Bali Day 3

This was my favorite day of the trip. Fried bananas not once, but TWICE for breakfasts. That's right.....2 breakfasts and both were fried bananas. Heavenly.

Oh, there was also an awesome 20+ mile mtn bike tour of the country side that started off near some magnificent volcanoes and lava flow and winded through some rural villages and rice patty fields and temples and stopped at some master wood carvers home for a tour of his artwork, as well as a tour of a family compound that reminded me of how fortunate we are to be from such a prosperous country. It also reminded me of how little happiness has to do with wealth.

Although the terrain wasn't challenging. Mostly jeep roads and paved stretches, there were some killer hills that I managed to show up the 2 guides and let them know who was the boss on the bikes. On the last one, the guide screamed "Like a Bull" at me as I passed him. I guess Balinese bulls are pretty good climbers, too. I've never seen an American bull climb anything steep. The last 2 months of running, lifting and biking the hills in Guam are finally getting my fat butt in shape, I guess.

The guides invited us over their home for lunch after the tour. The women in the compound cooked us up a feast that was the best food we had that week. There were several curry dishes and chicken satay and fried corn breads and a bunch of stuff that I probably shouldn't know too much about, but that was still really good.

After lunch/dinner at the guides home, we went back into town and did some shopping. It seemed like a fair trade to me (mtn bike for shopping) and we picked up some sweet looking incense burners. They look like lion heads with feet. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and we came back to Guam with 5 of them in our 1 bedroom apartment.

Other than that, the day was uneventful. Dinner was at a chic little restaurant that came highly recommended from a French tourist and a local guy at the hotel..... Cafe Wayan. It was great, like all the other places. There wasn't ever a bad meal, or even an ok meal. Balinese cuisine is just soooo good and flavorful. Of course the dinner drinks are also good for making dinner seem even better.

We ended the night at a Reggae joint, which seemed odd so far from Jamaica. But we stayed there for awhile. Jack D made an appearance and hung out for most of the night. Wouldn't have thought Jack would have been much of a reggae guy. He proved me wrong once again. After our fill of Bob Marley, we packed it in for the night.