Ubud to Lovina -- North Bali

Busy, full travel day today! We started out with a traditional Balinese barung dance performance which was easily the highlight of the trip so far. Barung is performed with a Balinese gamelan orchestra, which is quite different from those we saw in Java. The pitch of the instruments is higher, more lively and fast-paced. Barung depicts a story from the Ramayana and has been performed essentially the same way for centuries. It starts out with a priest sprinkling holy water on the stage. Then a lion appears, followed by his friend the monkey. Two servant women appear and are looking for their prime minister. The hero appears and is being chased by demons. Fighting ensues which never really ends. The performance was first rate and in places quite humorous. Then we visited a stone carving center, followed by a visit to a traditional Balinese home complete with temple. This home was beautiful and featured a modern home next to the traditional one. The parents’ bedroom is toward the front of the house so they can monitor the dating activity of the children. Dating couples are expected to be home no later than 11 pm. The kitchen is also in the front. Then we ascended to the hill country again, stopping for lunch at a beautiful resort overlooking terraced rice fields. We visited two more temples including a “floating” temple on a lake. Then we continued to the Gitgit waterfall but on our way, stopped at the coffee plantations where we sampled delicious ginseng coffee and lemon grass tea. Also among the offerings was the famous Lemak coffee which is made from beans processed by the civit cats. The cats are said to eat only the best beans and once they are passed through their systems, the beans are collected. It's a time-consuming process and therefore very expensive. The coffee has tones of chocolate and caramel. Also along the way to the waterfalls, we stopped to see monkeys on the side of the road and feed them jackfruit. We reached Lovina about 5:30 pm. Beautiful resort area which means “Love Indonesia." It's on a black sand beach. Had a very nice traditional Lovina-area dinner at the hotel restaurant and settled in for two nights. Tomorrow is our rest day.