Floating the Ayung

Wednesday, August 15 we floated the Ayung River. It was a slightly crazy thing to do but we did it anyway. We did it tne year ago so it had to be done again.

The idea is to set out where the reafting companies land their rafts at then end of their trips and float down the river for a stretch. Some people looked at us like we were nuts. Others smiled. We had to convince Nick to do it, well, to at least acknowledge that what we were doing may be a bit stupid. Some of the rapids were a bit rough. I got a cut on my hand and others had gotten some pretty mean bruises but we emerged relatively unharmed.

We floated past the Four Seasons Hotel as well as some cottages that were apparently owned by some Balinese Royal family or something. They had a sign up that said "Quiet Zone for the next 1 km." Ok, we'll try to contain our groaning as we get tumbled down the rapids. The last part was really really nice. There was a deep canyon that we went through (well, realtively deep, not like the Black Canyon of the Gunnison or anything) where 2 waterfalls fell down over our heads. It was a little odd trying to pick a spot to exit the water. Ten years ago it was easier because the Four Seasons resort was still a construction zone and we had no problems exiting through that.

Walking back to Ubud we passed a pig slaughter session by the side of the road. The pigs were already dead and bled and layed down on their backs surrounded by a team of 10 or so men with sharp knives. Nick and I stuck around to watch them do their job, taking the pic carcass aparart into lots of neat little pieces and emptying the contents of the intestines down the little irrigation channel that they were working next to. Mhhhh.... It probably empties into the river that we had been swimming in. The pigs were to be a feast at a wedding in two days. It was a trip seeing all those intestines. I've never really gotten to witness anything larger than fish guts... it was all so clean, from what I head humans look very similar on the inside.

That night our whole group went to Waqyan's Cafe in Ubud for a yummy dinner celebrating the birthdays of three people on a birthday neutral day. On the was back home I got caught up in watching a Gamelan and theatre performance in the street. It was mesmerizing. I couldn't pull myself away for over an hour.

Tursday, August 16 was Mandi, Hilde, Mechthild, and Joachim's last day. They were taking a car back to Denapsar Airport at 8pm. In the morning I took a walk up to the rice paddies with my dad and Hilde. I hadn't spent enough time with him.. Johanna's been real deliberate about QT whereas I we just kinda floating around in the background. It was good to get some time but I still found it hard to have fluid communication in German. I do OK with day to day things but having deeper conversation is something that's escaping me, maybe something that I never had, being that I left before I was ten years old.

I got to show off all my hiking gear to Mandi and Joachim after I got back. After getting the lowdown on some more of my travels Joachim disappeared into the rain for a little while and came back with a book that he had bought for me as a present at a store down the street. It was a second copy of the book that he was currently reading... it deals with someone who's living with a Balinise family and offers an outsider some perspective into Balinese culture and family life. I'm looking forward to reading it though it's sad I will have left Bali by the time I get to it.

I got a rip repaired in my North Face pants that day. 5,000 Rp to stitch up a little hole... not a bad deal. I gave the tailor 7,000 'cause he was nice and jolly. I had some shorts that had a pocket coming off... I brought them to the guy the next day.

We had a mellow dinner and Johanna and I said good bye to our dad. It was a somber affair. We played cards to distract ourselves... the start of a great series of Hearts games. Lambert even busted out a glass of Scotch for Johanna... distractions are good.

Friday, August 17 was Independence Day. We got up too late to see the morning ceremonies. We were told it consisted of school kids matching around demonstrating how ready they were to go to war and all that... by the time we got to the sport/drill field in the center of town there wasn't much but a lot of muddy spots and s few stragglers crossing the field.

Nick and Johanna had brought three extra frisbees that we intended to give away so we started playing frisbee on the field hoping that smoe kids would join in. For a long time they were sort of apprehensive but eventually each one of us had something like 4 or 5 kids in our circle throwing the flatball back and forth. Muddy hands and all. It was hard to communicate basic skills to them. They were pretty young. I juat had fun with them, Nick tried to teach them forehand throw grips and all that. Some of Johanna's kids got in a fight. We eventaully split and left the frisbees with the kids.

We walked down to the Monkey Forest at the end of... Monkey Forest Road. There's a colony of Macaques that are super habituated to humans and will climg right up you to get at the banana that you bought for them from the vendor at the edge of the forest. We encountered tons of tourists and tons of monkeys. The babies were cute. A big one tried to take my water bottle. They were all curions what the clicking noise in my camera was and kept trying to reach inside my lens hood. Maybe there's a banana hidden in there....

Johanna and Nick bought a kick ass piece of fabric at a fancy store with originial designs. It cost 1,800,000 Rp. Gack. $190 or so but it was super nice... hell, in SF I spent $125 on a photo on a whim one day. A cool tapestry is probably more useful. Good Work.

We settled into our last night at Lady Bamboo. I used the internet until 2am trying to catch up on this blasted blog stuff and eventually called it a night with mny alarm set for 6am.