A  very peaceful evening for sleeping and when we woke up it was bright daylight. Let’s look around . . . The pathway leading to the entrance of the walled villas. Very private . . . can’t see in, can’t see our . . .

The entrance to Pucuk. Even has a door bell . . .

emJay still in her PJ’s getting ready for a little morning wakeup dip . . .

. . . our front porch

Click above to see a video tour.

Guests can either eat in the restaurant or have breakfast room service. We thought we would try the restaurant option today. By the parade of trays exiting the kitchen it looked like most guests chose the eating-in option  . . . tomorrow! Above is a table on an island available for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We chose the elevated restaurant.

Great flowers everywhere . . . this is plumeria we believe…

. . . another beauty with intricate details.

emJay ordered the banana pancakes, palm sugar syrup and bacon.

Like many of the guesthouse/villa options the Netafari is about three miles out of Ubud, nice and quiet, and offer free shuttles to and from town whenever you wish. All of the service industry pays into the Chamber of Commerce and part of the agreement is as a  visitor you can go into any store, shop, etc., that has a phone, and ask them to call your hotel for a ride back. Nice!!!

One our neighbors . . .

In town there are many temples to visit  . . .

. . . and many of the entrance statues have been dressed by the holy man for an upcoming ceremony, held every 210 days. The belief is that the statues dressed are thought to be magically charged.

After a brief walk about through the market, where there were hundreds of vendors selling everything we didn’t need, it was time for a gourmet lunchy at the number one rated restaurant in town the French, Locavore. As the sign on the chalkboard behind emJay says, they are full for the night. We were lucky to get lunch reservations.

The restaurant opened at noon and the kitchen was already a flurry of activity . . .

The chef’s gift to the table was lightly fried spinach leaves and marinated mushrooms, with a sweet potato puree . . .

. . . another gift from the chef was a pureed tomato sorbet served on top of a sweet cherry tomato. A hot tomato consommé was poured into the bowl around the sorbet. It was a hot/cold thing going on in your mouth at the same time. NICE!

I had the Sorrel Duck Egg soup as a starter that included a poached duck egg, with a pureed Sorrel consommé and small potato croutons. Great flavors.

emJay had a roasted beet appetizer. Her entrée was a piece of Queen fish with fresh mussels surrounded by green and carrots. A foam infused clam broth was then poured over the whole works.

My entrée was a nice piece of barramundi topped with a fried soft shell crab surrounded by greens and veggies topped with a cauliflower coulee. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

emJay had not had enough and went with the five servings of chocolate dessert. I was full but our waitress brought me a small scoop of white chocolate mousse just so I didn’t feel left out. emJay was to start from the left and progress to the right going from sweet to bitter chocolate. First up was white chocolate mousse, followed by a warm sweet chocolate mousse, followed by a chocolate liquor followed by a slightly bitter chocolate mousse and finally a dark chocolate beignet. A meal in itself but she finished the whole thing!

As we walked out and back through the market we saw these two chickens in the entry way of a shop. Word was they had been told they had a job for the night . . . unknown to them it was on someone’s plate!!!

It started to rain but we headed over to a temple located on a lotus pond. Beautiful, even more so in the soft rain . . .

Inside the courtyard were artisans working on icons including this large puppet . . .

The inner temple.

An interesting note is that Bali is the major stronghold of Hindi in Indonesia. A practice that takes place all day is the placing of small offerings to the gods that are scattered everywhere. Placing them outside of a temple makes sense but why they are also scattered all over the city remains a mystery. They are refreshed several times during the day. Here a young woman appears with her gift tray and leaves an offering. In the morning they are all swept up and it starts all over again . . .

. . . some include food for the god’s like this one. mmmmmmmmmm . . . do I look like a god!

Some of the motorcycles even have an offering placed on them behind the license plate. I bet it’s the ones they rent to tourists. Good luck!

What . . . where did this gem come from . . . did we time warp through a black hole back to Cuba???   Actually, it was parked outside the Havana Cafe where they offered salsa dance lessons every Tuesday and Saturday.

Local urban forestry staff working on a planting project along the main drag . . .

. . . they just plug them into the ground, add some support and wait for the rain to bring them back to life.

Here is a fun shop we saw along the way. I thought it should be Flipper but they left out the ‘l’.

One of the local royalty died and there will be a HUGE event, unfortunately for us the day after we leave. The body will be hoisted on top of the bamboo tower that is being constructed and moved by over two hundred men to the cemetery . . .

. . . here was a parade preceding the event that was honoring several of the royalties’ granddaughters.

oh . . . one does see some Western influence even here in Bali. And of course there was the requisite Starbucks which has really made a presence here, all  over Indonesia. When you walk by one they are mostly filled with what looks to be Americans and Japanese.

After a big lunch and walking around it was back too the shack for a little swim and nap. Got to get ready for tonight . . .

. . . when we attended a local Bali music and dance troupe presentation . . . and it was quite a show.

. . . the girls were beautifully made up  . . .

. . . and there was even a demon, who wore a mask. Sort of creepy!!!

Click above to see part of the show.

After the show we had a few hunger pangs, even after having had the large lunch, so at 9:45pm, we ordered a little snack and a couple of Bitang beers. Like happened several time in Cuba, the Nefatari had run out of vino. We may have been drinking too much these last several days.