February 26

Ganesh

February 26

I am quite excited to be heading north today, Ubud was a lovely place and  we did some intense motor biking around the area and in Ubud itself. The city with it's many temples and many artists, is surely a special place.

It was also very exciting to be back on a motor cycle and it is even more exciting that I can still write this blog, considering the traffic that I had to dodge. My karma must have been okay and the God Ganesh looked out for me.
I think he is the one that looks like an elephant, and I have always been  nice to elephants, so, if indeed, the have great memories, I should be okay for another week or so of bike riding.

Lovina beach

We left around 9am for the north, the original driver could not drive us because he had diarrhea, at least that is what I though he "signed"......

Turns out, his daughter in law, had a baby, the night before.....now you can imagine what type of hand signals caused me to misunderstand the man.

Anyway....his replacement was fine albeit a slightly careless driver, and on more than 1 occasion did I fear for the lives of motorcyclists, now that I had  rejoined their ranks....

Temple at Lake Batur

check the rolling cross

We stopped at a lovely temple, that was built into lake Batur, and a big Japanese-tourist magnet. I did take some pictures and I hope they will convey the tranquility of the temple and the feeling of peace, that I felt when I was there.

Temple in the lake

Onward....we arrived in Lovina at around 12 noon.
We found the hotel that Menno and Tine stayed in, last year, when they were here. I was promised a functional  “WiFi” in my room, which was changed to "on the patio" only as soon as we booked for several days.
From “only on the patio”, it actually became "occasionally in the general vicinity of the router" to…” good luck getting any connection at all, but just down the Jalan East-to-west.......you will find lots of war-nets”.
“But....how about the 50.000 rupiah I just gave you for Wifi......”
“Aduh,  tuan, kasian....saya adah anak ketjil.....sajang toh......”

Sweet kid...

well, when you see that sorry look on their faces, I cannot get too upset, then, when they bring their kids into the picture, it really gets me sad...

Anyway, I am learning to separate the Sudah- laat-maar from the important stuff, like where to eat our sate kambing tonight.....sedep seh.....
We decided to go for a walk along the road that edges the beach and met Menno's friends, Komang Sue, her husband and 3 kids. Her oldest, the Madeh, was at school. He is going to a better school, with the hopes that he, one day, may get a good enough job to support his mom and dad.

Lovina beach

Kumang Sue owns  a small warung along the beach, that sells what 100's of similar warungs sell, Batiks, shirts, trousers, sarongs, etc. In short anything that she thinks a tourist will buy. It took her about 3 minutes to sell me 3 cotton shirts, and make me feel like I robbed her.....what skill...and to think that I overpaid by 50%, at least…
I need to go back there tomorrow, because they are too small.....

Dolphins off Lovina

Menno and I are planning on getting a small pig for them to make an authentic Babi Guling, the Balinese specialty, out of.
I will make a photo reportage with good notes on how this is done, see Picasa album, soon to follow.

Khuman Sue

I also bought some rambutan and a bit of mango to eat for breakfast, we are getting sick of telor mata sapie or tolor dadar.
We bid the friends of Menno good bye and until tomorrow.....

We did go out for a bit of sate, but the kambing must have died of a very old age and the only good thing about it was the sauce. The grizzly meat went to the dog, that somehow knew, that he would get fed well tonight....
We were quite satisfied with some nasi putih, sos kacang and a bit of sambal mentah.... This is a sambal made from cabeh rawit and some other fresh ingredients, very hot but tasty with just white rice...aduh, pedis!!!

Putu and son

Now is beddy bye time and we will surely have another adventurous day tomorrow.

Glossary:

Telor mata sapie

Tolor dadar

Kambing

Sos kacang

Nasi putih