Chilling in Ubud

It's my 5th day in Ubud and man this place makes me lazy.
I moved into the Dewi Sri bungalows and my room includes an outdoor patio and bathroom with an enclosed bedroom on the second floor. It's full of bugs, geckos, and a monster lizard I spotted on my thatched roof ceiling this morning. I swear to god at first I thought it was a baby monkey it was so big.

My garden bungalow

I've just wandered around town for the most part. My second day here I met Antoni from Poland who has been traveling the world for 4 years. He showed me the ,out amazing photos and had tons of interesting stories about his travels.  So, I rented a scooter to go to a volcano with Antoni one day. I was pretty scared. The traffic here is intense, for lack of a better word. The only traffic la seems to be 'don't hit the person in front of you'. Also, I don't have an international drivers license. So technically I was breaking the law and had to make sure I carried a decent amount of money to bribe any police that pulled me over.
But it was so fun to get outta the main city and drive myself around.
On our way outta Ubud we accidently came across a huge cremation ceremony that lasted about 2 hours.
There were several groups of musicians playing and women walking around with offerings.
There was a huge shrine to transport the body in and another to burn it. Everyone was smiling and cheerful for the first part of the ceremony. But once the pyre and shrine were lit it became very somber and the mourning began.
It was a humbling thing to see and I was so glad I got to witness such an elaborate and personal part of the Balinese culture.

At the entrance to my hotel

After the cremation we hopped back on the scooters. We never made it to the volcano though. We got sidetracked at these beautiful rice terraces; I didn't want to drive at night so we ended up just driving around a bit.

Morning coffee at the lily pond.

Then I tried to make a u-turn on a tiny road, I panicked, and I suck at driving scooters. Long story short I ate shit in the road.

My dinner partner last night. He drives scooters better than me. So do 8 yr olds.

Everyone, was so sweet and helpful. They picked my scooter up for me and my pieces of shattered sunglasses.  They made a big fuss about my scrapes until I convinced them I was ok.
I jammed my arm pretty good. What shoulda been some scrapes and bruises is instead a massively gimpy arm. It's day 3 and I'm happy to report that I can totally touch my face again. Now I just need to be able to straighten it. I've come to the realization that I'm an old fart. Accident prone and brittle.
So I haven't done much but rest my arm and learn some Indonesian. Actual useful stuff, not the usual swears and curses I normally learn.

Dinner before the dance. Fruit and ice cream hehe

Tonight, I'm going to see a traditional Balinese legong dance. Should be awesome. So far I love Bali.