School Visit
We sponsor children through the Rotary Bali kids program and arranged to visit our sponsored children on Saturday but when we arrived at the school around 9.30, it was empty. Once a month the children and teachers go on a 5 - 10km (depends on who you talk to how far) walk. It takes about 3 hours and they come back quite exhausted. They arrived back in dribs and drabs from about 10.30 on.
Some other sponsors also arranged to visit and gave their sponsor child a new bike which was delivered on the back of a motor bike and set up in the grounds. I guess the children all wondered who was the lucky child to be receiving the new pink bike.
While we were waiting my last sponsor girl Tina's father made drove past, stopped and invited us to go to his parents compound. He lives with his Uncle. It is so amazing what opens up when you walk behind those walls. It was a large family compound, I guess substantial. The Uncle makes gamelons so they had a stock already finished. The ladies were chopping chicken and discarding the bones, they minced spices and added to bowl then squashed the mix into pigs intestines and hey presto, sausages. It was pleasing to see no blow flies and very few flies around to share the food.
I remember meeting these people last year when we went to Tina's grandfathers cremation.
We met a new pretty little girl we now sponsor and she was delightfully cool about it all. Tamini has an older brother so seemed to know the routine. She sat with Trevor for ages. What a sweetie and I love the thought of watching her too blossom and bloom and go on to high school, in 6 years. I took photos for some other sponsors who haven't seen their children yet.
I love the way the children accept their gifts but don't look inside the bag until they gather in groups and go thru their ‘goodies'. Lots more children are practicing their English, with/on us. Its so tempting to prattle off in sentences but must remember they are only learning the basic phrases and questions. Good on them.
We left about 11.30 with parents of one of my older girls who is now at high school and visited their home.
The take away men were propped out the front to sell pancake slices, with chocolate condensed milk and sprinkles on top. I paid 2000rp per slice but they were huge. I saw kids get mini slices for a coins worth.
I bought most of the 6 children we were seeing balls, undies, tshirts, pens, pencils, felt pens, books, always buy toothpaste and toothbrush, bubbles blower (and they loved it), sharpeners etc.
If you are interested in sponsoring a child through Rotary I can strongly recommend it as a win win project. Costs au$110 per year and through Rotary, its also tax deductible.
Ubud.
We stayed in Tegal Sari, room 24, last super deluxe room over the rice paddies, upstairs.
Same same same, nothing changes, all wonderful, not different.
My darling Mum is in my mind as I walk past the hedges of gardenias and smell the blooms. Mum had gardenias in her wedding bouquet almost 63 years ago. I did too, 3 years ago.
I picked a couple of blooms and put them in a glass in our room.
Everything about Tegal Sari is lovely for us. The weather was cooler so we didn't go to the pool once.
Nyoman at reception asks if I want the same breakfast ordered as I usually do. Fancy remembering what guests order!
Wi-fi is available at reception and restaurant for 30,000rp per day. Ask for password. I wonder if the rooms closer to reception have strong signal too. Our room 24 only received a weak signal.
The rice paddies have been stripped, some flooded and the ducks are searching for grubs and grain. Frogs croak at night, some pesty dogs bark and geckos gecko.
One man seems to have a contract to push his motorized plough thru the paddies.
All staff speak excellent English, all are perfectly polite and courteous. I think its heaven on Earth.
We drove down to Verona Spa one day, on Monkey Forest Rd and booked in for traditional Balinese massages and foot and heel scrape. (240,000rp for us both).
Noticed Vila Rasa Sayang sign has been taken down and restaurant upstairs is being demolished. I guess
its no longer open for business.
4R photos printed in Ubud, out front of Tegal Sari, 1500rp each. I had 109 photos printed and the colour is excellent. I made up an album for Putu and Made of their wedding and also passed on some gorgeous photos of Anindya to Made and Nyoman Sumanata(SW boss)
Driving around Ubud
Drove north along Jl Suweto in Ubud and past lots of hotels I have heard about. Ketut's place, Waka de Ume and many others. Once again lovely views of the countryside, lush and green. We came back on to Jl Raya Ubud, then headed north up along the Tegallalang track. Bought more metal ducks (for a friends 60th birthday present, the night we get home. Bet he wont get any other metal ducks as presents. I like them! By the way, 30,000rp each, no bargaining needed) and flags. I had to pay 7500rp each for 1 metre white flags, for my sons beachfront garden wedding in Melbourne in November. If only I could have brought home the sticks as well, but too heavy. (I already have the wedding party boys 3 older suits which have been used to get correct sizes and make 3 new matching suits, so we have 6 mens suits to take home! Hope they were made correctly and all fit perfectly.)
Better not to drive up to Tegallalang on a Sunday as many shops are closed.
Petula village to ‘viw' the white herons
Another evening we drove up to Petulu village. There are going to be a lot of cremations soon, or else it's the village which makes the cows and cremation decorations. There were heaps there.
(If you plan to go to Petutu, turn left at the big statue in Ubud, then up the road to Tegallalang, once you see the large MAS kargo sign then the Hard Wood sign, the small turnoff is close, on left)
We stopped again at Kokokan where you get ‘For the best viw of the bird'. We saw the most amount of herons come in to roost overnight than previous visits. Strange how so many hundreds roost in about 3 trees. They squabble for position, they seemed settled then do another circle. They build large nests of twigs, over half a metre wide. They steal each others nesting materials too. New birds are around from December, so I guess its soon to be heron mating season.
Story goes that there are about 1000 ‘little egret' about 55cm tall, all white. The smaller variety, cattle egret are about 50cm, white with a brown neck (they lose the brown colour from April to September) and there are supposed to be 2000 in the village. The smallest variety are about 40cm and called javan ponds herons, with a black patch on their neck. There are about 5000. For some strange reason, 2 king herons, totally black show up once or twice a year and usually stay for about an hour.
There was a large ceremony at the Pura Desa (village temple) in 1965 after which the herons arrived. The locals considered it a blessing from God. These days they make offerings in a special place in the temple, especially for the herons.
The larger herons build their nests highest in the trees, the cattle egret build medium height and the smallest herons closer to the ground. Heron couples don't divorce or change partners, they stay together for life. If one partner dies they do try to find a new mate. They usually build their nests in November and lay 3 eggs. Wife remains for the 3 weeks with her eggs and hubby brings food to her. She only leaves to drink water. Once hatched, both parents forage for food for the chicks. By March the chicks learn to fly.