Today, we’re going further north to the countryside. When we arrive at the homestay, we realize we’re really in the middle of nowhere so we decide to rent a scooter from our host. Once again, the vegetation is lush and beautiful and as we are waiting for the scooter, we take a moment to relax. Doo desperately tries to work on our blog, but the host’s cat is begging to be cuddled and the cicadas are making a racket. The cicadas in Nepal were unpleasant. Those here are just attrocious. They sound like an alarm or something. We’ll let you be the judges of it…
Apart from the cicadas, the homestay is beautiful. It is in the middle of the forest. There is a garden, many different fruit trees, a small river and houses for the guests. We already feel it’s unfortunate we’ll only be staying for one night (that’s the inconvenient of planification). When we get the scooter, we head straight to the rice fields. We drive through thick jungles, isolated houses and small lost rice fields. The drive is splendid but… wet. Once again, we are quickly drenched by the pouring rain. Doo can barely see the road through his glasses. When we get to the city, we stop at the only local restaurant, a fast food chain called JFC (Jaya Fried Chicken) for a couple of burgers and chicken nuggets. Then we decide to take a walk through some rice fields. Julia is not that happy because she keeps on slipping. Côme and Doo merrily go down the path into the forest until they meet… leeches. At that point, Côme runs backwards (almost screaming) and is trying to get rid of them. Balinese leeches are more tenacious that Nepalese ones. And Doo is taking a picture while laughing (he will by the way get reprimanded by Julia: “Can’t you help your son instead of taking pictures?! Can’t you see he’s panicking!!! – “But honey, they’re only leeches”). That encounter cut short the stroll though and we head back to the scooter into the city to see the “touristy” rice fields. Then we decide to head back home. It’s getting late and we are just soaked. We’ll go to the temple not far from our house in the morning.
The next day we wake up early (even Doo) because it’s sunny in the morning and we really want to enjoy the scenery before we leave. We head straight to the temple that is about 5km from the homestay. There’s hardly anyone there. When we go buy our tickets, a man tells us we have to dress with the traditional attire (they can lend it to us) but that Côme is forbiden to enter. We are very surprised and ask why. He tells us that children who have not gotten their first teeth fall out cannot enter (so can’t women during their periods, pregnant women, people grieving and people who have killed someone). So Julia and Doo take turn to visit the temple. While Doo is visiting, Julia and Côme meet a meowing dog. Like for real (at least according to them). After the visit, we still have plenty of time to go back to the road we have taken yesterday. This time around, the sun is shining and the scenery is completely different. Julia has just found her little “corner of paradise”: a small farm house in the middle of beautiful rice fields with a river nearby. She was hoping to see beautiful rice fields before the trip and she surely isn’t disappointed. The place looks stunning! In the early afternoon, it’s already time for us to go. Our kind host gives us a small tour of his garden, explaining along the way the different kinds of trees, and then we are off to Munduk…
In Jatiluwih, Côme:
Did not understand: why a dog meowed.
Learnt: how the rice fields were irrigated.
Enjoyed: the cuddle begging cat.
Julia:
Did not understand: why Côme couldn’t enter the temple.
Learnt: what a mango tree looked like.
Loved: her little corner of paradise
Doo:
Did not understand: why the rice fields sometimes smelled like cow but there were no cows to be seen.
Learnt: that Balinese cicadas are the most attrocious cicadas in the world.
Laughed: when Côme the explorer stopped exploring because of leeches.