So we've arrived in paradise, aka Ubud. Yes, Nusa Dua was fairly paradise-y too. In fact, pretty damn paradise-y. But this place is the no beach yes galleries, yoga, stuff like that type paradise. And OUR HOTEL is AMAZING! They kindly upgraded us to the private villa (from a room). It looks beautiful, no ants this time, we have a pool, and tea ON TAP. And the tea is...well it tastes a bit dusty, but it's not Lipton Yellow Label, nor Lipton English Breakfast, which is still rubbish, despite its grand name. And at the art gallery we went to today
We arrived at about 4pm today. Our driver did pretty well in managing to find the place, and in dodging chickens, the many many many motorbikes and occasional 'road still not quite built and definitely only one lane wide' bits which were not occasional. I felt a bit bad because in the morning he arrived an hour early, wasn't the person I was expecting, so when he said 'Hello, I'm here. You want a taxi to Ubud...?' I got a bit confused, thought maybe he was a member of staff at our hotel I hadn't seen who had also got confused and thought he was supposed to be booking us a taxi. So I told him it was ok, we'd booked one for an hour from now. Luckily he waited an hour in his taxi for us, so was still there when we came out. (Zoe does not know this. Will I ever tell her...?)
So once we got here we then cycled (they provide bikes: Deta Junjungan Rice Field Villa, oh and complimentary shuttle to and from the town) past rice fields, trees, beautiful pretty stuff, into the town. We managed to not die when cycling along the busy streets, eventually managed to turn left and cross the road a few times (you just have to force your way out), and managed to find the Yoga...Hut or something for Zoe to work out what yoga to do tomorrow, and the ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) where I've booked onto a 2 hour painting class. Yay! We had a cup of tea and piece of cake there, and Zoe luckily stopped me from trying to eat the cinnamon stick. (Why was it there? What is the point if you can't eat it? Why wasn't it one of those nice tube-biscuits. Maybe you're supposed to suck the tea through the cinnamon stick.)
Then we cycled back. It was the way back, so mainly up. Oh dear. Zoe was kind and waited for me frequently. Right, must shower - we're off to the Jazz Cafe.
P.S. on their roundabouts you give way ON the roundabout, rather than waiting for a space to get onto it. Or so
We arrived at about 4pm today. Our driver did pretty well in managing to find the place, and in dodging chickens, the many many many motorbikes and occasional 'road still not quite built and definitely only one lane wide' bits which were not occasional. I felt a bit bad because in the morning he arrived an hour early, wasn't the person I was expecting, so when he said 'Hello, I'm here. You want a taxi to Ubud...?' I got a bit confused, thought maybe he was a member of staff at our hotel I hadn't seen who had also got confused and thought he was supposed to be booking us a taxi. So I told him it was ok, we'd booked one for an hour from now. Luckily he waited an hour in his taxi for us, so was still there when we came out. (Zoe does not know this. Will I ever tell her...?)
So once we got here we then cycled (they provide bikes: Deta Junjungan Rice Field Villa, oh and complimentary shuttle to and from the town) past rice fields, trees, beautiful pretty stuff, into the town. We managed to not die when cycling along the busy streets, eventually managed to turn left and cross the road a few times (you just have to force your way out), and managed to find the Yoga...Hut or something for Zoe to work out what yoga to do tomorrow, and the ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) where I've booked onto a 2 hour painting class. Yay! We had a cup of tea and piece of cake there, and Zoe luckily stopped me from trying to eat the cinnamon stick. (Why was it there? What is the point if you can't eat it? Why wasn't it one of those nice tube-biscuits. Maybe you're supposed to suck the tea through the cinnamon stick.)
Then we cycled back. It was the way back, so mainly up. Oh dear. Zoe was kind and waited for me frequently. Right, must shower - we're off to the Jazz Cafe.
P.S. on their roundabouts you give way ON the roundabout, rather than waiting for a space to get onto it. Or so