Yes, another day of relaxing and hanging out.  This morning we take the Kajeng rice path walk, navigating our way down the narrow muddy alley behind the museum, to the broken tile section overlooking the rushing river down below between the 2 finished? Semi-finished? Buildings.  Across the boards that cover the breach in the narrow muddy ledge path.  Past the cool graffitied art shop (which hasn’t been opened since our first walk earlier in the week – maybe the guy we saw was just squatting here selling stuff?).  Then out into the beautiful rice fields proper. 

It is a stunning walk, just too short for our liking.  I mean, we are barely into the walk when Sweet Orange appears – and that is one of the places to get coffee.  We’re definitely not ready at this point to stop for coffee.  Keeping on, we get to the end of the path and stop at the little café there at the top of the steep hill down to Kajeng road – which funnily enough is called Aldi’s!  Hey, grocery store?  Café?  We’re game!  Maybe the brothers have made it all the way here.

No, not the brothers, but still an excellent café with a great menu and view.  We go whole hot today and get iced cappuccino and banana juice (I think we are sort of addicted to banana juice now – you can bet we’ll be making it at home!).  Sitting up at the bar type seating the circles the dining area, we can feel the breeze and look out over the rice fields and the lovely seating area down below.  Good place for a rest stop during our walk.

After coffee, we traverse down the steep hill to Kajeng, navigate through the craziness of the souvenir vendors, actually stopping at two though, to negotiate some new drawstring pants for Ed and a pair of shorts for me.  Shopping success.  We’re done now! Somewhere along the way we also pass this great little shop with the funniest wooden signs hung in the window.  Priceless!

Then it is back to the villa for the pool, watching the wasp continue to build, enjoying the flowers that are blooming on the vines that frame the pool and having a nice little leftover lunch of eggs and chicken sausage (for Ed) and fruit and toast for me.  Yum.

Pool again in the afternoon, then later still we traipse down to the Tropical View, the restaurant Kadek had mentioned on Friday.  It is a bit far for us, all the way down past the Monkey Forest, literally right next to the Monkey Forest parking lot entrance, but we figure we might as well – what the heck. Add something new to our repertoire.  Off we go into the gloaming I think they would call it?  Right before dusk?  That time of night – whatever it is – made for a lovely walk.

Onto the restaurant we go, being led inside to one of the best seats in the house, right next to the koi pond and statue fountains on the edge of the rice fields.   Perfect for a lovely meal.  And lovely it was – we started with spring rolls to share, then Ed had Balinese crispy duck stuffed with Balinese herbs while I dug into tasting skewers, 2 each of chicken, pork, beef and vegetable skewers which were all delicious and all shared with Ed as well!

A delightful evening.  The only problem?  Now we have to walk home in the pitch dark.  And dummy us, we totally forgot the flashlight.  Ah well, its an adventure!  We wisely choose to walk on the opposite side of the street from the monkey forest – not just to avoid to any random monkeys, but also to stay out of the street and the traffic on that side which is sort of a blind corner and hill.  The scooter bridge is a bit of a challenge, but we manage that and make it to the uphill climb on the hill at the end of Bisma. While straight up, there is at least a modicum of light here, making the climb better – strenuous – but better.  We’re working off our dinner! 

Successfully navigating home, our evening progresses as normal.  Drinks on the porch.  Shows on the TV.  Bed.  What more could you ask for?