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Hello all, sorry for the late updates, we seem to be updating our journals about a week after we visit a place. It is actually bothering us, since we seem to forget things as time passes. But we will do our best to record things as we remember them.

Ubud Day 1

Ubud is an amazing place; the environment is unlike anything we have ever seen. We stayed in a hotel near the Sacred Monkey Forest on the slow side of the street. Our hotel was wonderful, very tranquil and relaxing. We were in the back of the complex near a small river on the top of a hill. Our room was without air conditioning but it was not needed since Ubud is much cooler than the costal area. The hotel was set in a garden, and the staff adorned each room with red flowers each morning. The stairs were also lined with these flowers, giving the place a magical feel.

On our first day we ventured into the Sacred Monkey Forest. This is a very dense wooded area that has many high and low areas. Monkeys also inhabit this forest. When entering the forest there are vendors selling bananas that guest can buy to feed the forest dwellers. I would recommend buying these, since the monkeys expect visitors to have some, and they will get angry if you do not have any. The forest also has a trained staff that can help with the monkey feeding or defend you in the event of an attack. Exploring the forest itself makes you feel like Indiana Jones. There are many stone carvings and Hindu Temples within the area, and many of the carvings are covered with moss. It is simply a humbling and exciting experience.

After the forest we explored some of the shops near our hotel. Many of them sell wood carvings, locally made sarongs, or Balanese puppets. The road itself is quite hilly and it is fun to walk up and down the sidewalk. After our stroll we called it a day.

Day 2

On day two Zara and I decided to take a walk around the area that our guidebook recommended. It started in the monkey forest and ended at the other end of Monkey Forest Road. The walk in total took about 3 hours, including lunch, and took us through rice paddies and small surrounding villages. We saw many locals farming and making handy crafts. One of the most interesting things to me was to watch the Balinese women carry large amounts of weight on their head. One lady in particular stands out to me, she was balancing a 10 gallon bucket on her head effortlessly. Don't worry I have the photo to prove it.

Walking through the rice paddies was also a highlight. I am not sure if we followed the walk or not, because we ended up directly in the middle of on of the paddies. It was a little scary since Bali is known to have many poisonous snakes and Zara saw at least two black snakes hiding in the grass. We were concerned that they may be Pythons, but we are not sure. During the walk I got up the courage to ask people if I could take a photo of them, and I got many photos of children playing in the fields. Many times the kids asked me to take a photo of them; I think they are use to it.

After hiking for about an hour we stopped at a small restaurant in the middle of a rice paddy. The place did not have a menu, so we ordered the only thing we could remember the name of (Nasi Gorin) fried rice with egg. We were sure we had found a treasure of a restaurant, since we were the only people there, and it looked as if they did not have much traffic ever. But about an hour into our meal an entire group of people arrived, from a popular rice paddy and mountain tour, ready for lunch. We were shocked, since we had been offered to take this exact tour during our stay in the area. Either way our meal was great and the view of the fields was even better.

Zara has been wanting a massage for the entire trip, so we decided to get one after our long hike. We went to a place called Eve that was very close to our hotel. Now I have never had a massage so this was a very new experience to me. We decided to get the works, which was an hour long and including a full body massage. It sounded great but I was a little shocked when I found out a man was the one giving it to me. In the end I think it was better that it was not a women, since that would have been even weirder. Either way I will not go into the details but it was a good experience, I just don't like other people touching me besides my Wife. Zara loved it and we both were in a good mood the rest of the day.

Finally we went to a Kacak dance performance, which included the Balinese fire dance. This show was 90 minutes and was full of elaborate costumes and amazing dance. The show started when about 50 men dressed in traditional Hindu sarongs appeared all singing a song which sounds like the name, Kacak. (Zara and I have the performance on CD so you will all get to hear it when we return.) The finally was a man, who was dressed as a horse, danced around a fire of coconut shells. He proceeded to kick the flames, scattering these shells into the audience. I have never seen anything like this, since it was night the red ash was an amazing sight. The man did not have shoes on and he was walking in the fire and kicking it everywhere. At the end of the performance his feet were solid black from the ash. Simply amazing!

Well Zara is writing about our Volcano Hike now so you will have a lot of reading ahead of you.

Till Next Time, Jonathan and Zara

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