I really like our accommodations. The room is its own building, surrounded by gardens, stone walls and gates, all overgrown with plants, trees and vines. This morning as I sat on the veranda I looked out over the stone gravel path, strewn with fragrant yellow flowers that fell overnight from the tree above. I gave a flower to Elizabeth and she put it in her hair - she looked very pretty with a big smile on her face and a flower in her hair. The resort is set in the middle of working rice fields, which I think is unique and scenic. Sitting at the pool, I looked out across the terraced rice fields, where a few workers were preparing the fields for new rice seedlings, and watched the sun go down.
Our first outing to the town last night was very pleasant. There was restaurant after restaurant, all well appointed places where you eat in the open air. The weather was perfect, one of the few times on this trip when I wasn't sweating though dinner. It's a little cooler in Ubud compared to the coast because it's about 500 meters above sea level.
My first impressions of Bali are very positive. The people are laid back like Laos or Thailand and offer great service with a smile. The Balinese people here are Hindu mostly, which is unusual I think since Indonesia is mostly Muslim. The people seem to be very spiritual, and typically make offerings twice a day. Just walking down the street at noon today, I passed a lady praying at a street corner, and watched her place an offering on the street among the many already there. The offering consisted of a banana leaf fashioned into a shallow square box with toothpicks, in which housed some flowers mainly.
This morning we visited the Monkey Forest Sanctuary, which was fun if slightly unnerving. Once we entered the park I was immediately accosted by a monkey about the size of a large cat, who jumped on my shoulders. I wasn't sure what he wanted, so I leaned over to a stone railing so he could jump off. He didn't want to leave his perch on my back but eventually left, but he hissed at me when I tried to pass. I figured he wanted my water bottle so I gave it to him. He was satisfied and twisted the cap off, tipped it over, and started drinking. I guess he was thirsty.
Catheleen and the kids had similar experiences. When we sat down the monkeys would eventually wander onto us and sometimes rifle through our pockets or try to look under our clothes for food. We bought some bananas and this is when to monkeys went crazy and jumped on our heads when necessary to get the bananas. It was a strange experience to be surrounded by so many monkeys.
The park itself was very beautiful with its nature paths set amongst various Hindu temples. The place was littered with stone statues and bridges, some of which were encased in tree roots from the surrounding jungle. It reminded me somewhat of Angor Wat in Cambodia.
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