Ubud (Bali) 5 – 10 September 2010

On Sunday, we woke up early (curtesy of Xavier) and went off to explore the beach. It was such a gorgeous morning, so we decided to stay for something to eat and have breakfast right on the beach. After catching up with Wyang and his family, we were picked up and taken on a pretty drive to our villa in Ubud. This was planned as the highlight of our trip and we were not disappointed. The villa was enormous and looked onto an aqua pool. All around us were vivid green rice paddies with the local farmers tending their crops. On Tuesday Katie, Carl and Peter went into Ubud. Peter explored some of the art museums and admired the traditional Balinese paintings. On Tuesday evening Peter, Heather and Laura went to the Ubud jazz Club to hear Jim Larkin backed by some fantastic local musicians. He sang funky R and B songs that everybody enjoyed. We got up early on Wednesday with Katie, Carl, Xavier and Peter going to see the monkeys at the Monkey Forest while Heather and Laura went off to a live drawing class. Xavier loved the monkeys, especially the little ones clinging onto their mothers. Coming home, we stopped at the markets and saw a local ceremony, with the men and women dressed up in their finest clothes. Although it has been unusually wet, we still enjoyed ourselves staying at the villa. On Friday, we went for a walk down to the village and we were lucky enough to see the farmers harvesting rice in the fields then laying it out to dry. That night we had an enjoyable last dinner on the terrace overlooking the pool.