Day 6: Divide and Conquer

M. and I traded off taking care of both kids today in order to each do a chosen activity, sans kids. This morning, M. took an Indonesian cooking class.  It began with a trip to the local market to learn about the various ingredients. They then cooked a whole whack of dishes, including tuna with raw sambal,  a Balinese style Satay, a prawn curry, and  a chicken curry (his fave).  Of course, the students got to eat all of their creations.  He was also provided with a  cookbook and an apron to take home. All in all, a great experience for him. And hopefully the rest of us will benefit too if he ever makes the food for us at home.

Taking care of both kids on my own, I strapped Little J into the Ergo, grabbed our soccer ball (and Big J ;) and headed for the football field, a central landmark in Ubud.  It’s always full of school children playing, and I figured it would be a great place for Big J to find a game of pee wee pick up soccer.  Indeed, within 2 minutes of being on the field, several boys ran up and started kicking the ball around with him…before they were joined by about 20 of their friends who usurped the ball and played their own game.  Big J needed encouragement to “get in there”, and given that the boys were at least 8 years old, this was no easy feat.  But they were friendly, and he did his best.  He just loved being around other boys.

We then headed for the local library, which is just across the street from the football field.  They had a cute little children’s section (most of the books were in English), and we read some fun books and played with a couple toys. 

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As we left, Big J noticed some boys on the football field flying a big kite.  Kite flying is ubiquitous in Bali, and he’s been anxious to try it.  The boys were kind enough to let him hold the line for a bit as the kite sailed high in the sky.

Kite flying on Ubud's football field

When Little J crashed out in the carrier, we made our way to a small spa to cool off, and for Big J to have a little R and R.  Since he’s always keen to try new things, I had promised him he could try a foot massage.  For those of you who know him well, you are aware of the fact that Big J loves to talk.  In fact, he never stops talking.  But during that 15 minute massage (the women at the spa were kind enough to agree to an abbreviated version), he was silent, save for a couple giggles when he got a little ticklish.  He was totally blissed out, and clearly loved it.  For 25, 000 rupiah, which is essentially $3.00 (of the price of a Starbucks latte, if you want to look at it that way), it was a perfect treat. My camera died before I could capture his blissed out expressions, but I did get one pic.

And this is a boy who NEVER sits still.

After feeding the kids Gado Gado for lunch (a delicious salad of steamed green beans and carrots with hardboiled egg, tempeh, tofu and peanut sauce), I put them down for their naps and M. returned.  It was then my turn to explore.  I had booked our driver Rai to come and take me to some of the outlying craft villages .  This is the artistic core of Bali, and these villages produce wood carvings, silver and basketry.  I’m wanting to buy some stuff for our house, and I thought this would be a shopper’s dream, right?  Actually, no.  The prices were crazy high, although the quality was excellent. But some of the stuff I could buy cheaper at home.  So we headed back to  Ubud, where I spent a couple hours bargaining my way through the local market.  This has always been a fun part of travelling for me, and being at the market close to closing time meant scoring some good deals.  I got a cute little dress for Little J for about $4.

Another great day in Ubud!