Rice Paddies of Ubud

After our cooking lesson and market tour, Martha and spent some time just bopping around Ubud, checking out some of the intricate Balinese art at the Museum Puri Lukisan, eating, and doing some shopping and admiring the scenery off the main drags.

Our jumping off point was a cute hotel on Monkey Forest Road, Pondok Pundi Village Inn.  The rooms are on the edge of a pretty little valley and to get to them you walk through the compound and temple of the owner's family, which is quite pretty:

But also a bit funny, because you saw stuff like this below.  So similar to home with the Lay-Z-Boy on the front porch... and yet such a different porch:

 

We did some eating, including my favorite, Ibu Oka's babi guling... oh, how I love babi guling.  Delicious tender pork that has been spiced-stuffed, spit-roasted, and caramelized.  So good:

 

We did some (an understatement, to say the least) shopping at my favorite ikat store:

Then we took a walk through the rice paddies in order to obtain some sunset drinks at Sari Organik restaurant, which is set right in the middle of the paddies.  Why is it that rice paddies are so much more romantic than, say, a field of soybeans or corn?

Martha drank coconut water straight from the source for the first time:

We watched this guy undertaking the back-breaking task of planting the little rice seedlings into neat rows:

And the sun beginning to set, reflected in the paddies:

And then we walked back to town, onto the next adventure: