Homeless II: Begins in Bali - Part 1

I had hoped to attach pictures to this post, and i will but wifi is painfully slow (I know first world problems) If you are a loyal follower, there will be pictures here eventually. For now just words, words, words!

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Do not however go to Bali and expect to see anything Muslim related. Bali is a Hindu sanctuary, and I would assume, having never been anywhere else in Indonesia, quite different.

We are experiencing Bali in the southern hemisphere winter, so it is comparatively cool, on 27C today, and not nearly as muggy as I had thought it would be. We are only a couple of days in, well I am anyway; the girls have been here for a week and a half already. Travel here is not without challenges, there is the language barrier (we are not in what you would call the touristic part of the island) there is the heat, long drop toilets + westerners not accustomed to aiming at such devices, general cleanliness of everything you touch, children who touch everything, and, compounding everything, the biggest challenge of all: Clara. Clara, who “no yikes the beach”. Clara, who “no yikes nanas!” Clara, who will not stand for others sitting in her seat, but at the same time will not sit in her seat. Clara, who at the tender age of two years and five months, will be the barometer by which this trip is measured.

Despite all of this, we have had amazing weather, and what we have seen, has not disappointed. We are operating from a weaving company run by a Balinese family, it has been a real insight into Balinese life and the family that we are staying with (via Airbn’b) is very welcoming and excited to have guests for the first time in a long time.

Our driver, which costs about $40 a day has driven us all up and down the central east side of the island, from the small Gelgel village we are staying in, to Pura Ulun Danu Batur – a beautiful Hindu Temple overlooking the Batur volcano, the water purification temple at Pura Tirtha Empul – where we observed many having immersive holy water experiences (Stephanie had been one of these last year, but we were not prepared for such adventures today.) Aurora and I then toured the impressive, and expansive grounds at Gunung Kawi before finishing our day with street food in Klungkung. Today we are being invited round to the son of the owners of the weaving business (and our driver from yesterday) to meet his family, apparently we made an impression.
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Soon we will be off to the tourist Mecca of Ubud, and adventures in the Monkey forest among other things.