Exploring Ubud - Oct. 10, 2010

 October 10, 2010

Okay, today my back is mostly better. We go for a little swim in the pool after breakfast, rest from our "strenuous schedule" and decide to go for a little walk to town.

Look at the babies!!

There is a giant puddle out in our road today. It rains here off and on. It’s still hot enough to make me continually “condensate”, but it seems to rain more here than in Sanur. It rains in short bursts though, about 10 minutes at a time… and when it rains…it POURS! Torrential rain! Some of this rain seems to have created a puddle that spans the entire road. I brilliantly decide that if we walk along the edge it should be the least deep there. We watch a moped drive through and figure it will probably only be ankle deep. Steve goes first (ever the gentleman), and we think we’re doing good until… Steve steps in a muddy hole. Oopsie… I guess my idea wasn’t that good... Now, Steve’s only pair of runners are muddy and wet. I follow behind and only get a little muddy and wet thanks to Steve’s forewarning.

Steve seems to be totally comfortable walking by the monkeys now, but I’m still a bit scared. I think I’ve read too many horror stories. I haven’t seen any of them bite anyone (although I’ve heard and read that it does happen), and notice that they don’t really bother people unless they think they have food for them. (Note to self: Don’t take food through the monkey forest!)

When we get to town I am on a mission to find food! (One of my budget tactics is to eat lunch late (3:30 or later) then we don’t need to eat dinner too, just a little snack will do 😉 We stop in a nice looking restaurant that has people in it. (This is how I decide whether to eat somewhere… if the restaurant is empty… NO… if there are a reasonable amount of people inside… check the menu) It seems like we arrived just in time as more buckets of rain started right after we sat down (that really filled the restaurant up with people!) I tried to order a pizza, but the waiter warned me it would take an hour to make. We aren’t really clear on why, but I went for my standby of chicken satay instead. It was a good choice as it’s the best chicken satay I’ve had so far! Steve also enjoys his lunch, and when the bill arrives we are pleasantly surprised to see it only cost about 100,000 Rupiahs (approx 10$)…including drinks.

We walked a little further up the street, but decided to head back as my back was a little stiff still. I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I suspect it was probably the same as the previous days.

Back through the monkey forest!

Oh one more thing. When we came back to the giant puddle Steve was even more gentlemanly and piggy-backed me through (this chivalrous behaviour is one of the reasons we call him “The King”). Just before we traversed through the puddle we saw a guy approaching on a scooter with a big rain poncho on. Under the poncho you could see two extra sets of little feet. He had his two kids on his scooter under the poncho. You should have heard the giggling when they drove through the puddle and made an enormous spray!