Spiders and snakes and rice, oh my!

So we took a long walk outside of Ubud into the rice paddies this morning. We started early to avoid the mid-day heat, so we were out in the fields by 8 AM. It was gorgeous out there: terraced rice fields separated by narrow pathways and an occasional mini river gorge lined with banana and coconut trees.

PHOTO

It took us just over 3 hours for the roundtrip. And it would have been totally uneventful and maybe a bit shorter if: a) we hadn’t gotten lost (you may ask who can get lost in a totally open landscape like rice paddies, and I answer proudly, “we can!”) and b) we hadn’t come far too close to many a creepy, crawly beasts.

First, the creepy crawlies. We were trotting along a narrow path between paddies when a long, black snake (it was HUGE, I swear!) shot across the path in front of me. I, always a picture of calm and control, screamed “SNAKE!” and jumped back. Deep breath, keep walking. Erika didn’t see the snake and very likely doubted its existence until a couple minutes later. Another one! I, having learned much from my first serpentine encounter, screamed “SNAKE!” and jumped back. I swung around to see Erika step on the snake (not on purpose) and scream. It didn’t bite her but sped away. We’re still not sure if that was because it was a very nice snake or if Erika had just stepped directly on it’s head. Either way, we’re fairly sure there’s a very non-plussed snake out there complaining about “tourists!” to all his buddies. For those of you that don’t like cold-blooded creatures, I won’t even mention the giant spiders….

And in all that, we got lost, too. We tried to make a loop (so we wouldn’t have to come back exactly the way we went out) but our path (and I use the term loosely) got narrower and narrower and it eventually became clear it was not a path at all but just a series of rice paddy dividers that were leading nowhere in particular. Cue snakes 1 and 2. You can imagine what we might have been thinking at this point. Thank god a local woman spotted us. She took one look at 2 western girls shrieking in the middle of her rice field and said, “Ubud?” We nodded very, very eagerly. She was kind enough to show us the way back to the main path (which we never would have found ourselves). And I’m proud to report that when our THIRD snake of the day shot across her (bare) feet, slithered into a ditch full of water and started swimming next to us, that she shrieked, too. Some things are universally female, apparently.

Ok, now that I’ve sufficiently grossed or freaked you out (unless you’re better with slimy things than I am), let me share something cute and almost cuddly with you instead. Eri and I went out to an elephant rescue park yesterday (rescued from Sumatra where they are often abused and used for hard labor or party tricks) and we got to ride Petri, the senior elephant in the park at 44, who was quite naughty and kept heading off the path to grab some yummy (to her) elephant grass off of neighboring farmers’ land. There were also baby elephants. One day - when i have a faster connection - i'll post the video of them playing.

Erika is now at the Ubud market scouting potential gifts for her loved ones. My loved ones, consider yourselves warned: I don’t like markets, so all you’ll get from me is likely this silly blog.

Finally, here is the links to our photos from our last day at Surf Goddess and our first day at Ubud – including lots of elephants!http://www2.snapfish.co.uk/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1238876014/a=120329527_120329527/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfishuk/