The ATV Ride

day 2 : 12th July 2011

Ain't it great to have a room facing the pool? I opened up my room's door to let the water element flood into my room as I prepped for the day.



Loved the carefully planned details in a small space. The hanging garden & plants surrounding the pool gave a sense of serenity.


Breakfast was simple. Toast with cheese, butter & scrambled eggs. Fruits & orange juice for some Vit C boost.


We headed straight to the ATV ride. The bustling city was slowly replaced with stretches of paddy fields. I fell asleep along the more than an hour journey. As our Grand Livina came to a halt, I woke up to a lush greenery. I stepped out of the car & took in a deep breath of fresh air. Ahhh...it's so cooling here too.

The place looked better than 3 years ago. It now has a proper dining area & washrooms


My pledges...

1. I must not try any Fast & Furious stunts
2. I must not run over monkeys
3. I must not tail gate
4. I must not over take another vehicle
5. I must not throw stuff at monkeys
6. I must stop when villagers are crossing the road
7. I must stop when the chicken is crossing the road
8. I must stop when cows are crossing the road
.....
.....
.....

Local meal before our ride. I always loved Indo Mee

Cool rides

All geared up! The place now has a fully automatic all terrain vehicle. 3 years ago, we only had the semi automatic ones

A few training laps and we were off! Weee.....hooo....



Wow! A kid appeared from nowhere in the middle of the forest

Bare-footed kids playing with self made kites & "lastik". We distributed pencils & erasers to them as they looked curiously at their new "toys".



We came across these 2 little girls. They were seen busy working away in their family farm pulling out weeds & cutting shrubs. The look on their faces as we passed them the goodies were priceless :)

A typical house in the village. Hidden between bushes & trees

Kids jumping with joy as they get their goodies

These kids were seen hanging out by the road side having their white rice wrapped in banana leaf

A mother & her baby giving us the most sincere smile

Paddy field within the village

Hello mates! This couple was behind us earlier but has over taken us. They are now heading back. Hey, I thought no over taking :p

Heading deeper into the village

Our guide whom I crappily forgot his name. Let's call him Din for now.

It started to drizzle a little bit and we stopped by a shed. I believe these are toilets. As we waited for the rain to stop, we had a nice chat with our guide.

Here's Din's story...


Villagers here live a simple life. Plantation is their main source of income and survival.
The paddy fields we've seen is merely for the villagers' own consumption. There isn't enough for them to sell. Sure enough, villagers were seen toiling in their field without any sign of machine invasion.

Banana trees here are considered a more lucrative source of income. Apart from the fruit, their leaves are highly sought after by restaurants.

The village also strive on the abundance from the forest

While poultry were scattered around the village. Cow dungs were made into natural fertilizer

For entertainment, kids go fly kites while adults enjoy cock fighting. I wonder apart from that, what else they do? Normally, I would see people sitting outside of their house chatting or just relaxing while waiting for their trees to grow.

Din told us people don't worry that much here. If they did not earn anything today, it's fine as long as the family still have rice for dinner today. If they run out of rice, they can always borrow from their neighbours. No fuss at all & no worries. Just strive to do better tomorrow.

Even they had very little in their life, they are all happy & smiley. These villagers live for today and don't worry about tomorrow. No worries, no problem. Din said some visitors don't get this. I think we really should practice this once in awhile.

If many of us city folks realized this small fact, we shouldn't have suffered so much from depression, anxiety, heart attack, high blood pressure, migraine....the list of these illnesses goes on which sounded very alien for the villagers here.

"What if someone got really sick? There's no hospital or clinic anywhere here", I asked

Din said "We have a healer here using traditional methods but villagers rarely fall ill. Even if they do, it's very minor that the healer can easily fix. No worries, no problem"

I was being attacked by mosquitoes! While I applied the second layer of repellent, Din smiled and said the mosquitoes here are harmless. No Aedes mosquitoes.

I asked if they have more mosquitoes at night. He replied "Well even if they got bitten, it's fine. The redness & itch will quickly go away. No worries, no problem" :)


We headed back as the rain subsided. The kids were back chasing after our vehicle
A little girl plucked a flower from her house garden & gave it to me. I was like..."how sweet"
Then, her hands were at my face while she exclaimed "Money! Money!"
Suddenly, all the kids surrounded us and keep saying "Money! Money!"

This mother & a few kids were also lining up by the road side and asking for money.
3 years ago, kids were just happily waving at us but now...omg...they are now corrupted!

I wonder whose fault is this?
Their parents or the visitors to the village?


Even though I feel for them, this shouldn't be encouraged. No one wants to go to a place with the entire village coming after you begging for money. It'll spoil the image of an otherwise beautiful village.

As we headed back, suddenly my ATV just came to an abrupt stop. It just refused to move at all.
Din investigated & found out mine was out of gas. Din sent an SOS message.

SOS to the rescue!

It was a thrilling ride back. The rain just subsided and the air was cool. We went faster to enjoy the gush of cool breeze on us.

After washing up a little bit, it's time to say goodbye. We came across this fat little bear. Actually he's a shy little pup that looks like a bear. So cute & cuddly.

Next, we headed to Ubud for some good old shopping

Here we are at the Ubud Market. I read that this is one of the location for the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" starring Julia Roberts. I gotta watch that movie some time.

Ubud market still looked exactly the way I remembered it

Getting some slippers

It's dinner time! We headed to this nice little restaurant in Ubud to enjoy our "Bebek Kotor" aka Dirty Duck. I asked our driver Wayan why it's called Dirty Duck? Is it really dirty?

Wayan laughed and said Bebek Kotor are the kampung ducks. These kampung ducks normally like to play in the muddy paddy field and that's where they get their name.

I've never been to this restaurant before and it's beautiful

With well manicured garden, it even has a miniature paddy field inside

They also had a small little garden featuring a variety of local vegetables

Across this tiny irrigation, sprawled a large paddy field

My dining area

The best Bebek Kotor I've tasted served with crackers, vegetable and spices. So crispy & yummy!

We also got a 5-star treatment in this restaurant. The food were carefully passed from one waitress to the head waiter serving us. Then, they checked on us from time to time. They even had waiters and waitresses taking turns standing nearby ready to attend to us. Though I am really not used to these kind of attention while I am eating.

After dinner, we headed to this place for more souveniers

Though there are a lot of things here but I wasn't really excited with the products. I barely got anything


As our driver dropped us back to our hotel, I saw this pretty little shop just next to our hotel.
I decided to check it out and was overwhelmed with the variety of colours and bead works in this shop. I was sooo excited and wanted all of those pretty bangles, earrings, purse, necklace all intricately handmade with colourful beads.

The owner was a friendly dude who is the first entrepreneur I've met in Bali. And the first Balinese I see wearing glasses! He has customers from overseas so the product is non allergic & has a higher quality. I like!

While I was admiring his shop, he was busy receiving calls from his overseas clients. He said sometimes, he got to stay up for his customers due to the time difference. Now, that's familiar to me :)

He is so nice to let me spend a little time in his shop even though he closes 2 hours ago.
"No problem. I just live across the street!" he said