trip to Tanah Lot.
 

 

And in this lovely site, some other tourists (local tourists?) wanted a picture with our youngest (and obviously cutest) tour group.

The Balinese LOVE children. When we got back to Seminyak from Tanah Lot, Bethany and Evey got invited into a spa so they could wash off their feet. (Our feet were disgusting. And we were ridiculously sweaty. In fact it should be mentioned that this was one of the hottest days any of us have ever experienced, and we all had a solid sheen of sweat covering our skin from head to toe. But that's a side note to this anecdote.) When Bethany and Evey went in to get their feet washed, the ladies fawned over Evey, washing her feet and all but tweaking her cheek. When it was Bethany's turn, they pointed her to a faucet outside.

Let' see, what else. We also had our first luwak coffee on our way out from Tanah Lot. It's the coffee beans that have been eaten by the Balinese raccoon/cat/critter, digested, then pooped out. Whoever it was that discovered that these coffee beans taste better than regular coffee beans (let alone sifted through poop to put together enough coffee beans for a cuppa) must have been bored/desperate/not quite sane. I'm not much of a coffee buff so I can't say I noticed that it tasted better, really. But I did like when I saw a catpoochino on the menu.

That night we went out with the larger crew for dinner and a Balinese dancing show. The real entertainment for the night was niece Sienna getting down in the front row and dancing along with the performers. More Bintang, good company and Balinese food.

Wednesday, the next day, was our errand day. We headed up to Canggu to do our cake tasting.

Delicious. A highlight of wedding planning. 

The rest of the day was spent wandering, attempted (and failed) shopping, then continuing to catch up with the recent arrivals (Adam, Maria, Sadie, Andy). 

Thursday was the day of Marcus's bucks night, so I headed up to Ubud a day early. Val and our driver Made came to pick me up in the morning and we made a day of the trip. What's usually a 1.5 hour drive took closer to four. We stopped at a bunch of artisan villages along the way to check out the local handicrafts. Batik in one place, wood carving in another, silver jewelry making and painting. When we were thoroughly done with the touristing, we headed to our hotels. The villa in Ubud was my favorite. A two-story villa, a five-minute walk from the main road (read NO road noise), sitting smack in front of a rice paddy.

Sooooooo beautiful. That night (after I dragged Val shopping for many hours) I sat in the villa watching the fireflies out in the rice paddies. 

Friday. Friday we spent another day with Made, and he took us around to some of the more well known sites in the area. First stop, rice terraces. No proper walk through, as apparently you get charged for each new rice paddy you walk through (they're all owned by different families). 

Temple number one was Gunung Kawi, one of Bali's water temples. Made joined this excursion and gave us some explanations (which were all promptly forgotten).

Except for my first cacao tree! I'll never forget that. I was so excited I almost cried (and hugged the tree). I didn't. Didn't want to embarrass Val and Made.

You'll have to indulge me. There were only certain times when I cracked my camera out during the trip, so you're going to get overwhelmed with pictures on some days and get none of others!

Mangosteen tree!

Next we went to Tirta Empul, one of the most sacred water temples in Bali.

My personal favorite stop of the day--the "coffee plantation". It's not so much a coffee plantation as a showcase garden. They have sample plants of different types of coffee (Arabica and Balinese). We also saw pineapples and trees with shriveled up cacao pods (sad!).

This was a plant that Made told me people steeped in tea when they had a cold. I had a lovely lady back at the villa mix it up for me later (I had caught a cold). I don't know that it worked, but in Bali, gotta try a Balinese remedy.

Luwak coffee...

And my hens night was later that night!