This morning we had a sleep in! Jero had the day off! Ray
made a delicious scrambled/omelet egg dish. I should mention that part of our
inactivity is due to the fact that April is tax return month in Canada. Ray is
working with Alanna, Alan our accounting advisor, and all the various online
information to put the paper work together to file a tax return. We are advised
that we should file an interim return, notwithstanding it may not be totally
complete, as we will file a final return when we get home. Now we have a
document to sign. We have found somewhere to print it then we will have to sign
it and scan it with the scanning program on our cell phones and send it back.
At least that is the plan.
We decided to eat lunch in before heading out to investigate
Ubud a little more. The stove ran out of gas! So, we put the food back in the
fridge and went out. We walked into Ubud and investigated the start of the Campuhan
Ridge walk. I think we have the route now, so we will do the 4 k hike one day
soon. Then we went to the Lotus Café for lunch. It really is so beautiful
looking over the lilly pond which leads up to the Pura Taman Saraswati Water
Temple. Of course we can’t enter the temples until we are appropriately dressed
– i.e. sarong with a sash separating the top of the body from the bottom of the
body, and a long sleeved blouse. That will be another trip. We enjoyed the
gentle aroma of incense that surrounded the palace as we strolled along the
perimeter. You can see how beautifully carved it is from the pictures.
Coming out of the water palace grounds we discovered a
little road made of cement tiles with names, dates, art work and sayings carved
into the tiles. It reminded me of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but not quite as
elaborate! Apparently they are
“contracted tiles” by people and businesses who have donated to the road’s
maintenance.
After that we went to investigate the Puri Saren Palace, but although we had tons of fun walking down little streets and seeing unique little houses all decorated in the Balinese Hindu style with Gods and scary animal figures, and beautifully ornate buildings we never did really find it.
Then it started to rain……we headed toward the market for shelter and must have stood around various stalls for almost an hour. When the rain comes here it really pours straight down as if the heavens are dumping water on earth. We eventually made our way to part of the market which had obviously been part of a big fire. I asked one of the market vendors and they indicated there had been a fire there 2 weeks ago. When we came back to the house, I looked it up and in fact it was in the early morning of March 24. It must have been massive. You can see some pictures here: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/travel/article/balis-ubud-market-destroyed-by-fire .
Apparently it was the new part of the market where all the tourist gifts were
sold. So many people must have lost all of their goods, and possibly their
income opportunities for a while. It must have been scary because there are a
lot of buildings all very close to each other. I guess the good thing is that a
lot of the building is concrete. The roof was metal though and you could see it
warped out of recognition by the heat.
Ray was able to barter for a plastic
raincoat - $2.00 – and eventually we continued our journey, Ray in his bright
orange plastic raincoat, and me with my brolly, through ankle deep water
gushing through the streets. No matter….we weren’t alone! By the time we got back the rain had stopped
and we had started to dry out!!
I cooked dinner in the evening at the house; the flame on
the cooker didn’t go out, and the electricity continued to provide light so all
was good.
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