July 21 - Downtime in a strange town

July 21 Day 157

                After the boat trip we thought it was wise to leave an unplanned day before flying to Singapore and this was it.  Initially, the plan was to visit any area we missed on our boat trip or wanted to revisit but with the ground still swaying under our feet it was destined to be an unambitious day spent in the town of Lubuan Bajo.

                We had breakfast in the open hut by the kitchen and talked to an older guy with good English whose job it seemed to be keeping the students under control.  We then walked downtown and found that it was small and didn't go too much further than the restaurant where we ate the night before.  We had to turn right when we hit the harbour and saw stalls that probably hosted a night market but was quite inactive in the morning.

                We passed a graveyard that was a dumping ground for BBQ equipment and various garbage.  on the way back we stopped into a small church and talked to a woman there who Meg eventually donated her pencils to, groups of children looking for gifts had not been finding it.  Meg also speculated that the churches in town were quite boxy so as not to call attention to themselves in a Muslim country which has not always been friendly to Christian groups.

                We had no trouble finding our way back and settled in a cafe to do some work on the computer and take a break.  It was still having difficulty charging but we managed to get some stuff done.

                Walking back, we tried to locate a good restaurant mentioned in the guidebook but the town didn't match up with the Google map.  We found a better map at the closed tourist centre and managed to find the place on a quiet sideroad and get a reservation for dinner.  On the way back we had a solid lunch at a local place that had more staff than customers but was willing to revise their dishes to Meg's vegetarian specifications after going through three different staff members before getting one with enough English to understand "is there meat in this?".

                Back at the hotel, Meg napped while I tried to get stuff done.  A summer student was in reception instead of the guy who spoke English and  was trying to print to plane tickets I had e-mailed them.  He was spending a long time staring at them and seemed relieved when I asked to sit at the computer and try to figure it out.  The printed had a pile of papers on it as well as a fair layer of dust but made the right noises.  I had three flights to print out and managed to get the first two done when the printer ran out of paper and no one knew where more might be.  I put my other tickets in again to get two sided print outs but the printer couldn't handle the small picture that was on the e-mail and the e-mail wouldn't let me delete the picture so I gave up.  Printouts were often necessary at airport as security before entering the building required them and wouldn't let you get to the desk without them.  At least we would be alright in Indonesia.

                Back at the room we packed and relaxed until dinner time.  The restaurant was fancy and had a reputation of being one of the best around.  The food was very well presented and was very good up until dessert.  The desserts were fairly plain and the staff had trouble understanding what was wrong with Meg's cafe au lait when it was given to her sans coffee.  Considering how many staff were constantly walking through the place it took a long time to pay our bill as only one person worked the machines.  The first one didn't work and gave us the old wrong PIN error which we knew was the machine's fault. 

                Much of the restaurant was taken up with a large bar which could have been shrunk  to create more table space.  People were even eating in the group room on the side which still held a pile of furniture at one end.

                We had our lights with us for the dark walk back to our room.  We packed for our big travel day, ordered a nice early breakfast and went to bed.

The grounds of our hotel.

July 20 - A piece of paradise and then onto dry land.

July 20 Day 156

                I got up early and did my usual stubbing my toe and banging my head on the way to the bathroom.  Because of the low ceilings and sills on the floor, both of these things happened to the passengers on a daily basis.

                We had breakfast and then headed to our one major stop for the day.  This was a small island where we would snorkel and then land and enjoy the beach or hike to the top of a hill.  Like we did on the waterfall hike, we put our dry stuff in a box which was rowed over to the beach for a later pickup.

                The snorkeling was the best of the trip, with pink stingrays, clown loaches and a wide assortment of other fish in good quantities.  We walked around the nice beach which was on a narrow spit so there were two sandy strips facing in different directions.  We decided to put on our shoes and look at he hill but the path was very worn and people were slipping and crawling as they came down.  Our British friends were among them but said the view was worth the hassle so up we went.

                Going up was slippery so we wet slowly but they weren't kidding.  The water was all shades of blue around us and the setting of our small island surrounded by other ones with lots of white sand and lush vegetation.

                We carefully picked our way down the hill with many short slides and Meg sending time on her backside and getting help from our other boatmates who were going down with us.  We bypassed the souvenir stand although some of the komodo statues were pretty cool and put our dry stuff back into the box.

                We took our time snorkeling back to the boat and the colourful fish were still there.  We changed into our dry stuff back on the boat and started backing for the end of our trip.  We had lunch and were just about to head to port when the Romanian couple crawled out of the water.  They had been missed in our pre-lunch head count and might have been left behind if they had swum any longer.  They reported following some sharks and the crew made them a quick lunch as our regular one was completely devoured.

                n the way to port we organized a tip envelope for the crew and said our goodbyes.  Getting off the boat was tricky as we docked next to other boats and had to walk through narrow spaces on occupied ships to finally get out. 

                Meg was tired so we negotiated a cab to our hotel, which was probably for the best as it would have been a 20 minute walk.  The gardens were lush but the setup was strange with reception being in a little hut in the garden.  The place was huge with nice porches on all the rooms and we enjoyed a proper shower and airing out of our stuff after four days on our boat.  The internet didn't work in our room and you had to go to an open hut where the staff hung out to get it to work.  Our laptop was starting to get ornery as it wouldn't always take a charge when plugged in and was sitting at less than 20% power much of the time.  We also had a tv in the room but were told that the reason we couldn't get any reception on it was that it didn't work.

                After a rest we decided to explore the town and find somewhere to eat dinner.  We stopped by the kitchen, where they really wanted to know what time we would like breakfast.  They explained that they were training a bunch of students from the local high school and needed things to be organized.  This explained why we  didn't have any towels in our room and the woman who showed it to us and carried our bag would not accept a tip.  Almost comically on time, there was a loud crash in the kitchen as one of the trainees learned a loud lesson.

                Finally, one of the English speakers on staff showed us a shortcut from the hotel that took us down a dark alleyway and across a few lawns before hitting the road.  We had no map and followed our intuition to figure out which way was downtown and we turned out to be correct.

                The stores at the beginning of our walk were practical shops aimed at locals but gradually became more trinket/diving shop/ restaurant as we continued.  Someone had ripped off the town with cheap metal panels that covered gaps in the sidewalk but were bent, flimsy and in various states of destruction. 

                By the time we got to our restaurant everything was very touristy and we met our British friends.  They had booked a dive for the next day and had eaten at a local hotel that they said was okay.  We wished them well and went to our recommended place which had various dishes in trays that you could combine how you wanted.  We had no idea how long they had been out there but when they brought out a fresh tray of curry I grabbed that and everything was good.

                The food was nice if a little pricey for Indonesia and the juice we ordered took forever to get to us.  While we waited we watched cloud of mothy flies cluster around the streetlights and wagered whether the people stopping into the dive shops across the way would purchase a trip of not.

                Once our juice came it was delicious, heavy on the fruit, light on the water and sugar.  The walk back was warm and we took our time.  One side effect of having our boat trip was that for a solid week afterwards the room or street that we were on seemed to move like waves underneath us until our bodies adapted to being on land again.

                We found our shortcut back, being careful not to touch a stray, stripped wire that hung down in our way.  Back in the room we climbed into our bed that seemed to be moving like a lifeboat and floated off to sleep.

The view from the top of the hill.

We don't know why these were here, but they made for a good picture.

July 19 - Komodo dragons - drugged or not?

July 19 Day 155

                The boat was stopped when we got up and indeed, the remaining days were calm and no more seasickness was to be had.  Our guide suggested to us after breakfast that we could go to Komodo Island first, while the other boats were at the Pink Beach and beat the crowds.  This sounded like a good idea to us, so off we chugged.

                The island had a proper dock and we went to the receiving area, which had some rules, a big dragon statue, washrooms and other cabins and a large map of the area.  We had three guides with our group and had to decide whether to take the long, short or medium path.  We opted for the long, figuring that would maximize our chances of spotting the dragon.

                We walked along the path with guides at the front, rear and middle of our group.  The island was hot and arid with lots of brown grass and dust.  We were shown a komodo nest, which was a big mound of dirt.  We were told that upon hatching the dragons live in the trees for two years to keep from being eaten by their parents.

                The guide at the back kept going off the trail to look for dragons and we left the long path to go to a likely area but what we got was an hour long hike that was very hot but dragonless.  We saw some wild pigs running away from us and were told that they had been brought to the island as dragon food, lucky them.

                As we came back to the park area we walked by two deer who just looked at us even though we were only a few metres away from them, making us wonder if there was something wrong with them.  Beside the main cafe were two dragons and speculation was that they were drugged and kept close to services do that tourists could be sure of at least seeing something and then spend their money on overpriced food.  They were pretty sluggish but the guides stayed between the tourists and the beasts.  Not having seen them in the wild, it was hard to tell how sluggish they were compared to normal but their location was awfully suspect.

                We walked back through the gauntlet of souvenir vendors and made it back to our boat, disappointed but safe.  We headed back to the pink beach which our sister ships had left but others were exploring.  Our guide pointed us in the direction of he best snorkeling and said that we could walk along the beach if we wanted to.  The snorkeling was good, with the highlight being a cluster of rainbow parrot fish and the beach was nice but unspectacular.  The pink colour was subtle, nowhere near as impressive as PEI beaches.

                After docking in the area for a bit we headed out in late afternoon to XX Island, which was famous for its sunset views.  Our transfer to the beach was slow as our boat could only do 4 people at a time but other boats helped once they landed their own passengers.  We saw deer walking along this beach as well and they also let us come close to us as they munched on discarded coconuts and other organic waste.

                The path up the hill started off very well set with clear steps and the occasional platform to view the surroundings.  We stopped off just before the path got rougher on a high platform with and almost 360 degree view of the area.  people coming down from the higher perch told us that it was slightly obstructed and we had the better view anyway, which consoled us.

                The view was quite spectacular.  The strangely shaped island allowed you to see three bays of varying hues of white and blue with the cloudy setting sun behind.  The air was clear and cool and it was a spectacular place with lots of space for everyone from the various ships to stake a decent place.  We hung out and chatted with the two British guys and took some nice pictures.  The only drawback was that the German-New Zealand contingent from our boat with the visible buttocks sat next to us with their Bluetooth and chainsmoked, but we didn't let it ruin the moment.

                We went back down before it got too dark and met the woman I had spoken to on the boat in rough seas the day before.  She and Meg hit it off immediately and Meg gave her extensive career advice that she seemed to appreciate.

                We walked by the docile deer and waited our turn to be shuttled back to the boat.  After such a busy day the dinner feeding frenzy was more voracious than normal and little was left.  This might also have been due to the fact that no one was seasick and everyone was eating.  We compared notes for the day and it turned out our boat had made the wrong decision as the others had seen several dragons on their hikes after we had left the island.  Oh well.

                We went to bed at a decent time, as fatigue not sickness guided the decision.  There was no motor to drown out the people on the open deck but our earbuds worked wonders and we slept well once again.

Meg greets the symbolic dragon.

I bravely crouch in the vicinity of a real one.

The three bays, count 'em!

July 18 - Waterfalls and Queasiness

July 18 Day 154

                I got up well before most of my compatriots and staked out a prime spot on a bench to do reading.  Breakfast was the one meal where food was brought to you individually since everyone got up at their leisure.  Coffee and tea were self-serve and we chugged along throughout the morning.  We chatted with more of our boatmates, including a Romanian couple that included a social worker and a guy with the largest mutton chop sideburns I'd ever seen and two British guys who kept to themselves (surprising, since many of the single women aboard spent the day in tiny bikinis which let you know the exact shape of their buttocks whether you wanted to or not) but were friendly and interesting, having made money by working in a mine in Australia.

                Meg was feeling a little better but this was again a day of chugging along and making time.  We had one major stop, where we jumped off the boat and swam to the shore.  One of our crew brought shoes, cameras and clothes that we wanted to keep dry and we put them on.  We hiked to a waterfall along a well-worn trail but weren't told that it crossed a stream several times.  I had my sandals but Meg wore sneakers and socks, which were soon soaked to the point where the sneakers contracted a stink she was unfamiliar with.

                The trail itself was nice and the waterfall was notable for the tub-like pools the water collected in created by volcanic formation.  The groups were led up and across the waterfall through hand over hand climbing on wet rocks.  If I were 25 I would have quickly joined he queue but at this point the risk didn't seem to outweigh the benefit and we enjoyed the view from below with a group of like-minded tourists.

                Everywhere we went we were joined by 3 other boats, probably mad eup of the other people in that cafe we started in.  We traveled the same route and probably paid the same price but the other boats seemed to be newer and better outfitted than ours.  people noticed this but didn't seem too upset.  They probably weren't surprised, as when we first got on the boat, about half of the passengers told about being promised cabins when they paid to be told they only had deck accommodations upon arrival.  We booked two weeks in advance and were told that no cabins were available.  The boat only had space for 4 people in one cabin and that went on a first come first served arrangement.  Such is the way of Indonesian travel.

                Most of the day was spent following the coastline, and we went by many lovely beaches with tropical forests and distant mountains behind.  Often though, one's attention went to the large amount of trash floating by us in the water even when we were far away from shore.

                Our second stop on day two was to do some snorkeling in an area frequented by manta rays.  Again, all of our cluster of boats were there and the water was crowded with swimmers.  Once I jumped in, I immediately saw two of the giants swimming beneath me and a group of us followed them along their path.  They were barely moving their fins but you had to swim hard to keep up with them and eventually they got away from us.

                I followed the largest pack of swimmers and found they were following nothing so looked for split off groups heading in an odd direction and managed to spot another one.  Following it became more difficult as the waves picked up and word soon got around that we were to get pack into our boats as the sea was too rough.  I was swimming back to ours when a motorboat from another ship insisted I grab ob with a group from another ship.  A few of us hopped into the boat but many of the swimmers couldn't.  We chatted about what we saw and eventually I was able to spot my boat and got dropped off, the last one of our entourage.

                The rest of the day was sent making time and the constant rocking started to get to me.  Meg was able to come down for  dinner and  I remembered that the day before choking some food down made me feel better.  It didn't work this time and I was sick over the side.  I immediately felt better and was able to eat some watermelon and plain rice before retiring to bed early.  I was glad for my earbuds and the rocking of the boat eventually allowed me to get some sleep.  Our guide on the ship (the only crew member with any English) Ishan, said that after the first two days we would be in calmer waters and the ride would get much smoother.  I  hoped so and so did my many fellow passengers who also headed to bed early to sleep off their seasickness.

Our boat!

The waterfall!

A sunset!

July 17 - Starting our budget boat cruise

July 17 Day 153

                We woke up and had a hearty breakfast at the fancy hotel next door to us.  They had a pool off the restaurant and a skyline of Sydney painted on one wall as well as a very attentive staff.

                We packed up and I headed to the hotel where we were to be picked up right on time.  We waited for about 20 minutes until the desk clerk said there was a call for me and that the shuttle had left without us.  I asserted that we had been on time and the shuttle must have left early.  It was no matter as they sent another driver who was very nice and got us to the dock in about half an hour.

                Once there, we waited for more than an hour in a room with a bunch of other people.  We poke with Artemis, who would be on our boat and was a Swiss Kurd who was also a social worker so lots of overlap with our experience. 

                We paid with a pile of cash that we had been saving up from multiple ATM trips over the last week.  We also had to pay for non-covered items we would want on the boat and so had to figure out how many beers, juices and snacks we would want and pay up front.  The guy collecting the money said he would give us change but never did, part of his "commission" we figured.

                Finally we got going onto the dock to our boat.  It was fairly small, with a closed deck without enough seating for everyone opening onto a small open deck with a ladder to a larger open deck.  On the main floor was the captain's deck with a cooler and cases of water in front of it (we were allotted 6 bottles per person).  Behind this was a cubby for four people to sleep in followed by the kitchen and two washrooms, one western and one squat.  Above this was a large enclosed space strewn with mattresses where most of the 30 passengers would sleep.  We grabbed a spot close to the ladder for easy washroom access and plopped our things there.  Big backpacks went under the main floor and could be accessed if you forgot something, but not easily.

                The first day was mainly about making distance with one spot to jump in the water and swim.  Most people went onto the open deck to hang out and we were really surprised by the large number of smokers among the young travelers, more than half of them puffing away.  People were from all over, German, Dutch, New Zealanders etc.  There were a few people out age but most folks were in their 20s but friendly enough.

                Lunch was served and the food on board was pretty good.  They'd put it on a tablecloth in the covered area and people would serve themselves as best they could.  For the first day we were on open seas and the boat was quite rocky.  One Chinese woman was really sick looking and Meg had to lie down by mid-afternoon.  At dinner I felt better after choking down some food but Meg couldn't eat.  In the early evening they arranged a dropoff for the sick Chinese woman and her friend so they could land and make their way back to Bali.  Meg decided to try toughing out the trip and stayed in bed.  The Chinese women were disappointed but gave us their extra nausea pills as they figured they wouldn't be doing any more boating.

                I went to bed ahead of most people but some were also feeling bad and were reading on their mattresses.  Our spot was just behind the open deck but we couldn't hear anyone because of the drone of the boat's motor.  I put in my earbuds and managed to be rocked to sleep before too long.

Our ship and some of the passengers.

Our luxurious sleeping quarters.

The view was quite stunning.

July 16 - Scams and sunsets

July 16 Day 152

                We got up early and were happy to find that our hosts had left us pancakes and fruit in their fridge and we made some instant coffee so that we could breakfast while we packed.  We got to the curb for 7 am and had a good long wait for the 1 hour window we were given for our shuttle pickup.  It was nice how the local shopkeepers and people living in the temple checked in on us as we waited and made sure we were okay.  Considering how sullen out travel again was we were wondering if our tickets were fake but just before 8 o'clock we were indeed picked up.

                As on the arrival to Ubud the scenery was lush with rice paddies and small towns full of temples, it seems that this is the main flavour of Bali.  The shuttle left us at a dock town by the ocean where we would transfer to our boat.  most people were taking a fast boat to the Gili Islands, which we were now missing since we decided to go to Singapore.  The guy at the office suggested we take a fast boat and offered to only charge the difference between our slow boat tickets.  He said that the boat would take us to a dock which was only a $1, 10 minute cab ride to Senggigi, where we had a hotel for teh night.  This sounded good so we went for it as it meant that we would get to our place before noon rather than at the originally planned 5 pm.

                We walked with a group onto the large boat along a crowded dock and almost missed the boat because other ships had lineups that blocked everyone else because no one was managing them.  Once we found our boat they tossed our backpacks into storage at the front and we went down into the boat, which was crowded and set very low in the water so that during your fast (2 hour) ride your view would just be through dirty plexiglass windows.  I had to use the bathroom and while I was gone Meg chatted with staff on the boat. 

                She talked about the short ride to Senggigi and the staff said that it was more than an hour by cab and that it would cost more than $20.  Annoyed at being lied to, we demanded that they retrieve our bags so that we could go to the office for a refund.  To assuage us, one of the staff members promised that he would get us our $1 cab ride but we weren't in the mood to be further lied to. 

                We figured that they must have phoned the office about our complaint as the guy had our refund in hand although the female staffer insisted it wasn't a lie, using Trumpian logic.  They weren't happy that we chose the slow boat, probably we cost them their commission.  The guy who was assigned to show us to the slow boat was unfriendly and directed us by driving ahead of us on a scooter and yelling at us to hurry up.  When we asked about being met at the ferry dock on the other side he grouchily insisted that someone would be there without giving details.  We remained skeptical.

                We walked onto the slow ferry and found that the main seating area was crowded and smoky with people or bags on every seat.  There were benches on the side, also full, so we went upstairs to a covered deck with few people.  Here we grabbed a mattress to sit on the ground until a few sleazy-looking young guys showed up and told us it cost $5 to rent the mattress for the trip.  We were in scam caution mode but they gave the same message to two other groups of tourists and insisted it was the same price for Indonesians.  We thought that we saw some locals getting mattresses for free but at least we had not-smoky space on the deck.

                Meg started chatting to the guy sitting beside us who was on the ground.  He was taking some plants home to make bonzais out of.  he told us that he didn't have a mat because they indeed cost $5, except for truckers, who got to sleep for free.  This made sense for our situations and we settled down for the trip.

                The ferry took more than 5 hours, as opposed to the two hours for the fast boat.  From what we heard, the fast boat was a stomache wrencher whereas the slow boat was a gentle ride.  We napped, snacked and got a lot of our books read, changing positions on our mat.  At least we had way more room than on an airplane.

                We got to know the washrooms pretty well.  when the locals refused to use one of the men's because of the bad smell, I didn't need to check for myself and lined up for the decent one.  The fact that several women were using the good men's bathroom made sense after Meg told me that the door to the women's wouldn't close and she was interrupted several times while trying to use the facilities.  Later, when she tried to use the men's, one of the staff stopped her and insisted that no one would walk in her in the women's, of course doing nothing to back up his promise.

                We were anxious about being met and held up our receipt to everyone on the other side as we walked from the ship.  A guy found us and directed us to a driver, who drove like a maniac to get us to Senggigi in less than an hour. 

                Our hotel had no record of our booking o I had to log into the laptop to show them.  The problem was easily solved and we had a nice, clean modern room there.  We freshened up for a bit and then walked down to the beach to enjoy the sunset.  You had to walk by a short gauntlet of vendors to get to a sandy beach with a wharf and several boats anchored.  A few kids were swimming but most people were ont he beach, which was lined with businesses.  There was a sort of market area that had few people in it followed by a series of posh looking restaurants with touts trying to stter you in.  At the end was a very posh restaurant with sky high prices. 

                We settled at a moderately overpriced place which set up a table on the sand for us with a view of the water.  The sun had already set but the colours over the far away mountains were striking and ever-changing.  Also striking was a table of four young women between us and the beach, who ignored the sunset and each other and silently poked their phones.  Why were they paying for a view they were ignoring was beyond us.

                Our meal was decent with a great view and excellent service.  They served a wine from Bali which was surprisingly good.  We wondered, though, whether it really was from Bali or if it was like the Bhutanese wine which was imported from France and merely blended and bottled in Bhutan.

                The walk back to our room was uneventful and we packed before bed so that we would be ready for our big boat trip the next day.

Nice sunset after a busy travelling day.

July 15 - Yoga and more dancing

July 15 day 151

                We got up and couldn't find out hosts anywhere, which was a problem as we wanted to go to an early yoga class.  I wandered through the site and a man directed me to a woman in a kitchen who started preparing our breakfast.  Half an hour later it still hadn't made it to our room so I went up to get it and she was just finishing up.  I took it to our room and we quickly gobbled it up.  We were supposed to be half an hour early to register for the yoga class but we figured if we were 10 minutes late it wouldn't be a big deal.

                It wasn't.  After finding the class we joined the line and got in, no problem.  It was fun going there as you saw people in tights or with mats converging from all directions to the Yoga Barn.

                The class was in a beautiful space and run by a very fit dude.  All levels of yogaers were there but they definitely skewed young and female.  The course was good exercise but Meg was disappointed that it wasn't 90 minutes long.  I was just happy that I didn't have the pain from my double pinched nerve that I had in Columbia.

                After class we headed back, changed and then went onto the main street to get some errands done.  We got our transport to Lombok set up by the most unenthusiastic travel agent we'd ever dealt with.  We then poked our noses around some shops and had a nice lunch of Indonesian appetizers.

                We were planning on seeing another performance of the fire/monkey/trance dance in a little village outside of town.  Meg asked our Floridian/Indonesian laundry guy how we should do it and he suggested letting our hotel owners set it up so that they could get a cut and we could support a local driver.  We did this and she said she'd take care of it.  Unfortunately Ogur texted us to say he was seeing a house that evening and couldn't make it.  We were going to have to enjoy it on our own.

                Our ride was there 30 minutes before the performance and the owner said that we'd have to talk to him about the price.  He was a local shopowner and was charging more than we expected but wouldn't budge.  It was too late to find an alternative so we took it.  It wasn't much by Canadian standards ($13) but we did feel a little taken advantage of.         

                He dropped us off at the village temple and we sat in a ring of chairs, front row this time!  It was outdoors and the flames were going as more and more tourists filed in.  Once they got going we were surprised to see twice the number of choristers - it had to be close to 100 - file in and take their places around the fire.

                The story was the same but we heard subtle differences n the music and the structure of the story.  It was still mesmerizing and the large number of choristers meant that the sound really enveloped you once they got going.

                In the middle of the performance it started to pour rain so everyone grabbed their chairs and scooted to a covered area not far away.  We were directed into a new circle and Meg and I got separated in the process.  They started the dance again but I had some losers behind me who kept talking through everything.  After being glared at a few times they left early and missed some of the cool stuff that was to come.

                During the demon battle a few dancers came out and started breathing fire in all directions, which got a surprised reaction form the audience.  After that they ended the battle quickly and posed for pictures with the audience.  The rain was lighter now so we quickly found our cab and headed back to our neighbourhood in Ubud.

                We went around the corner to a busy restaurant recommended by our hotel that was always busy.  We checked the menu to make sure that there were veggie options and then waited in line for 10 minutes to get in.  The staff were dashing all over the place to get everyone served and we were surprised to hear that they only had warm big beer so I opted for a small cold one.  The place was famous for their ribs, which were among the best I've had and Meg was satisfied with their vegetarian options.  At one point a woman fell of the bench behind us.  We couldn't figure out how she managed to fall (her head just missed our table) but she was on her phone so I guess any clumsiness can occur.  We walked back to our room and prepared for another early morning for one of our last big days of transit.

The performance outdoors at the temple with the large chorus.

                

We moved inside once the rain started and it was still impressive.

Meg with some of he cast.

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