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Riverside Lunch
Beautiful riverside setting does wonders to wet the appetite. Save the hideous waitor/tress. Interesting to eat lunch and see a local family bathing in the river down below, especially considering the amount of trash along the river.Disclaimer: Contrary to Eric's last blog no children have been harmed on this adventure thus far. We all know how Eric's storytelling takes on a flare for the dramatic (right Dad and Mark?)
Here we are in Ubud, known as the "cultural heartland" of Bali, and yes still very much a tourist haven. However, it does seem to maintain some "cultural integrity" as our guide books described. We arrived midday yesterday afternoon via taxi from our hotel in Sanur. Without a definitive destination we were dropped in the middle of town on the main street Jalan Monkey Forest in the center of town. After circling a few seemingly suitable homestays in our guidebooks we proceeded to walk along the street in search of one that we liked. Our budget accommodation for this leg of trip has been lowered tremendously and we were looking to spend between $15/20$ dollars or Rp150,000/200,000 (local currency) a night for awhile. After about an hour and half of walking up and down the street (bit of hill included with our packs) and being asked incessantly if we needed " transport?" or "room?" we returned to our favorite of the six or so home-stays we looked at. Of course as soon as we made up our mind to return to the most favorable one, it had just been taken, but no need to be disheartened for long because they indeed had one in the same price range available for us. Described as a "bungalow" of sorts, it is a very simple room with bed, night table, bathroom, and a lovely little outdoor porch with table for which our breakfast is delivered to us daily and we may sit and take in the view of the rather lush surroundings (pictures to come soon).
After we dropped off our gear and chatted with one of our hosts (whose family is operating the homestay) we headed out for a long overdue lunch at a fairly authentic and cheap as all get out, eatery. Not only did we dine on cushions under a thatched roof alongside a river and take in the tropical surroundings, but we also encountered our very first Balinese transvestite who greeted and waited on us. After a bit of friendly banter s/he offered us a 50,000 massage (and we thought it couldn't get any worse than our beachside molestation) we declined, but Eric made sure to leave a big tip so that s/he could get the much needed surgery in Thailand.
It's now almost 11:00am and we've been up since dawn (thanks to the neighboring rooster and the fact we pretty much crashed after our late lunch last night. It's bit of a cool, rainy day and we're off to find a bookstore in order to locate the highly mentioned Bali Pathfinder map to help us navigate tomorrow's self guided bicycle tour around the outskirts of Bali. Til next time.
love,
Us
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suze
non-member comment
Ahem....
Ok....who captioned the photo of the Riverside Lunch? Was that YOU, Eric? Good thing Gia is asleep right now....she will not be pleased at your T/V descriptive word - "hideous"! You do recall her fondness (err...obsession?) with T/V's? Haahaa....will show this entry to her tomorrow and maybe we'll get some commentary there. Glad you guys got things sorted in a nicer place - good luck as you poke around and discover your new surroundings! xo, Suze