Indonesia again! This time Bali; Ubud,again, and Lembongan.

My friend Gwen is visiting. She was leading a yoga retreat I went to in Vernon at Sparkling Hills. We hit it off and got together a few times after, and I said, if you are thinking of travelling to Asia, know you can stay with us. Not knowing each other very well, she has come, been on her own adventure to Malaysia, for two weeks. Then we went to Indonesia for 6 days. City and beach. It was lovely.

The rice paddies are lovely. They are planted by hand, seeds thrown. When they are about 6" they are picked by hand, transplanted in another field that they can flood by very simple irrigation. You see these planters with a huge bag of shoots, and they use their thumb to make a hole, and plant the small plant in. Individually. It is back breaking work. Then the plant grows not unlike a wheat stalk. They  harvest the plant, beat out the rice kernels ( I didn't know that rice was grown this way) and they use the dried stalk too in gardening. Nothing goes to waste. (except plastic in the water)

This is a door frame in our hotel room in Ubud. The Honeymoon Guesthouse. It seemed weird to be checking in there with a girlfriend. HA
This is the door frame in to the bathroom, that has a red wardrobe through in the bathroom. Beautifully hand carved teak wood.

 The outdoor sitting area of our room. Lush tropical landscaping, felt very like a beautiful villa in the country. One block from the main street.

The two yogis, on a beautiful trip throughout the rice paddies. The terracing is truly lush.

Visited the green School in Ubud. Started by two Americans who had moved to Bali and wanted a good school for their kids. Started for them, and now a school of 300 kids, 12 grades. The school makes no footprint. Recycles, composts, uses gray water, grow their own veggies. All buildings are bamboo. As are the desks, chairs, tables. Really an amazing school. All events/classes are on the circle principle. (you are in a circle, for equality, communication, etc)

This is an amazing bridge at the school. made of bamboo, spanning a river on the grounds, in the jungle.

Just what you can do with your leftover egg shells.

In Lembongan, an island 30 minute ferry ride from Bali. Very near where I was when Tim and I went to the Gillis in October. They are unloading supplies, in wicker woven baskets, on their head, from a boat with outriggers, that takes the ocean weather very handily.

Went for a motorcycle ride around the islands (there were two joined by this bridge. It was a single lane, and I just hoped no one was coming the other way. Somebody would have to back up.

On the motorbike, through very narrow lanes in the town. This woman had to duck in a door way to let us pass and her basket I had to duck.

Oh, just another sunset in Bali! Our hotel, drinking a coconut/rum drink, watching the day slide in to the ocean. Reading emails from home -12' at Silver Star, cold and wet in Ontario. Well, folks, I toasted you all.

The two of us snorkelling. We went to 5 spots. First location the water was so dirty with plastic detritus it was depressing and I got right out. Went to a wall off a huge lava cliff. The warm Pacific Ocean meets the cooler Indian Ocean, and makes for a very special diversity of fish and coral. Not the colours of the Caribbean, but the fish were plentiful.  The currents where these two temperatures meet can be very strong, at a one site our boatman threw us a line to get throughout the current back to the boat.

We stopped in an idyllic bay, these grass huts the only thing there. The snorkelling was great there, too. At one site, off the mangroves, a shoal of coral, our driver threw out food and the fish came by the thousands. I was surrounded by hundreds, oh no thousands I said, of those beautiful tiny blue/green fish, and those black and white with yellow. Obviously I do not know the names. But it was very exciting. And the racket they make eating. The water is filled with a ticking like static, which is them eating.

There is a seaweed farming operation in Lembongan. They have "fields" in the shallow water where they grow the seaweed. Any stray bits of seaweed that get washed ashore are collected. These women walk continuously along the water's edge picking up the little stray bits of seaweed, fill huge bags, and come back for more. They pass by every 15 minutes or so. They then put it out to dry on big blue ground sheets, and it is sold. To be that carageenan that we see in the ingredients, that thicken things. It's a product of seaweed.

Singapore is starting to rev up for Christmas. I really have trouble thinking Christmas when it is still hot and humid. 

Went to an afternoon movie. "Captain Phillips" It is GREAT. And so decadent to go mid day. I am just starting to get used to this semi-retirement life style. Of course I am not fully retired because I have a very busy job planning trips every month. HA

Happy snow shovelling! HA I'd better be careful.