The Real Day one

I'm going to count this as the real day one, as I was woken Bali time by the crowing of roosters from all the family compounds in Tubab in a 'who's the loudest competition?'

By the we reached Asik house it was after midnight and the girls were worried and tired. They've decided to share a room so as not to make extra work for Kadek, so now I am worried about two of them with the flu.

I had given Yanick suggestions of food she could eat instead of an egg based breakfast and apparently all ten of them were cooked last night!!! I had preordered sandwiches on board the plane so although my stomach was rumbling opted to go to bed hungry 🤔.

I'm so excited about sharing my ancestral country with my girls, even at the airport the lady serving me in duty free asked me if I was going home to see family, sadly I had to say I wouldn't even know how to find them as after the terrible tsunami my mums cousins never wrote to her again.

Anyway after a healthy breakfast of black coffee, fruit - including the unique snake fruit and jackfruit pancakes we were off for our first day out. It was sheer magic seeing exotic Bali in daylight,  I think it was about 8am when we left.

Our first stop was in the first instance confronting,  as we jad explained we didn't want kopi luwak due to animal cruelty,  however some things just don't translate well. We arrived at a kopi luwak coffee and tea house. Yanick secured a guide for us and off we went in single file to the, you guessed it, caged civet cats!

I reiterated that we weren't interested in that and we were given a mixture of 12 gratis teas and coffees. Not wanting to sound ungrateful but they were extremely sweet, but I do recall from my childhood that my aunties made extraordinarily sweet treats. The pis de resistance was the stunning insta worthy terraced park. Rice paddys bedecked with giant swings, a zip line and human sized bird nests , it was incredibly picturesque.

Whatever direction we looked there was a deal breaker shot. I have to commend myself on my persistence as I clambered up and down steep steps although I felt out of breath. I even braved the suspension bridge, while some Canadian grey nomads jumped up and down. I can't describe it adequately but just know that it was a wonderful start to our day.

Stop number two was going to be the famous Tegalalang rice terraces but my wobbly legs screamed NOOOOO so we drove on to Mt Batur.  Don't worry I stayed true to form and did not trek up to the summit, instead we went to the lookout restaurant where we had a buffet which during normal circumstances I would have been pleased to put to the test.

The food was great, unfortunately I ate with restricted calories and on top of that I also didn't take a photo of Mt Batur. I particularly enjoyed the bubur ketan item which was one of paps favorites. We waited for a while but Mt Batur did not emerge again and for some bizarre reason the girls found it hilarious that I had pointed out the sun shining on a selected few houses in the lakeside village below.

The hot springs 'resorts' were at the base of the mountain we had a difference in opinion whether to go or not, I am always of the opinion to do each new thing as it may be my one and only chance.  By now it had become apparent that I had underestimated the daily costs and I had to borrow money off Yanick. The entry here was close to $20, which of course is okay if you are staying for the whole day, if an average wage for retail assistants in Bali is $25 per week you can see why I balk at these prices.

The hot springs were a little run down, and the one that Rumali had been to before was next door. I resisted a massage from a woman with magic fingers who had immediately started squeezing when I came and sat with my daughters.  My weapon was actually that I had left my money in the car.

We spent the majority of our time in one pool where we were able to sit or stand comfortably. The other reason was that we did not want to go in a pool where we had seen a very facially unhygienic man. I stood under a bamboo faucet which emitted hotish water with a powerful force, it pummelled my back like a massage! By the time we had showered and changed we were drenched by a sesonal rainstorm. We ran back to the car and headed for the next stop a massage back in Ubud.

Yanick is a great,  albeit impatient driver and would beep his horn if someone was driving too slowly. Sometimes he would curse the poor wet scooter drivers. I have no idea what the road rules are here as his maneuvers would get my arrested in sleepy Cairns.

Once at the massage place Mali and I elected to share a room as we were both having the traditional Balinese massage (I shouted Yanick one too as he was very tired) Rui chose to have the harder Polynesian massage.  Anyway I provided Mali with a memorable sight as we had to wear disposable undies. One size apparently fits all!! I chose to look on the bright side, if I had tried to put them on prior to my health kick they wouldn't have pulled up over my thighs. I ominously reminded her that I was once her size.

Mali and I agreed it was our best ever massge experience,  the room was very pretty and even had a koi fish swimming around in the sunken channels which surrounded the shower recess. Ruaela also thoroughly enjoyed hers, Yanick was proud to say, " You can trust my choice". Ruaela was disappointed that she had missed out on the disposal undie problem.

Next on the agenda was the traditional dancing. Both Rumali and I had been before but the show was different to the one that I had seen last year, with the fire dancing being even more flamboyant. Luckily Rumali could read the explanation for us which really assisted us in enjoying the story. We declined buying any masks and fans as we paid a more than fair entrance price. I do feel bad towards the hawkers as I know they are so poor. However both of my cards haven't worked here and I am feeling a bit anxious as I had underestimated all the entry costs today.

We went to a warung to choose some food for dinner, which we ate back at home. There was some confusion as my fish and chicken were strangely omitted, which might have been for the best as I was basically spot on with my calories for the day. The whole diet thing is so annoying but the last thing I want is to undo the torture of the last two and a half months.

After dinner we revised our ambitious plans to go to East Bali today as I think none of us are in the right mindset for a 14 hour day. Today was a twelve hour day trip, due to us actually wanting to enjoy each experience and not just do a photo stop. I literally fell into bed after my shower, day one has been a wonderful adventure!