Where was I: Bali Day Two

Our second day in Bali began with a really nice breakfast and then we went on a tour of the small town of Ubud. Ubud is a town in the interior of Bali whose name means healing or medicine. (We can not remember) This name comes from the spot that is considered a place of healing where two rivers converge in the town. It is a town of artists. Lots of shops and things to buy. First we went to the Monkey forest. We saw lots of monkeys there doing everything you can imagine from grooming each other, playing, one was rolling a round stone around like a ball and lots of sleeping. These monkeys by no means were tame, but they were not scared of people either. If you had a banana and held it up in the air they would climb you like a tree and take it from you. We watched several different tourists do this. Carley was not amused when a monkey got close to her. She did not want to be a tree. There were several temples in the monkey forest (this is one pictured above) and a sacred bath that was surrounded by the coolest tree. I can not explain how tall it was but it towered over the river below and sent branches and roots cascading down. We spent quite awhile wandering around the monkey forest and watching the monkeys play. After we left we went to the Drum Factory a store that had all kinds of drums and percussion instruments. Carley had a great time drumming and shaking and pounding with out once being told no. We did manage to leave with out purchasing a drum. How I am not sure. After this we headed over to the market, I am disappointed that I do not have a picture to share with you. However this market is like many in Bali open air with many stalls. You can buy all kinds of Balinese handicrafts and you can bargain until your hearts content. I have gotten pretty good at bargaining in KL and I did okay in Bali. We purchased several nice things. After a nice lunch overlooking the rice padi, it was back to Klub KoKos for a swim and a nap. That afternoon as the kids took turns napping, we took a walk and found a trail that leads back to town. It was a beautiful walk. This piece of land is in between the two rivers and on one side you see beautiful rice padis and coconut trees. It is the greenest landscape I have ever seen. On our walk we passed several homes that had galleries in the front. Artists would be working right in front of you and have lots of things to choose from. I got two pretty water colors to frame and help us remember our trip. The artist was this older man with hair past his shoulders and just a sarong on. He was nice and interesting to talk to. Once again it started to rain. The rain went on and on. Carley really wanted to swim but they close the pool in the rain. So finally we just let her dance in the rain. She had a great time and even James sat on the steps and kicked in the puddles.At one point we lost power and instead of heading back into town we decided to stay in and have a candle lit dinner. The power can back on before we were done and then it was off to bed. It was a quite night full of frog sounds, crickets and rain.