September 14,

When we awoke, I was a bit saddened to be leaving this cute little place. Today we move on. I won’t be sad to leave the crowdedness of Ubud, though. We were both hoping to “find” Bali, if that makes sense. Anyway, we set about packing up and readying. Then we had our Javas and breakfast of mixed salad and pita from yesterday; yogurt; and Feta cheese. It was an unusual breakfast, but kind of reminded us of breakfasts in Jordan. We said goodbye to the lady owner and checked out by 1000. I actually talked more with her saying goodbye than I had the whole time we have been here. We loaded up and left for a new destination- north and west from Ubud. It’s a 71 mile drive and may take us 3 hours.

We were diverted from our set way due to construction not very far into our trip. The way Google directed us to get around was so Mickey Mouse. We were both confused what direction we were going, but Google got us through.

At 1130 we stopped at Catu Rest stop for a break and pit stop. The roadside place started redeeming Bali for us both. It was in a picturesque little setting. There were two terraces of fish ponds… it was lovely! I went downstairs to go to the toilet and there was a frog inside the bowl! I exclaimed that fact quite loudly as I was shocked! There was a local man nearby who heard me and said something to one of the girls from the stairs. She came down, saw the frog and laughed, but did direct me to another toilet. It is humorous as I write this. But I have questions about that whole scenario! I had my tart lemon tea when I came back up. Jeff had an equally tart mango juice. We enjoyed the view as we sipped our drinks. It cost us 45,000 IDR, or $2.45.

After we left Bali opened up to us. The locals mostly still wore skirts, even some men. The scenery was just as beautiful, but it took on its own culture more for us. The traffic was definitely improving. The route we were going took us to a ring road that wound past and around three lakes, and we were up and down through mountains. The air had turned cooler and we put down our windows for a bit. We had also hit a very brief rain shower. Just long enough to have put on the wipers. Also along the road we had seen a couple of groups of monkeys. Someone had pulled off and was feeding them, and that is why they were there.

Around 1330 we arrived in Pemuteran. It’s in the northwest part of Bali Island; it’s our destination; and it’s back down at sea level. When we arrived at our accommodation, a young man greeted me, as I had got out to find out where Jeff could park, but I did not understand what he was talking about. The young man went and got an older man (Maday?). He explained to Jeff that our place is closed due to the owner’s wife having an issue and she’s in the hospital. It seemed suspect as Jeff had just been in communication with the missing owner of our place. But we followed him and looked. The place was smaller and not a bungalow like what we had booked. We decided to talk it over at lunch and went ahead with it for now, unloading our stuff.

We asked the man for a recommendation. At 1430, we went to the Ode Restaurant. We were served free popcorn as an appetizer. I had a Chicken Curry Wrap. Jeff had Pepes Ikan, which is an Indonesian dish using banana leaves to cook the food… awesome presentation! While we were eating, we discussed our place – changing and the issue with that. Our booking is through Airbnb and we could go this route… that would be involved. We decided to stick it out. Then we ordered a dessert of Apple Crumb. Our ‘lunner’ cost 220,000 IDR, which is $13.41. We returned back to our place, and the guy offered us a frig. Yay! So we are at Magus Homestay, instead of our booking of Adisiya Homestay.

At sunset time we went out to the close by beach. It’s a Black Sand one. We love these, as we don’t see them often. There is a landmark here of alone tree in the ocean. It’s kind of cool. It appears to be a mangrove tree of sorts. There is a very large statue of a man on an “elephant-fish” creature. It was different, not sure its meaning. Anyway, sunset was not too shabby. We went back to our place and settled in. Then we talked with my mother and our church brethren back home. As we were talking with our church, a neighbor knocked on our door saying we were too loud. We weren’t but the walls are paper thin and it was after 2300, so we cut the call short. What a day!