September 24,

We were up and around by 0700. We had our Javas out on the patio of our room, the little garden outside here is nice and mostly peaceful. There is a bit of road noise and if our neighbor plays anything- music or even YouTube. The sound carries. Of course, we also hear roosters and the squeals of the huge pig family across the alley. There are two sows and their 11 piglets! The sows are tied down but the piglets have free range, and they are just getting old enough to start a wee bit of roaming. Anyway, we were served our breakfast of fried rice and a banana pancake. Yummy as always.

We did not have any plans today, so we just hung out watching some YouTube (quietly) and listening to music. It was another hot day, getting to 93F, but feels like 97F. For lunch we went back to The Sage Restaurant. I had a Farmer’s Choice Bowl, which consisted of Pearl Barley, Leafy Greens, Spring Onions, Tomatoes, Parsley, Grilled Beetroot (I still don’t like), Roasted Pumpkin, Feta, Toasted Sunflower Seeds with a Red Wine Vinegar-Honey Dressing; and Sparkling Sage drink. Jeff had a Baguette Sandwich, called Fishing for Compliments. It had Marinated Grilled Seasonal Fish, Grilled Capsicum, Crispy Capers, Sambal, Romaine, and Cucumbers with an Aioli sauce; and a Singaraja beer. The meal was light enough that we made it to dessert! We shared Just Another Lemon Tree… it was a piece of fantastic lemon cake! The bill came to just over 250,000 – Jeff gave 280,000 IDR, which is $16.72.

After we finished, we stopped at a mini mart to get snack items for supper. Back at our place afternoon turned to evening. I blogged and Jeff planned, read. We had some peanuts, corn chips, and chocolate for our snack. Just another day simply someplace else.

     September 25,

We were up and about by 0640. Jeff had been awake since before the morning call to prayer he said. I realized I did not hear it again! Yay for me!! Yucky for Jeff!!! Anyway we got about, having our Javas and breakfast of an omelet and banana pancake. I’m gonna miss these crepes- not pancakes. We finished our meal and then we sorted and repacked our stuff. We are leaving here three days early. We have done all we want to here and it is just too hot.

Anyway, today we leave Pemuteran and the northwest area of Bali. We are going to the central north part of the island. It has an elevation of 4500 feet and is the village of Wanagiri, near a couple of lakes. It is around 65 km away… taking us one hour and 40+minutes to get there. We checked out just before noon, thanking our hostess, Sondra?? (Mady was not there), and loaded up our car.

Underway, we tried to stop at Hatten Winery, but no one was there. We cruised back along the roads we had already been on, but neither of us remembered much of the scenery, because you are concentrating so much on the traffic, and it had been 11 days since we’d first been on the road. About halfway we turned from the coast to go more central and climb into the mountains.
It turned a bit cooler and cloudy. We were going to stop at a waterfall, but the clouds were now low enough, or rather, we had climbed enough that the views were obscured. The clouds darkened up some. So we opted to forego the waterfall, and just get to our place.

We arrived at 1345 just before our check in time of 1400, but our room was ready. The receptionist tried to put us in a different room than we had booked, but Jeff stood his ground. The room has a balcony that allows a view of one of the lakes – Danau Buyan. It is very lovely. We unloaded and had lunch at the restaurant. Our place is called The Garuda. The restaurant has seating across the street – overlooking the lake. We ate there! What an awesome view!! We had a Pumpkin Soup- pumpkin with spices, coconut milk and peanuts; a Bruschetta Alfungi- slice baguette with mushrooms, mozzarella, and tomato sauce side; and Bakmie Goreng ala Garuda- fried noodle with pickled veggie mix, fried egg, chicken sate, and prawn crackers. I had a coke and a Hatten red wine; Jeff had a Bintang beer. Bill was 297,000 IDR, Jeff gave 300,000 or $17.97. We finished and went up to our balcony… until it rained! We went inside. I blogged, Jeff read and had a siesta!

We went back out on the balcony and saw a rainbow! Just as we went into our room we felt an earthquake!! It was 5.7 in magnitude! We left our room, as it is on the second floor. WOWZA! I much prefer the rainbows! Around 1830, we went to the restaurant and ordered a pizza – they brought it up to us in our room. We ate it on our balcony with our last Hatten Wine.