The traditional village with woven banana leaf decorations.

We have been doing a lot of walking around the side streets and villages around Candi Dasa.

We  walked to a small traditional village which specializes in weaving intricate and beautiful baskets. There was some kind of ceremony going on but they were all very quiet so we didn’t hang around.

The children are so confident even at an early age and get around the village in groups on their own.

We are enjoying our time in our beautiful little hotel Pondok Bambu (14 rooms) of which there are only 3 occupied in this still off season up here.

 The hotel is owned by a dutch person who also owns a restaurant accross the road and he has included all the little “attention to detail” – excuse the pun! things of a 4star hotel all contained in this little place right on the water.

 The 22 staff are all lovely and can’t do enough for us and I’m sure they would be the same if the place were full of guests.

 There is a breeze most of the time and it is so nice sitting at the water’s edge just looking over the ocean. The meals here are delicious and the breakfast is fantastic – all for $40 for a room including breakfast.

The place is so well planned with each bungalow at an angle so you don’t see into anyone else’s place and a long central garden with masses of flowering trees and shrubs so it is very private.

 We kept our massage guy from a few doors down and at $5 a massage Maurice and I have been having one nearly every day.

The ocean here is very clean and clear and a lovely temperature.

Looking down the garden towards the restaurant, pool and the ocean.

The Bahasa Indonesian I learnt years ago is slowly improving and the staff here and our friends Komang and his wife Putu correct me and help me withwords that I’ve forgotten or don’t know.

All over the island the women are threshing the rice and the fields are a mixture of brown with rice already harvested and growning fields of rice.

We went with Komang and Putu on Sunday to a place called Tirta Gangga which is a beautiful water palace to the north of the island and translated means Water from the Ganges as the Hindus believe it has healing properties.

It was built by the king of Karangasem in 1946.It was nearly totally destroyed by an eruption by Mt Agung in 1963 and then rebuilt.

It was then restored and it now a series of pools some containing enormous koi and other pools for swimming and bathing.

We were lucky that there was noone around in the deep pool and we had a nice swim in the rather cool, clear water.

We then went on to Amed a fishing village further to the north where some foreigners have built houses like in many areas of Bali. 

 

We had some delicious seafood in a small restaurant high above the village.

I had read in one of the local brochures about a Balinese dark chocolate producer who also produced naturally scented soaps and lotions.  It was a strange collections of buildings not unlike the “hobbit” houses from “Lord of the Rings” and located right on the edge of the water.  It was hard to find and Komang had to negotiate a narrow driving path through a coconut plantation.  He was scared of a coconut falling on his car.  The chocolate was 70-85% cocoa and one called “Krunch” had roasted black rice in the middle – very nice but very unusual and the whole place was unusual to say the least. 

We have made friends with a fun couple from South Australia who are at the same hotel and have had some nice meals with them here.  On Friday we move on to 15mins walk south of Ubud for the next 2 weeks before flying on to Singapore and then by train up to Bangkok.