After I didn't get my dancing frogs we made our way down Monkey Forrest Road, stopped and ate at Ibu Rai's had a really nice meal. My son bought a coconut bag at the supermarket, it had coffee in it but he took out the coffee and used it as a camera bag, LOL only a kid would think of such a thing, he loves that bag and all through our trip his coconut bag got lots of attentions people thought it was so funny.
By the time we slowly wandered down to the Monkey Forest it was dark and scary, so we rang the hotels driver who picked us up at the entrance to the forest, we commented on how spooky it was and he said that it's not the monkeys you have to worry about at night as they are asleep, it's the snakes that are the problem!!
Alam Jiwa was not our first choice, I had wanted to stay at Alam Shanti but they could only book us in for 2 nights so we stayed at Alam Jiwa for 2 nights, and Alam Shanti for 2 nights, next trip we will stay in Ubud for at least a week.
If you are interested in these hotels go and check out the reviews and photos on trip advisor, I would rate these as two of our favourite hotels we have ever stayed in. They are out of Ubud, but even with myself and the kids been sick we still found the walk into town easy, and I was surprised the monkeys didn't bother us even after shopping and carrying bags, walking back through the forest they could tell we were just walking through I'm sure.
Our room was the "Merpati" and it was magical, even with two extra beds for the kids (little timber beds with netting)it was huge, I would think this is the nicest room here, we had a huge square balcony that was more like an extra room and the other rooms seemed to have long thin verandas. We had rice fields and cows at our back door and a small bubbling gorge, rice fields and ducks at the front there was no mistaking you were in Bali.
That night Ry our 12 year old got sick and the next night Tannalee our 9 year old had temps as well. Ry was sick on and off through our whole trip Tanna only for about 12 hours then she was fine, the magical number was 39.6 degrees and Ry's temp went up to this over and over again, even after seeing the doctor and getting antibiotics. But besides one day house bound at Alam Jiwa, which we loved, we didn't let it stop us having a great holiday and when Ry was too sick we just took turns staying with him.
With every one been sick I can't remember when we did what so I will forget trying to put things in order.
After Alam Jiwa we went to Alam Shanti so beautiful it's nice to know places like this exist at a price I can afford, our room here was a deluxe garden view room I think it was the Narmada ? it was so big I have never seen any thing like it! the dressing room alone was almost as big as our hotel room at Candi Dasa. Have to say I liked the position of the room at Alam Jiwa more and if/when we stay here again I would get an upstairs room for the out look, the ones near the pool looked lush.
We ate in at both hotels a few times, the food was really nice, they bring it in from a restaurant near by, it was always hot and they had the best coconut pie. It was while staying here that my hubby stopped ordering meals and just lived off our left overs!! he said he was embarrassed buy how much food was wasted, and I have to admit the meals were way to large for the kids and I, so he had an unusual culinary experience for the rest of the trip, as we all tried lots of different things, he also started to get FAT!!!
One day we arranged a driver to take us to Bali Bird Park but on the way he asked us if we would like to look at the Bali Zoo, as my mum had asked me to donate money if we went there, and I had read a lot on here about it, we thought we would take a look. What can I say one of the high lights of our trip, we were a bit worried that it might be a waste of money or not nice for the kids to see animals in tiny cages etc. but it was great. The animals all seemed happy and the whole place had a lovely feel about it , very green and lush. The kids got to hold lots and lots of baby animals including a tiny crocodile! and hand feed a lion !! we had our pictures taken holding strange giant birds and a huge lizard. It was much bigger than we thought so we ended up going back to the hotel after and never got to the bird park, but we didn't mind at all as the zoo was so good.
Tried to find a painting I liked in Ubud but had no luck, went back to frog man and held up the dancing frogs with a big smile on my face knowing he would remember me, he smiled too, but he would not come down in price.
Went to Dirty Ducks for dinner got there just on dusk perfect, said to hubby we should of booked, as we were taken down the path past all the lovely bales, I couldn't believe our luck when she showed us to the bale right at the back that sits on the rice field so beautiful, we just had time to admire it before it got dark, then there was such a lovely ambiance with all the candles, we ordered our meals and I told the kids the story of how the hotel got its name. Riley said "it's cold isn't it", no it wasn't, took his temp. sure enough 39.6 degrees, so now we know you can get Dirty Ducks in a box!! Poor waitress I'm sure it was the first time some one has left that beautiful bale before they even started eating, but she was so nice about it and even found us some plastic spoons. The food was nice but we had better.
One of my favourite things I bought was a beaded basket with a lid, it is very intricate and must of taken forever to make, thousands of tiny seed beads, it cost RP 100,000 at first he wanted RP400,0000 and I later saw it in a very cheap fixed price shop at Sanur for 180,000 so I was happy. This was in Hanoaman Road. OK favourite thing we brought , well another favourite, was a wooden mermaid that hangs on the wall, she is about 70 cm and in the same style as the wooden things that hang from the roof, you know the frogs and dragons etc., but she is so much more beautiful, so detailed, from a little shop near the rear stairs at the markets love her to bits, and never saw her or any thing close to her again.
Back to the dancing frog man, bigger smile but still no! he would not come down any lower than 400,000, I said to him "what are they made of gold?", "no brass" he replied. Just couldn't justify paying that much, and I had already bought one of those fat frogs carrying a dish over his head for RP250,000 that I loved, so I never did get my dancing frogs.
We went to the Lotus Cafe but there was only one lotus flower out, and as the food and the service aren't much it was disappointing.
Kids loved the Monkey Forest, and when asked what was their favourite thing on this trip, it is right up there, Ry is very proud of the fact that his coconut bag has tiny teeth marks in it where the monkeys kept biting it, and Tanna was always wanting to borrow his bag so the monkeys would climb on her. One of our funnest monkey moments, and there were many, was when Tannalee was trying to get a monkey to climb on her, she sat beside a little monkey who quickly ran behind her then with all his might tried to push her off the wall he put both his feet and hands on her back and pushed LOL, when that didn't work he rolled up her shirt, as soon as she felt his lips on her skin she jumped up I'm sure he was going to bite her back!
I bought a woven bag with a leather butterfly on it RP70,000 Ry bought a large sword for RP130,000 and we looked at paintings but they just seemed so over priced, one place at the markets wouldn't go under RP250,000 for one of those mass produced wave paintings. We actually found the most amazing art shop hidden in Sanur!
So in Ubud we missed out on music, painting and cooking classes, and the Tropical Bale restaurant, and my frogs, all excuses to go back.
Next Nusa Lembongan and the VERY dirty Villa.