Hello massage?

Well my first 2 days in Indonesia were a cockail of "yes massage", "hello taxi", "morning price", "rainy price", "honeymoon price" and other endless one liners from all the hockers in Kuta.  John was brilliant at helping me get my bartering legs underneath me on day one and teaching me some basic Indonesian (tarimakasee = thank you; bagoos = good; sama sama = you're welcome).  The hockers are inescapable and rediculous even on the beachfront.  The poor guy wandering up and down the sand hoping to sell a blowdart and bow n arrow set was the last straw (tell him he's dreamin'!!!) and we hopped a shuttle to the sleepier town of Ubud about an hours drive in-land on the road rule free Indo highway.

It's interesting adjusting to the pace of 'travel-mode' and I often still find myself feeling like I "should" be doing something.  So far we have filled our 'shoulds' with foot massages (1hr = $7), a balinese cooking class, monkey forest walking, a yoga class in an outdoor pagoda overlooking the rice fields (rough I know), a cock fight at the local temple (there are real knives tied to their legs and the blood is definitely real), dips in the pool our villa looks over and lots and lots of Nasi Goreng (fried rice) - about $2/meal. 

The Balinese are a beautiful, extremely clean and polite people.  They are devout Hindu's on the island and rise everyday with the roosters to place offerings of flowers, cookies, incense (sometimes cigarettes and Mentos) in beautiful little woven baskets for the gods outside every residence and business.  They're a wonderfully pedantic people when it comes to the little things like sweeping, flowers and offerings, napkin folding and food presentation (even at the cheapest warungs - food stalls) and though they have rabid dogs and throw their garbage on the curb there is much we can learn from them.

Stay tuned - next stop Bingin on the Bhuket Peninsula for some sun, sand and surf...