Ubud

We made it. The landing was much softer in Bali. An official airport taxi (fixed price) whisked us up to Ubud and dropped us off at some friend's guesthouse. At first glance it seemed magnificent! Beautiful gardens and the building is architecturally beautiful. Big porches, a gorgeous pool, carved furniture. Just a little grungy around the edges and the upstairs room was HOT with a weak fan and no ac. We were too tired to fret (except for the two humongous cockroaches in the downstairs room). I set up a mosquitoe net for eden and we crashed.
Our last meal in Thailand, alas, was at a Burger King! They had vege burgers. I got sick. Not too bad, but I had a rough morning today. We took a very long walk into Ubud proper and while the gals had lunch I found us a beautiful new homestay. No pool, but CLEAN and more centrally located. We are staying a second night at the pool place and getting reamed I might add---it's 200,000 rp plus tax, although breakfast is include. Our new place is 50,000 rp and 90,000 for Joyce's penthouse suite, complete with outdoor tub. From her patio we can see into the temple across the street and the proprietor says there will be a big festival tomorrow night. He's cooking for it.
One big difference here is that it's really beautiful. Green and lush, with almost none of the urban grime and ugliness that plauged Thailand. And temples everywhere. And almost every resturaunt and homestay has some fantastic stone facade. I think we'll like it here, once we get our bearings. We've been stuck on kind of a busy road so far. Too tired to explore very far. Also, the money has us a bit flumoxed. It's about 9100rp to the dollar. So our new digs will be about $5.00 and $9.00 respectively (including breakfast!). Our pizzas tonight cost about $2.50. But it's still confusing. People tend not to give exact change--they round up in their own favor. When it's 750rp that seems wrong to us, but then it's only about seven and a half cents! Weird.
Sorry this is so dull, but I spent most of the day laying on our bed.
more later.
love
rob