Bali Day 5

Gave Komang the day off today. He said he would go to his village which is 3 hours away and see his wife and son. She is working the rice fields there while he stays local. I wanted to get some hiking energy going so I went on a 2.5 mile ridge walk called “Campuhan Ridge Walk”. It was a little bit of a walk down the road from the hotel to get to the hike. I was following AllTrails directions and actually passed by the entrance. I stopped and asked a local guy where it was. He wasn’t sure but a freelance taxi guy stopped and asked if I needed a ride. I told him maybe later to the zoo. I asked him if he knew where the trail was and he told me, and then, of course, offered his service to give me a ride to and from the zoo. Gave me his business card for me to call him when I got back to the hotel. Got to the trail. Paved stones all the way. Just a basic walk through nature with not much exciting things to see. Some rice fields at the very end and just walking by people’s homes. Took a couple pictures of locals along the way. I always ask them if it is okay if I take their picture. Rained a little bit off and on during the walk. Just drizzling instead of a downpour like earlier this morning, and the last couple days. A little shop on the way, there was an older gentlemen that is an artist. He had many paintings and painted wooden eggs. I watched him paint one and took his picture because I was going to buy one to give to Steven and Emma. I got back to the hotel after the hike, changed clothes and gave that driver a call to pick me up. His English was not very good at all, but just enough to communicate. He was willing to wait at the zoo until I was finished and then bring me back to the hotel. I invited him to go into the zoo with me. I thought it was stupid for him to just sit in the car and wait for a few hours. He walked around for a while with me and then it started drizzling so he asked if he could go to the car and wait. I finished seeing the rest of the main zoo and then took a shuttle bus up the hill to the area where they have the elephants, tigers and orangutans. I finished up at the zoo and headed back to the hotel. I was going to have him stop somewhere and buy us lunch. He stopped at this restaurant but it was too fancy. Short table like Japanese style with pillows for seats. I looked at the menu and it was “fancy” foods, so I decided to leave. Told the driver to pick somewhere not so fancy but he didn’t seem to know places like Komang did, so I just had him drop me off at the hotel. It ended up being a 14 mile round trip, which of course takes longer because of the roads and I paid him 400,000 rupiah which was around $26 dollars. Back at the hotel, I decided to go across the street to that bar again and have a few beers. It was around 5:30 so I stayed there and wrote in my journal. Live music was starting at 8pm, so I decided to hang out and listen. I stayed there until 10:30pm. Pretty good little band. Headed back to the hotel to sleep and get ready for another day of exploring.