well, it's official. we have less than one month left on this trip. how depressing is that? not that we're not excited to make it home, but my god... how can you leave this behind? we're back in ubud, that sparkling lovable jewel of bali, our favorite city in all of southeast asia, a place where yesterday we discussed moving to (the idea was later dismissed as ridiculous), the most beautiful place on god's green earth.
we decided to come back after a botched trip to lombok, where our intention was to climb the rinjani volcano, only to find out upon arrival that the volcano would be closed the following day for three months of trail conservation. after some hasty research on other sights and activities in lombok, and a hellish night in possibly our worst hotel yet (read: giant cockroach in bathroom, heavy metal bar next door blaring live renditions of guns n' roses all night, and a plague of mosquitos endlessly dive-bombing our bed), we flew the coup and returned to shangri la. and here we are.
we thought we'd check out a different side of town for accomodation this time around, and after minimal searching found a cute place with a garden and balcony, plus an occasional glitch here and there. for example, upon opening our door to show the room we saw a manic pigeon flying about, shitting on the dresser before a delightful and ancient woman cavalierly grabbed it and saw it out the door. no bugs, though, so what tyhe hell? we'll take it! the guesthouse also has an inhouse ladyboy, cooking our breakfast, doing our laundry, and renting us motorbikes. all for eight dollars! (motorbike and laundry not included)
Two days ago, at the suggestion of a local american expat, we decided to drive over to the four seasons to check out how the other half lives, but their security was quite astute, and turned us away at the gates. we'll just have to wait for bangkok. later that night we saw another balinese dance performance, this one called the legong dance, performed in the court of the royal palace. not as good as the kecak dance, it was still very good, and by far better than a shadow puppet play. as we speak, ashley is taking a private lesson in balinese dance.
this morning we got up early and went white water rafting on the telaga waja river. the rapids weren't quite as big as on our rafting experience in thailand, with the exception of one 12 foot drop, though this trip was longer, and oh my... the scenery? how many waterfalls can this island possibly have? its getting absurd.
bottom line: we like it here.
tonight we have the always unfortunate task of booking flights, trains and buses to our next few destinations, wherever they may be. we'd like to go to borneo, but its turning into an expensive debacle, so who knows. wish me luck.