Finally slept in until 7 a.m.!!! Sam and I grabbed breakfast at the hotel before he began his home school session with April. It was the best wifi we have had traveling and Sam and his teacher were actually able to skype during the lesson. I packed up our bags while Sam did his school and at 10:30 we met our guide and headed into Ubud. We had a chance to walk around the Ubud Palace, home to the former King of Ubud. They haven’t had kings since it became a republic around 150 years ago. But it was an ornate place similar to a temple really with open structures and lots of ornamentation. We walk the streets and looked around a bit, grabbed an early ice cream cone and then headed to Bali Bird Park. Hard to buy anything, although tempted to purchase some carvings. But, it is so expensive to ship home and there is no way to carry it with us.
We spent almost 4 hours at the Bird and Reptile Park. We really enjoyed it and it was so nice and well done and you could hold lots of the birds. Sam was in heaven. He loved the Cockatoos and the parrots. We saw a couple of bird shows, which he starred in ;) The Birds of Prey show they had him set a tray onto of his head and placed rabbit meat on the tray and the birds were dive bombing down and grabbing the meat off the top of his head. He was able to hold on of the owls after the show too. He really has become bird addicted and kept talking about what bird he wants to get when we get home. Nate, just a heads up :) We were able to see the Komodo Dragon they had there too and was hoping to catch a feeding but no luck, only a couple times of week. But we did walk over to the Reptile museum and saw lots of snakes gulping down baby mice and saw the remnants of chickens that the HUGE crocodiles had just eaten and apparently had been in a fight with the other crocodile that was in the pit with him.
The drive which should have taken an hour took us two and a half hours from the bird park to our new hotel in town. The traffic was unbelievable, thousands of scooters filling the streets and blocking out cars so it took forever to get anywhere. Really I am chalking the evening up to be a cultural experience which I am hoping I don’t have to experience again while I am here.
The hotel we are staying at is super cool. Our friend Diane Louis recommended it who had lived in Bali for a few years. It was built in the last 20 years but is filled with antiques, including the furniture in the rooms and so it feels like you are staying in a really Balinese hotel from the early 190os. We are in a room that is upstairs with teak floors and ceilings and an enclosed upper porch with old glass windows that open up to look out onto the ocean with a hand hammered copper antique tub on the porch too. It has a real asian feel. We are right next to the beach where there are lots of surfers out front. Totally different feel from our last hotel. Monday and Tuesday we are planning on taking surf lessons. Looking forward to going to church tomorrow and having a day where we just take it easy and maybe will explore around town after on the bicycles the hotel offers. Our room also includes a foot and head massage. Definitely doing that tomorrow too :)
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