Bali Day 2

Again our day began with a super breakfast at the bungalows. Each day began under the breakfast pavilion with coffee or super strong tea and a plate of fruit. The breakfast entree the first day was an egg omelet with tomatoes and onions and toast. The second day we enjoyed egg sandwiches with cheese, tomato and onion. It probably doesn't sound like much, but Guam tomatoes are not the best and the ones we had in Bali were exploding with taste.

Now full of good food, we headed out in a tour bus to go on the Elephant Safari. Let us note, elephants are not native to Bali (all of this is info our guide gave us). These elephants were from Sumatra, where they and the guides/trainers used to work logging. With the rise of machinery in the logging industry, they took three days to transport the elephants and their families to Bali - since the tourism market is so much stronger there. We watched the elephants be bathed - since they like to roll around in the mud during the night, and then we saddled up and went on a 40 minute trail ride along a ravine and back. All three elephants ate along the way, Ria (our elephant) even ripped out part of a garden in front of the gardeners.

The ride was precarious at parts. You never feel like you're on level ground and that sensation is worsened by going up and down hill. I had death grip white knuckles for parts of the ride - imagining our bench twisting around Ria's side and Stephen and I being sent down the ravine of which we could not see the bottom. So it's sort of like mountain biking.

When we got back to the beginning, the guides made one of us get off and the other sat on Ria's head/neck....and she took us into the "pool" (ie the bathing pond with dookies floating about) to spray water for photos. Stephen went first and was a natural - me, you can't tell from the pictures if I'm enjoying it or terrified. The elephant then did some stunts - getting on small pillars, climbing pillars and sitting down. Quite impressive that Ria didn't notice my nails digging into her head. Ria even let us sit on her knee for some photo ops...though the larger male was pushing her, and thusly me when I first sat down. It's scary when an elephant uses their cheek to push you away. Then it was lunch time for us at the elephant safari place- it was only 10:30, but we all ate it up and headed back to the bungalows.

The best way to spend that $6 bucks in your pocket in Bali is a massage at a spa - no happy endings! Stephen and I headed to one of the nicest spas up the road and for about $12 total, we each got a massage that removed all the aches and pains we'd accrued over the past few years. The rooms each have a shower and a bath tub and are half opened up to the rice paddie next door. Birds cooed, the breeze whispered and it was the most relaxing place we'd ever been.

Totally refreshed, we hit the stores and market again finding some summer shirts and a Will Farrell from Wedding Crashers bathrobe (still looking for the nun chucks) for Stephen and some sarongs and a dress for me. Upon return to the bungalows, our travel buddie Bonnie seemed to be rushing back from looking for the local nurse. We had missed the excitement of Dave cutting open his foot. A while later the nurse showed up, spoke no English and was looking forward to sewing up Dave's foot. After some difficult negotiation, Dave's foot was cleaned repeatedly with some unknown solution and then iodine, then wrapped up in sticky bandages. Later that night we took him to the pharmacy where they gave him three prescriptions (none of which when googled came up on English language websites). A true trooper, Dave still went out to dinner with us and then to the market to pick up some more Bintang.

Dinner was a long drive out of the main area of Ubud. We had wanted to go to one restaurant that had a crab night - but they were out when we got there, so the transport driver took us to his friend's place. Stephen had a curry dish in a coconut and I resorted chicken satay (again). The more interesting part of the evening was the open air part of the restaurant and the visiting geckos. By this point we're used the little guys everywhere (they're everywhere in Guam too), yet something caught Dave's eye. He kept talking about how big one of them was - it was around a corner I couldn't see, so I was thinking instead of four inches long it's five inches long. Nope. It was definitely 10 inches long and the wide part of it's head was probably 2 inches wide. We even got to watch it stalk some prey and gobble it right up. The locals must have thought we were crazy Americans as we almost cheered when it pounced.

All in all, a great day in Bali.