We’ve learned our lesson – we are up and out early this morning.  To beat the heat…and the scooters! Our strategy works, and we have a lovely morning walk along the rice field path, past the mural with the man/woman (yeah, he/she is everywhere in the world and I still don’t really know what or who it is supposed to represent!) with the monkeys on one of the first buildings you pass on the walk, further on, watching the farmers in the field and the ducks doing their jobs, eating the insects and parasites. 

Passing by the art studios along the way, we are greeted by everyone.  The silver maker.  The vanilla guy.  And the sweet painter guy who is always so happy to see us and thinks our “exercising” is great – he always pantomimes us walking fast! 

It is so early that many places aren’t open, including the Café Pomegranate, where they tell us they have fixed the coffee maker, but won’t be open for another 20 minutes.  Oh well.  On we walk.  We actually stop at the Dragonfly Forest, a little café that has caught my eye every time we walk here.  They have some rooms and villas as well, so the upstairs dining area is filled, but we happily plop ourselves down at a table on the lower level by the entrance way and feast our eyes on the beautiful foliage surrounding us as well as sate our thirst with an excellent, and quite pretty, iced latte with coconut milk (they are all organic and vegetarian here).  It is a lovely little break before we navigate our way down the totally narrow walled path back to the main road.

A dip in the pool at the villa, and we are ready to be off again.  This time, back to the museum to revisit the new exhibit now that it is “officially” open, and to have lunch since we already have our tickets.  On the way, we pass the rice fields across from the laundry on Bisma, which just yesterday were filled with rice plants, but one of the fields was being harvested.  Today?  All harvested and 2 of the fields have already been planted! They are working on a third.  It isn’t even 11am!  Wow, these guys are fast!

At the museum, there are all sorts of additional flowers and offerings. When we were walking yesterday, there were a bunch of ceremonies going on all over the place.  So maybe there was a big ceremony day yesterday?  We’re not sure – there are so many ceremony days – and no one seems to know, but we just aren’t explaining ourselves well I think.  The translation is so hard – since this is their world, and ceremonies and offerings are just part of their everyday existence.  When we ask or point something out that is their norm, they don’t really understand what we are talking about. 

Well, regardless, even in our ignorance, at least the flowers and offerings make for beautiful sights along the various temples and here at the museum!  We go straight to the new exhibit and it is just as fabulous as it was on the day before it opened.  Maybe even more so as we spend more time reading about the benefactors of the art scene here (as explained in an earlier post) and more time with the new paintings, which are all available for purchase.  Some at very high prices (there is one artist who is obviously popular and established with prices in the tens of thousands) and some at very reasonable prices.  We love looking at all the different styles, and the different prices assigned to each.  Quite fun – and while we are definitely not interested in buying anything (we’ve already decided if our sweet rice field walk guy has anything small, we will buy from him) it is still very fun to look at everything and think about who would buy it and where it would go.

We’ve spent enough time here, that now we are ready for lunch.  Grabbing a seat at the edge of the patio overlooking the lovely gardens inside the museum, we have our choice of Chicken or noodles – unfortunately there is no pork belly today – with our set menu.  Oh, and sprite or coke or lime juice. We both opt for chicken with sprite for me and lime juice for Ed.  The setting is lovely.  The lunch?  Uninspiring.  It was a donation to museum.  Hey – it was sustenance – the chips were really good – and the monies went to a good cause. 

We spend the early afternoon in the pool, doing computer work (yes, the blog among other things!) and generally just lazing around.  Another afternoon walk – the long way around, past the Monkey Forest over to the next road, Raya Pengosekan, and to CoCo, the other grocery store where we pick up some spices to take home and local peanuts and crackers to snack on during our last days here.  A late afternoon dip in the pool, and then we are ready for dinner.  Tonight at Lemongrass again, because we just really like that place.  Quiet, beautiful setting, excellent food.

It doesn’t disappoint tonight.  Same lovely setting.  Same excellent food with spring rolls to share, Chicken satay for me and Ayam Bakar (grilled chicken) for Ed.  You can’t go wrong here.

For a night cap, we head to Hideout, because we haven’t been here in over a week and feel sort of bad about it!  Pika is here and we hang out with him for a bit, listening to one of his great bands.  These guys sing a lot of great rock songs and are just incredible.  The number of good bands on this island is just astonishing – we’ve seen 5 or 6 in our short time here in Ubud alone!

It pours while we are there, but we luck out and manage to make it home in between deluges where we do our normal routine.  If it works, it works!  And this is working wonderfully here!