Time in Ubud, by Garth

We spent five days in Ubud on the island of Bali from June 24th to June 29th. We wandered around the town, walked along Campuhan Ridge which was a hike on a hilly ridge overlooking some of the countryside, and watched Indonesian dancing (called Legong dancing) at Ubud Palace. In the town we did some shopping. You have to negotiate the price for anything you buy there. We walked by Monkey Forest when we were walking around Ubud but the monkeys seemed very vicious so we don't go in to that site.  One of the ladies outside the forest who was selling bananas had to take out a slingshot every now and then and wave it around to scare the monkeys away from her stall.

Hannah having a staring contest at Monkey Forest, Ubud

We had an opportunity to go to Dairy Queen for blizzards which was a huge treat for us. That was our lunch that day.  There are no Dairy Queens in Penang.

Dairy Queen, Ubud

Enjoying blizzards

Here is a picture of the cultural show with Indonesian dancing. It was called Legong, and took place at Ubud Palace.  The movement of the eyes and the fingers is very significant in this kind of dancing.  The eyes are made up with eyeliner and mascara to look very large and dark with a huge contrast of the whites of the eyes.  The fingers are stretched out to look very long.  There are drummers who provide the background music. The Legong dance is divided up into 10 sections, with each dance from a section telling a particular story.

Legong dancing at Ubud Palace

Another picture from Legong dancing

A group of five women dancing during the Legong dance

Short video from Legong dance at Ubud Palace: Legong Dance

We also took about a 2 hour walk along Campuhan Ridge, which is just outside of Ubud.

Hannah, Kate, and Eileen walking along Campuhan Ridge.  What is with Hannah's funny face?

One of the views from Campuhan Ridge

When we were in Ubud we stayed at Lokasari Bungalows in this particular building which is a former Hindu temple site.  It was very unique.  Every morning traditionally dressed ladies would walk around leaving their offerings outside each building and in the walkways, complete with smoking incense.

Villa we stayed in at Lokasari Bungalows

Things I Used To Take For Granted

1.  Water that comes out of the tap when you turn the tap on.  It seems to be happening with more frequency that the water will be turned off somewhere in our neighbourhood and we can't get water from our tap or run the washing machine.  There is no warning.  Then just as mysteriously we have water again.  It happened again today after church when we were preparing lunch and had a pile of dishes to wash.

2.  A dishwasher - the machine kind.  I don't think I will ever complain again about loading or unloading a dishwasher after living now for 2+ years without one.

3.  Cereal.  Every time I go grocery shopping and go down the cereal aisle I have my hopes up that there will be more varieties of cereal this time besides Corn Flakes and Muesli and the various kinds of sugar cereals that we would only eat when we went camping as a special treat.  My hopes are dashed every time so I continue to make my own homemade granola.

4.  Seeing English words.  We see English words but our brain has to sort them out from amidst the Bahasa Malay words.  I guess that is what the French have to do in some parts of Quebec - sort out their own Francophone words from among the bombardment of English words.

5.  Internet.  It is getting better here but especially at school you can't always count on it.  I learned quickly in my first year teaching here to have a Plan B in case the Internet was down and I had planned a lesson around something that required online access.  Frustration just slowed me down from getting on with the job.

6.  Toilet paper in public bathrooms.  I always carry tissues in my purse.

7.  A public library.  The school has a decent library - actually two:  an elementary one and a middle / high school one, but oh, the joy it was to go to one of several very large libraries in Abbotsford and take out however many books or CD's or books-on-tape you could want.  On the converse though, I trust the libraries here more as part of a Christian school without having to such closely monitor what my daughters are reading.

8.  Twist-ties.  Can't get them here.

9.  Yellow Pages.  Need a service or product?  Generally have to find out through asking people.

10.  Hugs from those we love in Canada.

Second Day Tour from Ubud, by Elizabeth

On June 27th, we took another tour from Ubud (in Bali). First, we visited the largest monkey forest in Bali (Sangeh Monkey Forest). We walked around for about 1/2 hour. We saw a lot of monkeys. My favourite part was when the monkeys jumped into the water and swam. Then we saw monkeys looking through the hair of other monkeys. At the end, Hannah and Aimee threw a yam at the monkey and the monkey started to chase them.

A monkey and its child

A monkey and her baby

A monkey family. One of them is looking through the hair of the other monkey

Next we drove to another temple on the water which was called Pura Ulun Danu Bratan. It was very beautiful. There were a lot of people worshiping at the temple. The picture of the temple is on the 50,000 Rupiah note (Indonesian money)

Picture of the temple on the water

All of us except for mom who is taking the picture, in front of the temple

People worshiping at the Temple

Next we took a short drive to have lunch at Candikuning market. For lunch we ate chicken satay and plain rice.We sometimes eat chicken satay in Malaysia too. The sauce is a peanut sauce which I like and it is served with cucumbers and onions.

Picture of chicken satay from the internet

We then went to Jatiluwih rice fields. Before we started walking around the rice fields some of us had ice cream sandwiches which ended up being two pieces of bread (like a sweet bun) with neopolitan ice cream in the middle. It was really good.  You can see the person selling the ice cream sandwiches in the background.

Kate and I having ice cream sandwiches

One view of the rice fields

Flooding of some of the rice terraces 

Man using a water buffalo to plow his rice terrace

I really liked the tour. My favourite part was Sangeh Monkey Forest.

Surfing in Lombok, by Elizabeth

The day we went surfing was after we arrived in Lombok. It was awesome. It was my favourite experience from Bali and Lombok combined. First Andre, the surfing teacher, picked us up and explained how to get up on the board. We used a long board. A real surfboard is shorter so it's harder to handle. Then we got to try it out.  I was scared at first but after the first wave I was a lot less scared.  The first wave I made it standing up all the way to the beach.  But we had to jump off or else something bad would happen.  It turned out I was really good at surfing.  Soon it got really fun and I kept on going to the beach.  Next, I kept on trying big waves.  Soon we had a rest and we got some water and stuff.  After that this other guy helped me.  He was different than the guy who drove us.  The second guy who helped me with big waves would push me up really high so it was like I was on a jet ski.  Then we finished surfing.  It was really fun.  Then we drove back to the surfing shop and got pictures.  That was surfing in Lombok.

This is us learning

This is how big the waves were

This is me surfing

This is Aimee surfing

This is my mom surfing

This is me surfing again

My cool sister Hannah surfing

My dad got up too

Me and Kate

I am going to teach you how to surf for beginners.  First you have to find a beach with the right waves.  The waves have to break way out.  But there has to be water from where the waves are to the beach.  Then you have to find a surf master who will teach you. Then you will know how to surf.  Here are some YouTube videos with the same guy we surfed with:

Surfing Lesson Video (Note from Eileen: We paid a lot less than that for our lessons :)

What Happened To My Flip Flop?, by Kate

I got my new flip flops at the beginning of April during my Spring Break.  I didn't like them at first because of their ripply design but then I started to really like them.  Two months later this is what my shoes looked like.  My mom was not too happy that I wrecked my shoe so soon.  

Comparing both shoes

Guess what happened to my shoe:

1. A fish bit it.  
2. It got accidentally cut with scissors.
3. It got worn down because of the heat.
4. It got stuck in an escalator.
5. It got scraped by a rock.
6. Jasper, our guinea pig, chewed it.
   
   
   

   

   This is the damaged shoe.
   
   The answer to the question is the answer to this problem:
   36x5-180+5-2-7+3+4+1= the number of the correct answer.
   
   Good luck!