Bali - Day 3 and 4

Day 3 , we went white water rafting. Rushil and I were apprehensive, I because I wasn't sure if it was safe and I thought it would be too hot and Rushil because it is something new and he wasn't sure what to expect. Sindhu and Prasad were of course dying to go! Sutra from Bali Bagus Travels drove us to the Agung River and we had an interesting discussion on Balinese culture on the drive up. Nyoman was our happy go lucky white water rafting guide and had proper life jackets, helmets and a proper protocol to follow when we went down the grade 1-2 rapids, we felt pretty safe. Rushil was initially scared when we went down the first rapid but eventually, he got used to it and enjoyed the rest of the ride. We stopped along the way for coconut juice and drinks. The stone was carved with scenes from Hindu mythology along parts of the river and it was quite impressive. The carvers started 5 years back and and they were still continuing to carve the stone along the river. It was an exhausting rafting trip as we did quite a bit of rowing although Prasad counted me as only a 1/2 rower but I beg to differ. There was an excellent vegetarian lunch waiting for us at the end of the trip. The walk down to the river was 400 steps and Nyoman joked how we would get a discount on the walk back up, only 200 steps. After we reached the river, my legs were shaking but later after the rafting was over, going back up, I realized how out of shape I was. The kids and Prasad easily made it to the top but I huffed and puffed my way up. I had to listen to Nyoman explain how his wife who worked at the lunch place walked up and down the steps till she was 8.5 months pregant! On our way back to Nusa Dua we visited a few of the Ubud artistic villages. We visited Celuk, a village specializing in silver/gold, Batuan for traditional painting and Batubulan for batik clothing. Sindhu really enjoyed visiting the villages as they had the artists show us how they made the jewelry, batiks and paintings. We found the prices were exorbitant. Bali art in general was pricier than I had thought it would be. We purchased one painting and bargained it down to less than 40% of the original price and later thought we could have gone down even more. That evening, Prasad and I craved Indian food (after only 3 days) and ordered in from a restaurant in Nusa Dua called Indian Dhaba, the food was pretty decent.

We relaxed most of the next day, kids hung out the pool and Sindhu and Prasad went snorkeling in the middle of the sea. Initially Sindhu was scared and refused to go into the water but after watching Prasad do a few rounds around the boat, she obliged and later admitted it was one of the best parts of the trip. For dinner, we went to Bumbu Bali. They had a vegetarian section in the menu, big bonus!!! but found the restaurant to be a bit pricey compared to some of the other local restaurants.