In the Clove Forest

We've moved to Munduk, a small town in N. Bali, to Puri Lumbung, which has bungalows and organic gardens and an Ayurvedic spa and a place to watch the sunset...it's more remote, quiet, jungly and high than our place in Ubud.

One last picture from Ubud--Anne saw kids throwing sticks at a hornet's nest and then running away when the hornets woke up. The hornets were huge, an inch long at least!

We had a long winding drive up yesterday. It was not that far but it took about five hours, with a stop at a big, ancient temple in Mengwi...

 ...and lunch at a restaurant on the way--rain blowing in the window on us. But the view out the restaurant window was mind-blowing: rice-green terraces and bungalows far below, with the fog and rain over all.  

Last evening the rain broke, briefly, as we were singing out on the stone steps, and a grand sunset took over the sky for most of an hour. Hard to catch with a camera, but Anne did catch us doing a dance by the sunset light. We could see out over the Java Strait to the volcanoes of Java, and it was just magical watching the sky change from subtle to glorious, getting wilder and more enthusiastically red and gold until Venus came out with her steady silver eye and we finished singing. The Balinese massage therapist sang a song about a cat and a fat mouse which he promises to teach us tonight.

Today, Mother's Day! Currently it's thundering and raining, middle of the afternoon. We had a long walk this morning, through streams and along a tiny canal, picking up trash all the way. We were headed for a waterfall, through the clove and vanilla forest.  Everything grows here, it is so warm, wet and alive.  Two kinds of coffee --this is the place where the coffee that Made Surya calls Weasel Coffee grows (the coffee that civet cats eat and poop out, the most expensive coffee in the world. Also called Lowak.). Nutmeg, cocoa, guava, giant bamboo, mangosteen, banana, pineapple: all growing by the side of the slippery path. It doesn't look like US of A farming. It looks like the Goddess is spilling plants out of her hands. A few of us weren't wet enough with sweat and mist and got in the pool under the tremendous power of the falls.  I did. It was such a powerful experience, standing together under the thundering water. It washed away all the effort of the hike. Joy. Could not stop laughing. Kate Schuyler says: it was so refreshing to be out in the forest, and Anne says it reminded her of hiking in the Columbia Gorge.  The water in the falls was warmer than Oregon falls water, though.

Some of us (not me)  went to a lesson in making bamboo gamelan this afternoon.  We hear gamelan all the time and the teacher will be performing this evening. 

We get dinner every night at this place, ordered for us by Surya and manifested by magicians in the kitchen.  Last night's dinner was grilled fresh tuna, shallot and chili sauce, corn fritters, rice of course, avocado salad on banana-leaf plates, peanut sauce, kidney bean soup (better than it sounds), and then fancy little rice-pandanus coconut balls with palm syrup inside, for dessert. Good thing we went hiking today. 

Here is Kristi in her natural umbrella, from our hike this morning.  Tomorrow is a free day for us.  Who knows what will happen?  Blessings coming your way from the green world.