Day 15 and 16...saving the best for last

Our trip here is quickly coming to an end.  However, we have had some of the best experiences of the trip.

On Monday, the day started with my daughter and I having a bit of a mini-spa day at Sang Spa 2.  I had the first "four handed" massage of my life, and I must say, this is a sensory experience like no other.  It is something that any massage affecianado should do at least once in their lifetime.  My daughter had a very nice mani/pedi.  The location of the spa is excellent...close enough to walk from the main street of Ubud, but far enough to be quiet and peaceful.  A very tranquil experience.  Staff was friendly and warm.  The spa itself was clean, with nice towels and showers for washing off the oil after a massage.

My daughter and I then had lunch at Kue...the same place we had tried a few days earlier.  We both had amazing chocolate desserts.  We both also had vietnamese spring rolls...mine with tofu and hers with beef.  Total cost for everything was 135,000 rupiah, which I thought was a very fair price.  All the food was delicious.

My gluten free chocolate almond torte....21,000 rupiah

My daughter's chocolate mousse cake...as good as it looked.  23,000 rupiah.

We then continued our day with jewelry making at Chez Monique.  The class meets at Sunarta's family compound.  It was a little confusing as to where this was, so I called Sunarta when I thought I was close.  Rather than telling me I was on the right street, he drove his scooter down to me and personally escorted us to the compound.  We were warmly greeted with a hug and big smiles.  He is the nicest guy!

We were given our choice of water or coffee, and set about designing our pieces.  We both settled upon a pendant for a necklace.  It took us both some time to figure out the design, but once we did, the "manufacturing" process was pretty straightforward, aided as we were by Sunarta and his assistant.  It was well worth the cost of 400,000 rupiah each as we left with many memories, and a silver pendant.  It will serve as a reminder of my wonderful Bali vacation for years to come.

The design for my pendant

Working on my piece

Final polishing of my piece

Women carrying their offerings to temple on Sunarta's lane

We returned to the villa, and had a nice dip in the pool before dinner.  Tonight, the chef prepared our choice of salmon or chicken, along with rice, veggies and the green papaya soup.  Dessert was our choice of chocolate mousse or banana cake.  Being a chocoholic, I chose the mousse.  :-)

Tuesday dawned to rain, our last full day in Bali.  My son and I had a very early start as we were doing the Lobong Cooking School class.  We met Sang Made at the Payangan market at 8:15, which required that we leave our villa before 7:30.  I wrote a review of this for Trip Advisor, and I won't repeat eveything here, but suffice to say, this was an A.M.A.Z.I.N.G experience.  My son and I were the only two people in the class, and we were hosted by no fewer than 10 members of the family.  Talk about attention!  We got to participate fully in every aspect of the preparation of the meal we ate.  But, this is far more than a "cooking class."  It provided rare insight into Balinese history and culture, information which was infused throughout the day.  Our hosts were beyond generous with their time and talent.  All questions were answered, and we had many.  If you only do one thing in Bali, this is it, in my opinion.  All this and the BEST meal we had while in Bali.  Total cost for my son and I was 825,000 rupiah.  The whole experience lasted from 8:15 until about 1:00.  Talk about value!

Ferns...we ate a salad made from these.  Delicious!

Fruits from the market

More fruits...some even that I recognize!

The ingredients laid out before we chopped, mixed and cooked

Yellow fin tuna salad...yummy.  I think this was my favorite thing we made.

Chicken sate

My son and I with Chef Dewa

The family matriarch making an offering in the family temple

My son and I with the family matriarch.  She was a delightful person.

We were taken back into central Ubud, where we met our villa driver.  It was back to the villa to begin the sad task of packing for our return trip.  We had one more dinner that evening at the villa (greek salad,  spring rolls, and some sort of chicken dish, with ice cream for dessert).  As usual, it was excellent.

The next morning came too quickly, and we were soon on our way to the airport.  Before we left, all the staff assembled to wish us farewell, and we settled up the final bill.  Again, for those who might be interested, our share for 5 days (eating most meals at the villa) was around $350, or about $70 a day for the four of us. No complaints about that at all!

Our return air trip was noteworthy only for being extremely long.  We left Bali at 1:00 pm, and landed some 22 hours later in San Francisco at 8 pm the same day.  We had a fair amount of turbulence all the way from Hong Kong to San Francisco, and it was difficult to get any sleep because of it.  We stayed one night at an airport hotel (fine), and were to leave for Minneapolis at noon the next day.  Unfortunately, mechanical problems with our plane delayed us for about 5 hours...we didn't arrive home until nearly midnight.

We have a few days to recover from the jet lag before the real world returns on Monday morning...a good thing as we all find ourselves exhausted and a bit out of sorts.

All in all, it was a fabulous trip and one I will long remember.  I hope someday to return to the beautiful island of the gods.