Day 146 Dec 28 2014 Candidasa Bali Indonisia

How can I get away from this girl?

The last time I was holding birds I had to get a new shirt

Mines bigger than yours

Day 146 Dec 28 2014  Candidasa Bali Indonisia

We went to the Bird park and Reptile park in Batubulan, Bali and saw several of  the bird shows and the kids had the opportunity to hold various types of birds from lorries to an owl.  After the bird park we went to the reptile park next door.  They had a fair selection of snakes, salt water crocodiles and Iguanas as well as a few geckos.  In all we spent 5 ½ hours visiting the two parks.

Day 145 Dec 27 2014 Candidasa Bali Indonisia

Day 145  Dec 27 2014   Candidasa Bali Indonisia

This day was a repeat of the 26^th with the exception that we did not even leave Catra.  We ate supper in the restaurant and swam in the pool.  Evy and I read books most of the day and the kids played video games.

Day 144 Dec 26 2014 Candidasa Bali Indonisia

David's most enjoyable moments of the trip continue to be doing school work!!!!

Day 144  Dec 26 2014   Candidasa Bali Indonisia

Today was a homework day.  In the afternoon Evy and I walked to a store and bought some groceries as the 27^th is a celebration day for the Hindu’s in Bali and we are not sure what will be open and what will be available.  In the late afternoon we went to the resort next door for supper and to swim in their pool.

Day 143 Dec 25 2014 Candidasa Bali Indonisia

small Christmas presents that we will not have to carry

David got his favorite chocolates

Day 143  Dec 25 2014   Candidasa Bali Indonisia

White Sand Beach was the place we went to today, it is a typical beach in paradise.  The kids and Evy played in the waves while I went snorkeling.  The area I was snorkeling in was along some cliffs so there was no shallow water.  I was swimming in water that ranged from 10 to 20 feet deep.  There were some very nice coral gardens with lots of very colorful fish and eels.  We saw some dolphins swimming just off the beach. We ate at a beach front restaurant, the kids had grilled squid and Evy and I had grilled fish.  Almost immediately after eating Evy and I developed pounding headaches, our heart started beating at a high rate, we developed red patches over our bodies, some stomach cramps, Evy's tongue felt swollen  and I had a bit of nausea.  We were lucky in that the taxi driver was scheduled to pick us up from the beach shortly after we started getting sick.  When we got to the apartment we both took benadryl and went to sleep for a few hours.  When we woke up we were both feeling good and we had not experienced any vomiting or diarrhea as I was expecting.  After consulting Dr. Google, I am convinced we had something called “histamine fish poisoning”.

Day 142 Dec 24 2014 Candidasa Bali Indonisia

Christmas Eve supper (notice the formal wear)

Feeding a monkey at the Monkey Forest

Our Christmas tree in Bali

Rice Terrace near Ubud Bali

Do I really want to go down there?

Day 142  Dec 24 2014   Candidasa Bali Indonisia

Our taxi driver picked us up at 8 am as our first stop of the day was a Balinese dance performance as Evy wanted to see it.  As I was sitting there watching it, I started thinking that I would rather go see a ballet.  The first and last time I saw a ballet I remember walking out of it and saying to Evy that if she loved me she would never take me to the ballet again.  The highlight of the day for me was a visit to the Monkey Forest where we fed the monkeys bananas.  I tried to hide bananas under my shirt but that turned out to be a bad idea as the moneys just climb on you and try to rip them out.  David had a few problems with the monkeys.  He was wearing shorts with a lot of yellow on them and several monkeys tried to get the bananas that he did not have.  One monkey tried to pull his shorts off and also tried to bite his pocket open.  David sat down on a bench a few feet away from a monkey and it came over to him and started to pull at his arm and then started to check the pockets and fly area of his shorts.  David stood up and tried to move away when the monkey started to check out his fly.  The monkey followed David and hung onto his leg; all of the sudden a large monkey ran over and pushed the little monkey off of David’s leg, grabbed his shorts then bit David on the leg.  It was right then that I was glad that we had made the decision to get vaccinated against rabbies, especially after seeing signs that day saying “eliminate rabies, vaccinate you pets”.  Even after getting bitten David still wanted to continue feeding the monkeys.  The last stop of the day was a rice terrace near Ubud, it was a scenic view.

Day 141 Dec 23 2014 Candidasa Bali Indonisia

Day 141  Dec 23 2014   Candidasa Bali Indonisia

The days consist of reading, playing video games, homework and updating the blog.  Evy had a hair appointment in the early afternoon and massage in the afternoon.  Isabel and I tried to go snorkeling in the late afternoon in front of our apartment.  The ocean was very stirred up and we could not see more then 2 to 3 feet in front of us.  We swan out from shore a hundred meters but things did not get better so we went swimming in the pool instead.  

Day 140 Dec 22 2014 Candidasa Bali Indonisia

Isabel grinding luwak coffee

trying our free selection of tea and coffee

Tirtagangga Water Palace

waiting for one of them to fall in

Day 140  Dec 22 2014   Candidasa Bali Indonisia

We visited 2 water palaces built by a previous King of Indonesia.  The first one we went to was the Ujung Water Palace.  It consist of several relatively small buildings surrounded by lots of water and gardens.  The second palace we went to was the Tirtagangga Water Palace it was smaller but more ornate. The next stop of the day was at a model coffee plantation just outside of Candidasa and right next to Bali Aga village.  We were served 14 different kinds of tea and a cup of regular arabic coffee for free, we also purchased a cup of Luwak coffee for IDR 50,000  (about $5.00 CAD).  It was a little weird to be drinking coffee that had passed through the digestive tract of a civet but it definitely had a very mellow taste to it.  The last stop of the day was at Bali Aga village which is a traditional village where the villagers must marry from within and no visitors are allowed in after dark.  I found it to be nothing more than a tourist trap with a donation required to enter and not much to see other than most of the people were trying to sell weavings and Balinese calendars.  It was not worth the visit.  We did see a very interesting plant that would close its leaves when we touched it.