February 25

February 25

Lovina is on the North coast

 Friday....can you believe it...now that we are in Bali, there is not a sound from a single mosque.....wow ... bliss, peace and quiet....
That thunderstorm, that caught us on the way home from the beautiful sawas, stayed with us all night. Menno and I discussed moving to another hotel, because both of us were disappointed with the humidity in the room and the large areas of mold and musty smell.

We talked until about 10pm, on our patio and we watched the lightening do it's magic in the pitch-black heavens. The storm was bad enough to knock out the Internet and even this morning we cannot log in to check for messages, leave alone send any.
Oh well, that is par for the course.

Lovina hotel

Soon Menno and I will decide where to ride to, the sky still looks scary, and unless we don't mind getting soaked, we will need to stay relatively close by....
We are back home and it is 7pm. This morning, Menno and I managed to spend a few moments in a WarNet, which stands for Warung Internet. Because half the city had no internet, including many of the WarNet, the remainder raised their prices. What do they say....Make hay when the sun shines?....
After we netted for a little bit we had a bite to eat at the most famous Babi Guling restaurant in the entire region.   Abu  Babi ….across from the main temple in Ubud.
These ladies sell this delicious roasts suckling pig, we watched them cutting the piglets up unto bite sized pieces, too bad Harry Campeau was not here to see it....

It took the cutting lady about 8 minutes from start to finish, to disassemble this delicious pig into small pieces. It seemed to have been stuffed with herbs and vegetables, including some lomboks (hot chilis) because the meat was slightly pedis (pedas, here in Bali…)

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Tana Lot

We ordered the Spesial, this was a dinner, served on a banana leaf, that was lining a basket. In it was a scoop of traditional white rice (Nasi  Putih), some chopped roasted pork (not unlike we get at the chinese BBQ) some crispy skin, some blood sausage, some crispy fried pork innards, some sajur (cooked vegetables) and some sambal.
All this for 30,000IR, about $3,00...... What can I say??
After this feast we jumped on our motorcycles, and in a Zen-state we drove the very long way to Tanahlot. This is a small village on the west coat of Bali, well known for the temple that was built into the sea.....as our luck would have it, it was high tide and we could not get into the temple.
So we had to be satisfied with taking pictures.
Many temples welcome strangers and tourists, but they must adhere to certain rules:
Men--- must wear a sarong, a sleeved shirt and a yellow ribbon around their waste and  a special head dress.
Women--- cannot be menstruating at the time, but must wear sarong and kabaya.
And shoes are not allowed.

X-L Chia pet??

It took us about 2.5 hours getting there, and we knew that we should not spend too much time there, in Tanahlot, because we did not want to get back after dark....traffic is difficult enough to negotiate in broad daylight, and at least we could spot the very large and deep potholes.

I knew that when we got back, we would both need a long cold mandi and then get some "after sun" cream on....because we got baked, in the wind and the sun.

Green sawas

The road back  led us trough the wonderful sawas, filled with water, each of them a different green, because they were planted at different times. It seems that these poor folks need to a lot of work to get a bit of rice to eat.
When talking with the locals, who produce the lovely carvings, sarongs and woven goods, I realized that labor cost is absolutely no factor here, where as at "home" we would have to calculate at least 30%+ on average. I am not sure what a weaver would make, she is certainly not paid by the hour or week, perhaps she gets a small percentage of the sale of the cloth.....and I mean small.....

Weaver in Bali

We finally arrived back to the guest house, and arranged for a private car and chauffeur ride to the north of Bali, Lovina to be exact.

We will pay our bill tomorrow, and return the bikes, unscathed, I might add..

We should be leaving about 11 am and the ride north would take about 3.5 hours and 350.000IR, which translates ... $35 (for the 2 of us, private car and driver)

I am going in now and read a little from my book, it's almost done...
it is called "Asta's ogen" and i am almost done with it.
I will take it home for you, tante Rietje !

Glossary:

Pedis = Pedas is hot and spicy.

Babi Guling is spit roasted suckling pig
Tante Rietje is my darling aunty in Sarnia, On.