TOURING BALI

We had our local guide Gustik organise a tour of the country side. Lots of pictures which will speak for themselves but the highlights were:

- The Bali Barong Dancing, Sofie and Jayden enjoyed the dragons;

- I replaced my lost wedding ring at the local silversmithing shop, now have a great silver wedding ring;

- A crispy duck for lunch while looking over the rice paddy's - Shelley's curry was also delicious. The kids were once again "exploring" the local cuisine with Sofie getting crumbed chicken breast and Jayden getting garlic bread and pancakes;

- Drinking Lewak coffee at the coffee and cocoa plantation (a Lewak is a native mammal that eats the coffee beans, these are collected after they "journey" through the animal's gut giving the coffee a unique flavour - at $80 / 100 grams). There was a definite difference in taste, no bitter taste in the coffee. The kids had local cocoa drink and Shelley had lemon grass tea;

- Looking out over the volcano Mt Batu, and Lake Batur - you can see the lava flows from the last eruption;

- The breaktaking panorama of the rice terraces;

- Buying some fantastic paintings at Ubud markets;

- Of course the Monkey Forest - we bought some bananas and the kids fed them to the monkeys. The little ones and the females were quite friendly but the bigger males could be a little cranky. Gustik had some lollies on him and Jayden and myself held them over our head so they had to climb over us to get to them. And no they don't steal your wallets etc;

- Stopping on the way home at the fruit markets - Shelley bought some fruit including Durian while I bought some deep fried eels (yum);

- Cold Bintang when we got back to the hotel.

A great day all in all.