April 16th Amed to Ubud

We had hired a car and driver to take us NE along the coast to Penukukan along the coast ( 5 minutes before you arrive at Tejakula) as we wanted to stop in there and check out the Teluk Karang Dive & Spa Resort that some friends in Oman had recommended.  This place has it's own house reef which makes it an interesting place to learn scuba diving.  However they don't teach the PADI method but the European equivalent. We met and spoke with Kristina who is in charge of the dive school and with whom we had been in contact. The water looked rough and was not as attractive from an entry into the water perspective as the Japanese wreck beach that had a PADI diving program.  One of us is going to need a very positive environment to try scuba diving again after the last episode.

The plan had been to cut inland after Tejakula  so that we would reach Danau (lake) Batur which is the largest of Bali's 4 inland lakes, and sits inside the massive 13km long caldera (crater) which also contains Gunung (mount) Batur (1717m).This lake is sacred to the Balinese, with the Goddess of the Lakes, Ida Batara Dewi Ulun Danu, honored at Pura Ulun Danu Batur which is on the crater rim. The original temple was at lakeside, but was moved, together with the village of Batur in 1926 after an earthquake. We had swim suits and sarongs ready to enjoy the hot springs and rituals but the road was closed by the police at Kitamani as there was a festival at one of the temples.  This meant that we had to continue straight to Ubud without this sight seeing detour.

We did enjoy the scenic ride up over the mountains, terraced farming including cocoa plants,small winding roads, past orange trees, pine trees, a wedding complete with wonderful headdresses... would have loved to have stopped and gotten pictures. Our driver was a pain though and from the minute we got in the car we knew he was a mistake. It was service with a snarl that we do not usually see in Thailand.  We decided to chalk it up to cultural differences but we had not had the same experience with the other 2 drivers that we have used here in Bali. It turns out he was not a licensed driver for carrying passengers etc etc. The car did have seat belts so that was comforting.

We arrived in Ubud by 1:30 and then needed to find Murni's Houses where we had booked and paid for the Suite at Murni's houses because the smaller rooms were booked.  We had been recommended Murni's from our friend Greg who had stayed there several years ago and met Murni and her husband Jonathan. Jonathan and Murni have written an e-guide book for Ubud that we have bought as well as another book on Bali. Murni has an active interest in textiles and has a shop here as well as participating in  SF, CA at various SE Asia textile events. We finally found the place and then went out to explore the area. 

There were 2 different dance performances that we passed on for tonight, we had dinner at Nomad's which started with some tapas of Indonesian foods.  We liked the grilled fish pepis (lemon grass one of my favorite ingredients), Tofu Goreng and Balinese Lawar.  I remember coming here in 1968 and seeing the different dance performances.  I also remember riding a motor scooter and getting a mouthful on gnats! The women in the villages were topless back then, as I remember them, with only a sarong around the waist.