Welcome to sunny Bali... at 2am on a rainy night!!

Denpasar on a very wet night... do I brave it?
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This journal entry brought to you by Micky

After several trips to this region of the world, I still find it remarkable how Asia teaches us crazy Australians to leave our expectations at home and "just go with the flow!" My story begins after a very long and circuitous Jetstar flight, whereupon we arrived at Den Pasar airport at a quarter to midnight to find the whole city being drenched with tropical rain (quite pleasant to walk through actually - especially when you didn't pack a raincoat!)

...amidst a new realm of uncertainty - that of the sudden-blackout-through-the-whole-town variety...

Gotta love these crazy critters at the local monkey park!
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We decided to take an hour long cab ride all the way to Ubud - a really pleasant little hill station with a thriving arts community. Not having arranged accomodation, we foolishly entrusted our beloved cabbie to find us something nice. The ride was very pleasant, with Marc chatting away in broken Bahasa while I just did what I generally do best - nodded and smiled.

Shortly after arriving in the town itself - and having tried, unsuccessfully to find a room - we found ourselves amidst a new realm of uncertainty - that of the sudden-blackout-through-the-whole -town variety. Funny how we dexterously managed to locate a very overpriced resort, finding reception desks and opulent rooms with the aid of headlights and torchlights.

Checking out a Kecak fire dance at Ubud palace (an absolute MUST DO for all music and dance lovers!)
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Ubud has been really amazing. On the first day we visited a monkey refuge centre and witnessed a Kecak fire dance (based on the ancient Hindu text of the Ramayana and featuring an all-male gamelan suara - or a capella vocal ensemble).

Yesterday we took a day tour to a series of ancient (I mean of the thousand year old variety!) Hindu temples.

Being my usual adventurous self, it didn't take very much for me to be persuaded to dress in drag... I also needed no help when deciding to jump into the Hindu bath and pray to the gods watering my head. You know - sarongs are a whole lot better than pants in tropical weather - why don't I do this more often?

Monkeys seem more intelligent than us humans at the best of times.
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The rice paddies here are pretty amazing too... who would have thought that getting one's feet wet could be so productive?

We also had this incredible trip to a local organic farm, where they grew everything from coffee to cocoa (yes chocolate lovers... this is the real deal!)  I think I would make a fantastic coffee chef, don't you?