Ubud with Haruko

We went with Nyoman to pick up Haruko from the airport on Friday night. Haruko is working in busy Jakarta now (since August) so she had to work a full day at school before making her way to Bali to spend the weekend with us.

All we had to do on Friday was spend the morning in the pool and then do the longish walk down Monkey Forest Road to the beautiful Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) Restaurant for lunch.......

 And probably the best Babur Injin (black rice pudding) we've had this week .......

 We noted that the monkeys are always in fine form around the sacred Monkey Forest.

We were very excited to see Haruko again on Friday night but it was after 10.00pm before we got back to Cendana - just time to enjoy a cool drink and a good catch up, overlooking the rice field, before the hotel staff closed off the bar/kitchen for the night.

Haruko was up for a walk on her first morning in Ubud with us (although she's been here many times before herself) so we set off on busy Monkey Forest Road for the Jalan Kejang rice field walk on Saturday morning .......

 It's so good to see this gorgeous young woman again ...........

 We both love these doorways to the Bali family compounds .......

and getting out into the rice fields is nice for Haruko as she has been missing space and nature in hectic Jakarta...

 You don't often come across a chain saw gang in the rice fields of Ubud. We couldn't work out why this work was being done on apparently healthy coconut palms along the cycle path.

 We stopped at the (fairly new) Sweet Orange Warung along the rice walk this morning for a cool drink and a light lunch snack ....

 (Haruko's picture)

before heading back to Ubud on the prettiest stretch of this rice field trek..

 Thank you Haruko for these pictures of us ........

 We were super lucky to get 3 appointments for massages at the Ubud Bodyworks yesterday afternoon. It didn't really surprise us when we found out the Bodyworks is Haruko's favourite massage spa in Ubud too!!

It's funny how EVERYONE gets that same satisfied, spaced out look after a Bodyworks massage session.

 We all rested for a while then enjoyed drinks at sundown on our balcony before heading to nearby Cafe Wayan for dinner. Haruko had never been to this iconic Ubud Restaurant before and she was intrigued by its extensive and beautiful garden setting and its old school traditional menu. We both had duck for dinner as that is a Cafe Wayan specialty. We thought of all those cute ducks we'd seen on the rice field walk this morning as we ate.