The Most Relaxing Week of My Life

Wow, this week has gone by so fast... I kept meaning to make a blog update since Monday, but every time I got online, answered mail, and other crap, I was too tired of being online to make a blog post. Well, here's what I've been up to this week...

Monday night I saw my first Balinese dance at the royal palace here in Ubud. It was amazing. What amazed me the most was the music -- and how all of the musicians were able to keep in sync, with some very complex melodies, without a conductor. The dancing itself -- the costumes, the movements, etc. -- was like nothing I've seen before. Very cool.

Tuesday was my solo kayaking adventure. It was on the Ayung river coming down from the volcanoes, just outside of Ubud. There were a lot of rafters, but I was the only kayaker, aside from my guide Katuk (sp?). Katuk was an interesting "guide" -- I told him I'd been canoeing many times and rafting a few times, but never kayaking. He assumed I knew what I was doing based on that. (?!) So he just told me how to get un-stuck from rocks (by shifting my weight), and threw me into the river. We started after all of the rafts, and it seemed to be Katuk's mission to beat them all down the river... hehheh. So he kept pushing, pushing ahead, past the rafts, and we did end up beating them down to the bottom by about 10 minutes. It meant I was paddling pretty much the whole time and getting into some pretty hairy situations without him right next to me (most of the time he was a raft or two in front of me). So I was able to see his basic routes through the rapids up ahead, but other than that, I was on my own through class 3 rapids. Class 3 isn't bad at all when you're in a giant raft, but when you're the only one steering the ship in a tiny kayak, it's a different story! I flipped once, and got stuck once (Katuk saw this, stopped, and came back to help me dislodge myself), but other than that I did great. It was the best back/trap/shoulder workout I've had in a long time... and an incredible adrenaline rush. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Near the end, where I jumped out and started swimming, I saw what I thought was a large snake swimming through the water. After freaking out slightly, I saw it crawl up on the side of the river and emerge as a fairly large, but harmless, lizard.

Wednesday was another adventure, but a lot more low-key. We started up at Kintimani, way up in the mountains with an incredible view of volcanoes, calderas, lakes, and tiny little towns on the lakes in the calderas. It was me, a guide, and two girls from the UK (Katie and Lisa) on mountain bikes. We made our way down through back roads across the Bali countryside, stopping in villages along the way, seeing a side of Bali you'd never see from tour buses or in the main touristy areas. We saw pretty much every crop grown in Bali, saw school children learning to play volleyball (and talked to them), visited a lower-class Balinese family compound (even going into a couple of the buildings), and then ended the day at the Elephant park. Katie and Lisa actually took an elephant ride, but I was content to watch, and feed the elephants instead. Got some pretty good pics of me playing with the elephants.

Thursday I went back to the Monkey Forest and took a whole bunch of pics. I got one of a monkey trying to write something with a rock, like he was trying to communicate with me. Also got some good pics of them eating the bananas I gave them.

Later that night I caught another dance at the palace. This one was even cooler than the first -- more characters, more costumes, slightly more intense music. I think I'm gonna catch one more tonight -- the famous Barong dance.

Other than that, this week has involved a whole lot of lazy breakfasts, lounging at the pool, laying in my sunken marble tub, reading some good books, working on my tan, eating great food at a different restaurant every time (including a cute little place last night where the proprieter seemed to be trying to get me interested in his daughter, the cook/server, who was actually very cute).

I need to run though... I'm going on an afternoon tour that's going through a bunch of rice paddies and other scenic places and ending with a sunset at the famous temple Tanah Lot.

Tomorrow I head back to Kuta for some clubbing with friends, and then I head back on Thursday of next week!

More updates soon...