Small Trees and Giant Gekkos in Bali

Another 28 hour flight (including layovers) and here we are in amazing Bali, the most beautiful place on the planet. This is why we keep coming back...our fourth trip in three years. Because Bali is truly amazing and we can never get enough of it. We arrived at the hotel at about 9pm, went out to a wonderful dinner at the Dirty Duck restaurant of crispy fried duck, fried spinach leaves and fish in coconut sauce. When we woke up this morning, we were looking right out on the rice paddies, the greenest green you can possible imagine.

We were supposed to meet our friends, Jerry and Ketut, today but they are one day late coming here. So our friend and driver Made Keppler took us for our first shopping day. Nothing too extravagant today, just some temple clothes for the Galungan festival next week. I bought a couple of really nice sarongs, plus one of the head pieces. I think I may wear it to dinner tonight...I always get smiles from the locals when I do that. Amy bought a really beautiful shirt and sarong. We saw a couple of amazing wood carvings, the kind you hang on the wall. One is of Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom, and it is over a meter high. The other is of Garuda protecting his queen from the bad king. I forget all of their names, but it is a gorgeous carving.

But the highlight of the day was going to the Bonsai Cafe in Sanur. The day we left, I got my Bonsai Focus magazine (the best english language bonsai magazine) and there was an article about bonsai in Bali. One of the big bonsai men here is named Wayan, who owns the Bonsai Cafe. We arrived for lunch and walked through his bonsai garden. When I saw what was before me, my jaw almost dropped to the ground. Here are some of the most amazing bonsai I have ever seen. They are mostly pemphis trees, a native tree here on Bali. They look a bit like an olive and many have outstanding deadwood and branch structure. There were several hundred trees and about one hundred of these are super show quality if not museum quality. Here is an example...


Tree after tree was just perfect and obviously Wayan and his helpers spend a lot of time in the garden with their trees. Wayan told me he spends 6 or more hours everyday working on his trees. Here is one of his friends...



And here is another view of some of the trees...


Not only are the trees spectacular, but the food at the Bonsai Cafe is good. You sit right on the beach of Sanur among a few other great trees. I had a grilled snapper and it was to die for! As we were leaving, Wayan and three of his bonsai friends were working on some trees in the "Bonsai Bale", a little covered area where the work on trees. A couple of the guys were working on a beautiful Ficus microcarpa. Ooooooohh! I was in heaven in this garden.

This afternoon we just relaxed around the hotel and then strolled into Ubud where Amy bought some nice pillow covers. The owner of the shop showed me her gekko on the wall that was HUGE!! I'm used to these little Hawaiian gekkos, but apparently in Bali they get quite big.

Tomorrow we are heading up the northeast coast to do some diving in Amed. There is a sunken World War II ship there to explore,