Needed Day

We all came back from Gili Air feeling a bit tired and under the weather.  It had been a great trip, but a lot of togetherness.  We were very anxious for the kids to return to school so we could have a bit of a breather and do some sight seeing that we had been wanting to do for weeks.  Rock and I have had only about 4 five hour breaks from the kids since school ended on Dec. 16 so we have been feeling a bit wrung out and not full of the patience and reserve that we would like.  However with some colds brewing to various degrees, we thought this break might disappear.  I think my all time Bali low was hit when we walked down to a restaurant near our house to order dessert so we could make it to bedtime.  There was a pond full of fish, a creek running by, and we had our own gazebo like structure to lounge in.  It seemed like plenty to keep the boys out of trouble.  All was going well until a bench fell on Owen's foot and then he kicked his brother in the eye because he thought Henry was going to touch his ouchie foot.  We now had two sobbing boys in an otherwise tranquil setting and we had to bug out just as our dessert arrived.

We put the pieces back together and in the morning the boys were well enough to go to school.  We decided to go to Gunung Kawi, an 11th century temple complex north east of Ubud.  The complex comprises 10 rock-cut candi (shrines) carved into the cliff face. They stand in 7m-high (23 ft-high) sheltered niches cut into the sheer cliff face. These monuments are thought to be dedicated to King Anak Wungsu of the Udayana dynasty and his family and concubines.  It was a quiet day there with few other tourists and we were very happy.  We descended the 270 steps through gorgeous terraced rice paddies to the temple below with a beautiful river running through it.  We felt a level of calmness and freedom we hadn't felt in awhile.  

After visiting the temple, we went to a coffee and tea farm where we got to taste many different types of coffee and teas including the famous luwak coffee.  Luwak coffee is made from coffee beans that have been collected from the scat of the luwak animal also known as a civet.  It is a smallish animal that looks like a cross between a fox and a raccoon.  The luwaks choose the best coffee cherries to eat and then while in the digestion tract, they go through a fermentation process.  Once the coffee is pooped out, the scat is collected and washed to extract just the beans.  These are then roasted for an hour, pounded for 2 hours and sifted to get the coffee grounds.  The coffee is smooth and considered the most expensive coffee in the world.  A pound or so of grounds costs $120.  We stuck with a $5 cup that we shared.