Yesterday we went on a day trip to a volcano, and had a really good day. We started with an hour long Balinese dance performance which was accompanied by a full gamelan orchestra . I not totally convinced that I am in love with this music, but the dance was good and had pantomime elements in it to appeal to all ages. After the dance went to Batik works, now the two things Rosemarie cannot walk away from easily are fabrics and shoes. This is a known fact. We ended up buying two pieces of fabric, after some negotiation we managed to get a sizeable drop from the starting price, so all in all it could have been worse. The next stop was a silversmith but luckily we bought nothing there or at the stone carvers or woodworkers.
Bali is clearly delineated in term of industrial activities, one village does paintings, one silversmithing, one woodwork, it makes it all dreadfully easy for the tour guide. We drove up to the volcano which luckily for us was only slightly obscured by mist, for as we had lunch the clouds rolled down and you couldn't see it all. We did see some marvellous layered paddy fields which were worth the day alone. Farming them must be incredibly labour intensive as there was no room for tractors or mechanisation.
We did the tour with another young couple John and Rachel who are both wanting to be PE teachers and they were very good company. In the afternoon we visited an 11th century Hindu temple. Until arriving here we had no idea that Bali was a Hindu island, we thought it would be Muslim like the rest of Indonesia.
After returning to our hotel we decided to book another trip to the north of the island for Wednesday on the grounds that we may never come again so take the chance whilst you can.
In the evening we walked into Sanur, this proved to be a mistake as Rosemarie managed to buy a pair of shoes. Jackpot!!!! Material and shoes in the same day.
There are a lot of European restaurants here, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch and a Bali Pub!! We did find a restaurant and a hotel called the Swastika restaurant/hotel and we both said that nothing would make us eat there.I know the Greeks had the Swastika before the Nazis appropriated it, and I think it was originally a sign of peace, but it strikes me that it is an unfortunate name in a town which clearly has a lot of European visitors.We wandered back to the little restaurant we have used before and had satay which was really good.