We’ll be sad to leave Ubud

21.2.16

Today is our last day in Ubud, but not the end of our time in Bali, thank goodness, as we’re really not ready to leave.
We had breakfast, I stuck with pineapple caramel pancakes, John tried banana ones for a change, which came with a portion of strawberry jam.
Shared with the dog of course.
There seemed to be confusion about the pre ordered white iced coffee.
2 cups of lukewarm black coffee appeared and when I queried it a cup of ice appeared.

Waited for a different staff member and got the right coffees but they were unsweetened and sugar doesn’t dissolve in iced coffee, but it was an improvement on the first attempt!

We’ve booked a driver from Villa Mandi to take us to the night market at Gianyar this evening.
Its about 10km away, the driver will take us, we will stay around 3 hours and he will bring us back, all for 200,000 rp, £10. And….they have suckling pig there.

Swam and sunbathed and read by the pool this morning. John decided to go for a run and ran to Ubud town and back, its about 3km each way, I thought it seemed a lot further, as it’s round bends and up and down hills.

While in town he booked our transfer for 11 am tomorrow morning to Candidasa.
At just 140,000 for both of us for a shuttle we’re imagining it might be a bit of a squeeze. Apparently it takes around 2 hours.

John also came back with coffee chocolate cookies and chocolate. Nothing like a delicious healthy lunch by the pool.
We’re supposed to be saving ourselves for our suckling pig.

It clouded over, still very warm though, but then it started to rain hard, so we walked back to the room.
On the way John felt something fall on his back and was worried it was a spider.
No…just a lizard with a very long tail!

I couldn’t do anything apart from telling John to stand very still. I wanted a photo. The creatures of Bali do like to jump on Johns back!!
It absolutely hammered down with rain, so we just sat on our little terrace and read, I have finished my book. Hoorah.

The massage lady turned up at 2.30pm for our complimentary 30 minute massage.
I decided I didn’t really fancy it so John got almost an hour.

He was almost comatose by the end, lost his balance when he stood up and we now have a massive oily arm print on the wall. He tried scrubbing it with a baby wipe which partially took the paint off and left a huger mark.

I’m hoping it will look better when it all dries out!

We set off for the market at 5.30 pm, it must have been rush hour, especially for scooters. Same as Turkey some wear helmets, some don’t and not unusual to see a whole family on a scooter.

It took 30 minutes to get there and it was really buzzing, so many people, all locals, apart from us and 4 other people.

Small children said hello but otherwise no one really took any notice of us apart from a few smiles here and there from other customers. Definitely no hassle!

We sat down in eager anticipation of our long awaited suckling pig.
A very nice lady customer explained the price and ordered for us. A bargain at £1.50 with rice.
The lady serving put a minute bit of pork, a little square of crackling, a sort of large pork scratching, a bit of black pudding and a bit of what looked like sausage skin (all with her hands) on the plate, with rice.
I didn’t expect it to be spicy and couldn’t bring myself to eat all the other bits, John ate them though.

Next stop chicken sate sticks, next stop battered things, a choice of potato, vegetable, banana and apple. We tried all of them.

Wandered around the stalls – clothes, shoes, hair accessories, bags, watches, sunglasses, DVDs, coloured chicks, rabbits, goldfish and 3 puppies, John had a cuddle with one and struggled to put it back in its basket.
Bought some cakes before leaving, less than 50p for 6 different ones.

Spotted some teenagers eating ice creams and asked where they got them from, 2 of them ran ahead around a corner to show us, they really are such lovely people, always catching your eye to say hello or smile.

Found a little shop where I bought some trainer socks as I’ve been borrowing Johns and of course we had to wander round a small supermarket.
We bought another packet of delicious cookies for tomorrow, and a tin of corned beef, strange to most people but our ex pat friends will well understand, but will wonder why we only bought 1 at the equivalent of 75p….in fact I’m struggling to work out why we only bought one too!

Found our driver, back safe and sound and all packed and ready for our next adventure in Candidasa tomorrow.
Have had another attempt to remove the greasy arm print on the wall. I tried Out of Olay facial wash, as its supposed to work on oily skin.
Its not looking very hopeful, but at least now its round and not an arm outline 🙂

We are going to really miss the Villa Mandi dog, we love him and ıt’s definitely mutual.