Day two in Ubud

Apologies for the radio silence - we have been moving around a bit the last couple of days!  Currently Laura and I are installed, side by side, in an internet cafe overlooking the sports field in the middle of Ubud in central Bali.

We made our way down through the island by local bus service two days ago, having gone to sea at 0600-0800 to see the dolphins.  Us and about 100 other small boats!  We did see dolphins, which made the early rise worth it.

The bus down through the island was full - and we met it on its return to the Singaraja bus station, having found a village further up the road impassable due to a funeral / festival (depending on who you spoke to and how much money they wanted in order to solve your life's problems).  We met a young french couple who had already spent three hours on it and got nowhere.

The journey itself was about 90 minutes of diesel engine straining in order to get up a hill, the aisle of the vehicle blocked with twenty 15kg bags of rice that  had also been loaded, followed by 90 minutes of downhill which seemed to cover about three times as much ground.  We got off the bus in Ganyar, where the french couple had a blazing row with the driver and conductor of the bus, followed by a row with the minibus driver.  In both cases it was because they believed they were being charged twice as much as the locals (I am convinced they were right - but it was 15 minutes spent arguing about a price difference of 2 euros).  I had to stay and watch.

Our first night in Ubud was spent in a hotel - we ate in a vegetarian restaurant (a novelty everywhere but Ubud).  I hadn't bothered to learn Indonesian for "no meat, no fish, AND no chicken (not meat or fish apparently)", but English was working well enough thus far.  After dinner we went to a dance performance in the royal palace - it was excellent.  Laura liked the butterfly dance; I was more a fan of the "forest demon who realises he is alone in the woods and can play".  I think 'demon' may be a poor translation of 'sprite'.

Yesterday we moved to our second lodging, which is the royal palace - we are spending two nights there.  After moving, we walked down to the temple complex with the monkeys - I was climbed all over my macaques whilst Laura took photos.  I'll post these when we get to Australia.

After the monkeys, we went on a long walk, then visited the Blanco museum.  Blanco was a Catalan who was a Daliesque figure who died in 1999.  He seems to have got on with the successive presidents, as well as Michael Jackson.  We had a look round the galleries, prior to which I was climbed on by parrots (photos to follow!).  We finished the day with dinner at a local restaurant, followed by watching the Olympic boxing.

Today we've done a Balinese (vegetarian; no, shrimps are fish too) cooking course and now know how to make five different dishes.  After the course, we've walked into town and into this internet cafe.  Next is yoga.

Tomorrow we have a third day here, catching the local bus to the airport at 1800.  We fly to Darwin at 2200. 

I have heard, on the grapevine, that Yorkshire has achieved more medals than Australia.  I will be sure to mention it to the antipodeans when we arrive.