July 6
Our chauffeur picked us up at our hotel in Munduk. Or least that’s how it felt. Our driver looked at least middle-class and he drove a new SUV. We only paid $10/each. And we were the only passengers. What a deal!
We arrived in Ubud and stayed at the Ubud Sari Health Resort. We decided to splurge a little bit in our final week together. Sari was $40/night and for that we got complementary vegeartian breakfast, steam room, sauna, pool, and modern room. Sick! However, our room wasn’t ready yet, so we ran some errands.
We rented a motorbike for $3/day--an excellent price. Also, it was the first time anyone asked to see my international driver license. I was a motorbike pro now; we wouldn’t be hoofing it around Ubud on our feet this time.
We checked out the batik lessons. I met the master teacher; he was a jolly, old, wise man. I put down a deposit for tomorrow.
We lounged at casa luna drinking our health tonics.
We returned to Sari and got a welcome drink of watermelon squeezed juice--nice touch. Then we dipped into the old whirlpool for 10 min and then steam room and sauna. I felt healthy to say the least.
We had a fancy dinner. I ordered duck (the local specialty). And it was excellent.
July 7
We started our day with Sari’s complementary breakfast brought to our room--all fresh and organic.
I took the batik course with the wise old jolly man. I painted a picture of a couple on a beach overlooking the sunset. He left me this pearl of wisdom: “add life to your years.”
We ended the evening with an excellent full-moon kecak show. The guys went all out with the fire. One guy picked up a fiery coconut, kick it to some other guys, rubbed the soot on his face, and played around with the first row audience--all while chanting and screaming in the native tongue. Then he got lost in himself for a bit, perhaps in a trance. It was quite a cultural experience.
July 8
Jameelah took Balinese dance lessons for an hour this morning. Unfortunately, it was a bunch of fluff. The teacher was competent in the art form. But she was late, took too many breaks, and tried to upsell Jameelah on more lessons.
Lady, let the teaching speak for itself. And the style of dancing is slow; no need for numerous breaks over the course of an hour--actually 40 minutes, since you were late and kept taking breaks, and talked about all the things that could be learned in future lessons. Just my two cents! 
We ate at an Indian restaraunt that night. I got the chicken tikka masala. It was amazing. Jameelah found her new favorite food: garlic naan bread.
We saw a Barong show with puppets; it was okay. It was dependent on Indonesian words; only Indonesians in the audience laughed at stuff. It was the hardest play to follow out of all the ones we saw in Ubud.
