Back to Ubud

I was woken by the sound of rain this morning, I rose out of bed and pulled back my curtains only to see sheets of rain come down. The clothes I'd washed backpacker style in the tub weren't quite dry yet so I draped them over the furniture.

We were meant to go white water rafting today, but I bailed as it was raining on and off Cairns style and with 4 fused vertebrae in my spine, I thought the activity might cause more injury. As we were already in Ubud, (we had caught a taxi) I didn't want to waste the day away. I was not in the mood for shopping as I am trying to Marie Kondo my house, and am ever aware of my attraction to junk, as a matter of fact, yesterday prior to leaving Ubud I bought Eric one of those metal model motorbikes.

After a big pot of chai, Ruaela and I walked down the street, we were tempted by the idea of a massage. However when one of the masseuses called out to us my eye was caught by a poster behind her advertising a cooking class. We went into the shop front and she came in and asked if we were making a booking. We told her that we were interested in taking a cooking class this afternoon.  After a few calls it was all organized and before we knew it we were whisked away by Wayan the owner.

This cooking course was more than fantastic.  We started off in his family rice paddy and learnt about crop rotation and the exact stages in the rice cycle for farmers. We were with a lovely couple from Reunion the four of us got on swimmingly, however the star of the show was the owners niece Made, she was like a kindred spirit, our jokes were totally in sync and she was just the type of bossy yet friendly that I like.

Ruaela was the star of the show, they said the strength in her arms was like a machine. It was great to see and hear how things are traditionally made. There were two things I hadn't tasted before out of the 11 dishes, so that was a bonus. Plus it made me realise that making peanut sauce from freshly roasted peanuts was very therapeutic and didn't take very long.

Although it wasn't advertised we also made temple offerings which were quite tricky but do able it was beautiful to be able to give up a prayer at the family shrine with our offerings. I felt very peaceful. The other extra was making coconut oil, yep that's right you only need 10 coconuts to make 1.5 litres, Terry the next door neighbor has given me permission to use as many of his as I want, so I see an Easter project coming up!!

A veritable child drove us back to Kuta, it was pouring with rain and it was a two hour plus journey! It was like driving through or along a creek! Finally we were home, he'd done some tricky maneuvers through tiny lanes to combat the one way streets. We got home at about 10.30pm, it was a recommendable experience,  if you go to Bali this is the one for you!