In the Mountains

Excuse the poor punctuation, the hotel we are at doesnt have wifi and their keyboard as some broken keys (the apostrophe key is one of them)

Sam and I arrived in Munduk (Moon-Duke) yesterday to find that our bungalow has one of the nicest views in the whole hotel (Lonely Planet lists 6 of the bungalows as such) of the rice terraces, the rolling mountains, and down to the Bali Sea.  I teased Sam that even up in the mountains I made sure he has an ocean view of the sunset from his balcony.

Our first afternoon we hiked up to the local waterfall to enjoy the views.  It was a little further than I remembered in the cab on our way to Pemuteran, but we did it!  I wish I could upload photos, but I promise I will share them when we are back in the US.

We are doing several cultural activities while we are here.  This morning Sam and I made Bali Coffee from dry beans through the roasting process, hand grinding them with a giant mortar and pestle into a very fine dust, and then we drank it. The coffee here is very fine and it is mixed directly with hot water because they dont have strainers like we do in the US.

This afternoon we took a short walk down the main road which is barely wide enough for one car but handles bi-directional traffic.  When we came back we took a short class, which was really just a taste test, of traditional Balinese medicine (can you tell I am traveling with a doctor).  It was very interesting, but the concoctions smelled fowl and tasted worse.   We are going to wait a bit for dinner.  Tonight there may be some children performing Balinese dance, its unclear as to when that is happening, but hopefully we will get to see some!

Tomorrow morning we are taking a class on bamboo weaving and then a guided tour of 7 of the local waterfalls.

Then its on to Ubud (Ooo-bood) and back to California.  I certainly am getting a bit tired of handwashing all of our clothes.  Sam was having some trouble getting the hang of it and his suitcase was getting a bit rank so I have taken over the laundry.  :-)  I am also missing cooking my own food, I definitely am noticing a theme that Southeast Asia is ALL ABOUT RICE.  It is a little overwhelming sometimes trying to pick things to eat that are partially healthy.  Tonight I think I am going to try another grilled fish dish, the last one was to die for!