Walking...lots of walking

We started our day with an 8 km walk along a ridge and through rice paddies. It was nice to get a feel for the countryside and how country folks live here. Ubud is set in the distant foothills from the volcanic mountains in the center of the island. Streams radiating out from the volcanoes carve deep ravines in the easily erodable soil. As a result, the terrain is a series of parallel streams with ridges in between them. Our path today was wandering along the top of one of those ridges--this one covered by the long grass used to make the thatched roofs common here. The ravines on either side were dense jungle. Very picturesque.

We took in the Museum Neka on the way home. This museum was started by a guy, Neka, who realized after a trip to Europe that museums in other countries had better Balinese art collections that could be found in Bali. He made it his life’s work to build and display a collection of Balinese art that his country could be proud of. Looks like he succeeded--it’s a great museum