Ubud is the the cultural heart of Bali. Ubud is one of those places where a holiday of a few days can easily turn into a stay of weeks, months or even years. The size of the town’s expat community attests to this, and so do the many novels and films that have been set here, creative responses to the seductive nature of this most cultured of all Balinese towns. This is a place where traditional Balinese culture imbues every waking moment, where colourful offerings adorn the streets and where the hypnotic strains of gamelan are an ever-present soundtrack to everyday life. It’s also somewhere that is relentlessly on trend – a showcase of sustainable design, mindfulness, culinary inventiveness and the very best that global tourism has to offer.

Our morning started with a dip in the pool before breakfast. We’re enjoying taking a morning, afternoon and evening dip in the pool between our activities. The pool is surrounded by beautiful tropical flowers and looks out over a lush jungle paradise and is splattered with Frangipani flowers that have fallen from the trees overnight. It’s so pleasant to swim in a “floral arrangement.”

Bali is home to tropical flowers and the Balinese people use a large variety of flowers for their daily offerings. Frangipani flowers are often used in the banten, or religious offerings. In almost every house in Bali, people will plant various species of frangipani trees adorned with colorful flowers in various hues. After praying most woman put a flower behind their ear.

Our first expedition stop today is a children’s elementary school. The children greeted us the with bowed heads and hands in prayer pose and then put a Frangipani flower behind each woman’s ear.

We gathered in the outer courtyard and the children welcomed us with a ceremonial dance and then a couple of songs before we went to visit their classrooms.

We explored history of the Mengwi kingdom at the Taman Ayun Temple, which features dozens of multi-tiered Menu shrines and lotus blossoms perfuming the tranquil pools.

I had put in a request for a private visit to the John Hardy workshop and store. Turns out several other people were interested so we had an entire bus load of people joining us.

Jim treated me to a new bracelet for my upcoming birthday. It’s a beautiful silver chain link bracelet with a Grandidierite stone & Diamonds.

Tonight we were supposed to gather for a lecture (snake lecture–I will NOT be attending!!) followed by an À la carte dinner at the hotel. Unfortunately, I read the time wrong and Jim missed the lecture. The snake expert was supposed to take those interested on a snake seeking adventure around the hotel after dinner. I am happy to report they had to cancel that excursion as he couldn’t find any snakes inhabiting the jungle surrounding the hotel.

We enjoyed a duck dinner on the patio with Don & Jeneane. Don had arranged for the chef to prepare a special duck dish for us that they had enjoyed when they visited the island 20 years ago. It was a lovely meal. We sat at a table with a wonderful view of the river.