Helping Flood Victims

Monsoon hit our country hard this year, flooding many villages in the East Coast, and villages near rivers. The OA were badly hit, leaving many stranded in villages without food and water.

My girls and I worked hard to collect items for the OA. The ammount of goods we collected flooded our house so much so we had no space to walk. Thank God for friends who came to help us sort out items....food/clothings/basic necessities etc etc. We loaded more than half of a huge lorry. Many thanks to kind donors who gave.

Nel also followed the team on a 7 hour rough journey, where she helped load items into these boats to be transferred to villagers in need. Proud of her for being willing to help whole heartedly.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015

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Bali -Sanur

Sanur is a little quiet town south of Ubud. The beach is clean, quiet with a long stretch for cycling. Temperature is lovely, and in the evenings when we were there, dipped to about 23C with strong cold winds.
What we loved most about the beach there is that it contains healthy sea grass, and we saw at least 10 different species of starfish. Beautiful ones!!

Nel and cousin enjoying a chat

At low tide, fishermen looking for shells

First ever green starfish we've seen! Beautiful!

We watched in silence as this slug/nudibranch?? slowly moved across our path, between the seagrass. Such grace and beauty. 

Kites in Sanur are LARGE! we watched some village boys fly this kite which must have been at least 30 feet long. The wind is Sanur is very strong, allowing these large kites to take off.

Lunch and dinner by the beach.....seafood there, oh soooo fresh, delicous and reasonably priced!!

The strong cool breeze made it reluctant for us to get back to the hotel and the kids played to their hearts content while the moon rose and shone over the ocean.

Early morning, kids decided to go out kayaking. Jo has always loved survival books, and thought it'd be easy to survive on a canoe/kayak alone. So I decided time to give them a go! Before booking I checked if the company had standby speedboats in case rescue was needed, and they did. So we booked 4 boats.

Hubby and Jo went first to give her a feel. Later Jo tried a solo kayak. She discovered that while books made it sound so easy, it was difficult for her to control her solo kayak against waves and tide which pushed her around!

Being a "mean" mum, I decided to let Nel (unexperienced, first time rower) and her cousin (equally unexperienced) to get their own boat. My thoughts, throw them in and let them figure out the physics of how rowing works.

Off the went, and soon their arms tired out. Current began carrying them further and further away. I watched, calmly still, trying to telepath them positive thoughts in hopes that they'll figure out how to control that boat against the currents. :P

As the currents took them further around the bay, I called on the boat man who promptly sent this speed boat to rescue them! haha......Actually dear hubby also went out on his kayak to rescue the girls. But without his glasses, he went in the total opposite direction!!! And the boat men had to send out a water scooter to call hubby back. That was the adventure of the day! hahaaa

As for myself, I rowed my little nephew out. Out in the deep,  I told him to look down, down into the clear waters. He freaked out and froze.....as I calmly talked to him, he began to relax. But unfit as I am, we didn't go out too far, or else the boat men might have had to rescue me too. ;)

There, now enough of Bali. I'm so behind on updating our activities. So much has come and gone.
Hoping for a wonderful 2015.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015

Bali -Ubud- Part 5

 To get more of Bali, we found a dance teacher who was willing to come by Ani's Villa to teach us Balinese dance. She spent about half hour putting on beautiful sarongs and scarves on us. Sarong wrapped tightly around us, we (especially the girls and friends) had to suddenly become demure, gentle ladies walking only in small steps. :)  The dance wasn't easy as we thought, and it took almost an hour for us to get the routine, that too, not perfectly. Moving the head and eye bit was really tricky! I think instead of looking pretty with the eye movement taught, we would've freaked people out if we performed. Well, we had the dance teacher in stitches! haha

Dance session over, we packed, and sadly the children said goodbye to Ani's Villa which became our second home in Ubud. We headed for a delicous lunch at Murni's Warung. The place is surprising. From the outside it looks small. But step inside, and there are steps descending, and different levels for patrons to dine in.

Following lunch, we made a slight detour to visit our friends in Bambu Indah. Such a beautiful serene place, tucked a distance away from Ubud's town centre.

Came across whale bones

a really really really high tree house at Bambu Indah

Scenery from our friend's unit at Bambu Indah

Finally we bid farewell to our friends whom we hung out with in Ubud, and headed south towards the beach. To be continued........................

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015

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