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| A Rice Paddy. You can see the small stems in the water. |
It turned out to be a pretty good day today. I really was dreading the 4 hour ride but it turned out to be not so bad. We watched the driver for awhile as he maneuvered in and out of traffic. What a sight that was. I sure was glad he was the one driving. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes or read or play a game and let him do the driving.
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| Workers in the field. |
We also passed many rice paddies and one was on fire. Our driver said they burn off the old rice to plant new. They were really pretty. I took several photos as we were driving but we are going to see a plantation so I’ll have some better photos from that adventure. After we arrived at our new villa in Ubud, we had to walk about 1/4 mile down hundreds of steps just to get to the hotel/villa. I was worried Chuck wasn’t going to make it.
The place is really hidden in the back trees but it is nice and peaceful here. We have a one room villa with the patio out front with a table and chairs for eating breakfast. They’ll deliver that tomorrow morning at 9 am. The room is cute but quite a difference from our 3 room house with a private pool. We are right next to the pool so it almost looks the same looking outside.
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| The fire in the background is rice they are killing off to replant new |
When we arrived and by the time we reached the villa and got our luggage down, we were both huffing and puffing. We are getting out of shape again! However, the humidity really does a number on your lungs. It’s a little hard to breathe when its so hot and sweat pouring off your face.
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| The design is really interesting. |
The ladies at the villa brought us a frozen drink. I believe it was a mango or some type of bali fruit smoothie. Frozen with a bamboo straw. It was very refreshing and just what we needed. They also had some passion fruit, dragon fruit, mangosteen and rambutan. We decided to return them to the front desk as we didn’t want any more ants around and we likely wouldn’t eat them.
However, I’m rethinking my decision on the mangosteen. I love that fruit! I may ask for them back tomorrow. We’ll have a full breakfast delivered to our room at 9 am tomorrow. We’ll probably set the alarm as its been a full day today.
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| View from our front patio. |
We also made it to the Monkey sanctuary but I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow. We topped off the evening with an amazing dinner at Cafe Wayan. We had a free ride to and from the restaurant because the owners are the same.
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| The mosquito net wont be needed at this time, unless I get bit tonight. If that happens, it’s happening. But makes a cool decoration for the bed! The swan and fresh flowers were pretty too. |
That sure helps. Our dinner consisted of an appetizer of spring rolls. Chuck had Mahi Mahi and I had Lemon Chicken. We both had dessert of dragon fruit ice cream and carrot cake. Our bill, including the tip was $30 USD (400,000 Rupiah). We were amazed.
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| I love this palm leaf design |
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| Fresh flowers over a palm leaf |
The atmosphere had a Bali vibe to it. We could hear and enjoyed the music from across the street. Our table was under a “hut” and it was a good thing since it started pouring down rain about 1/2 way through our dinner. We let the rain slow down a little before we left. Our driver arrived as the rain was letting up so it was good timing.
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| Every day they have tea and cake. Different cake each day. This mango cake was amazing. |
We had to climb down those hundreds of wet steps back to the villa. I used my phone flashlight on some because the lights and the rain puddles didn’t do well together. All in all we walked about 3 miles today. Not really bad considering how much we felt like we walked. Tomorrow we have more plans. I hope it doesn’t rain. Come back to see the monkey pictures when I get them posted!
May God bless you always!
Chuck & Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 