Still enjoying Bali & Lombok!

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We spent the next week at Hotel Gengong in Candidasa, a lovely beachfront hotel. New Year's eve included a very good meal at Vincente's the local restaurant and then an amazing fireworks display, about 50 feet from our balcony, compliments of the local Silver businessman staying at the hotel. It was impressive!



We enjoyed a day trip to a local bee farm that was set among a gorgeous botanical garden. They raised both Asian and Balinese bees. The Balinese bees were tiny, the size of very small ants and produced a sweet and sour honey used mainly for medicine. The Asian bees produced an excellent sweet honey.



Continued on to Tanganan - a traditional village - Before the 1970s was known by anthropologists to be a secluded society in the archipelago, known for its gamelan selunding and double ikat textiles woven in only 3 places in the world. We enjoyed an excellent tour from Kadek of the village and his home. He also showed us his beautiful lontar - charcoal etchings made on palm leaves. The detail of the etchings was beautiful. Later we returned with Patti and Doug, and enjoyed a lesson in some of the traditional musical instruments.



We returned to Ubud for 4 days to watch the Galangan festival and enjoyed another dance performance of Ramayana at Ubud Palace. The detail of the costumes and the intricacies of the dance as they told the story of the kidnapping and recovery of Sita. Thank goodness we had an English summary of the story. The rains continued in Ubud, but fortunately did not really interrupt our travel plans. We also eEjoyed a cooking class, learning how to make 9 balinese dishes that were delicious.



Then our travels continued with the 2 hour ferry to Gili Air, a very relaxing small island with only horse carts and bicycles for transport. Needless to say, other than the sounds of the Mulah, it was a very quiet stay. We enjoyed some delicious food, beautiful beaches, great weather and amazing sunsets.



Today we travel back to Bali for our early morning flight to Palawan Island for 10 days in the Philippines.

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Photos

The detail of the penjor was amazing
Made with palm strips, flowers and zip ties