Permuteran

So the pictures should say Permuteran - it was so tricky to load them that I think I lost the will to live and the wrong name followed ...sorry they are so big!  We were beginning to think we were 'molly no mates' with no posts but the stats say 458 views ?! must be my mum trying repeatedly to get it to work!  I'm told you need a google account to post and then it's a pain sorry! most are emailing instead.

The trip from Sanur was long and very windy over the mountains - great views of mount Agung and Mount Batur, rice fields, villages and crater lakes.  We nuked alex with anti sickness pills as maximum security against his best mate 'ralph..' - poor boy slept all the way as a result but best for all!

We loved Permuteran - I was a bit nervous about the hotel . I have learned a lot about internet booking now and it could  have been a disaster - I looked at all the guest houses etc there ...but it was great.  We had a house on stilts made of wood and an outside bathroom, which the kids thought was very cool. We were surrounded by farms and all we could hear were chickens, Iman's from mosques (there are a high percentage of muslims as it is close to Jarva) and dogs, all tinged with a permanent scent of wood smoke.  The hotel was family run and the kids and staff made friends. Amie was Putu (oldest child) and Alex was Kardek (second child).  The hotel had 18 rooms but 50 staff (who supported 250 people between them).  There was a man (or women) for every job.  Alex was missing a sheet on his bed and 5 people came.  A manger to inspect the situation, two men to bring the sheet and another two to resolve the offending missing sheet scenario...

An outside bathroom was not so cool when we had strong winds and everything got coated with black volcanic dust from Java and also meant that nightime wees had to be done in a hurry with the light off (a tad disorientating) to outrun the mosquitoes...and also..on the last day...I was reaching for my toothbrush and saw a massive rat on the counter top by the sink in it's last death throes...ahhhhhh all the tooth brushes went in the bin along with the soap the poor thing had been eating. The kids thought it was hilarious...hummmm.  The Dutch family next door were great, they gave us new toothbrushes and paste. I suppose I could have boiled ours and re-used them  but couldn't quite make that leap.  We have met Russians, French, Italians and Germans (always Germans - they are everywhere ..no sun bed stealing here though...).  But no English ....!  The kids are getting quite a multicultural approach to life and are also whizzes with rupiah and ringit now.

The hotel had a little map with a turtle rescue centre on it so we went to check it out - the kids have posted about this. It is just few pools and handfull of staff but saves around 1000 turtles a year. It was set up by an Austrialian 20 years ago. He pays the locals more for the eggs than they get at market, hatches and releases them. He has also convinced the local fisherman not to destroy the coral and set up a system which uses electrical currents to stimulate coral growth. Inspirational person and great lifstyle! The children loved the turtle place and we spent a lot of time hanging out there on the beach. They made friends with the dog - which they named 'splashy' as he went shell and crab hunting witA them digging for eels. The kids made friends with some Australian children and crabbed all afternoon one day - we all then went for dinner which was lovely.

We also went snorkelling to Merangan island which was fantastic - the kids were amazing - it's not an easy thing to do in open sea.  Using your pipe to  breath, keeping your face down (if you lift it the pipe fills with water), holding your breath, diving down and coming up, blowing hard to get eject the water - all this with flippers and photographing. They loved it - they now want to do a junior paddy course so they can scupa dive.  I did mine in the philippines - will need a refresher if they are serious! We saw all kinds of fish including 'dory, nemo and the one with the scar, sword fish, water snakes, crabs and the kids saw a turtle.  Alex was thrilled as we had a super fast boat and shot back to Permuteran really fast with them at the stern of the boat wind ripping past - I was just glad they didn't fall in..

We were going to go to Java but I ditched it as too much for them - instead we hung out. We went to the Pulaki temple (mad monkeys again), caught local bemos, ate in warangs and made friends with the locals. We walked through a lot of little farming plots - the kids now really understand how much of the world's population live.  We also came across a little craft shop in the middle of no where - and saw the ladies all making the jewelry and the men bringing in the fish... I'm not sure they realise the significance of all this. I am hoping it will settling in their minds when we reach home. We are making scrap books of all the tickets, postcards etc and we will stick the blog in.

We are now in Ubud - stopping at the tree tops jungle climbing centre on the way. I was freaking out a bit as it is proper climbing with two carabinas (spelling) and one slide (to zoom down cables) each to clip, unclip and reclip. If you unclip all three at once and fall .....ahhh They were both brilliant - Amie is a total monkey and wanted to do the black and red routes ..but I pulled rank..my heart couldn't cope because there was one point where Alex had all three unclipped and I was quietly saying clip the red one on Alex..Alex sweetheart just clip the red one...Alex the red one.............he wasn't up high at that point but still...?!#

Mummy the medic

We are lucky we brought a medical kit...!  Alex had a rash  we had some cream ..phew ..my skin did not like the all day snorkelling and the heat in general but I had sneaked a course of prednisalone (spelling?) away which is working a treat.  Amie came flying up the hut stair and skidded into the door trapping her foot - we have treated the cuts and bandaged it. I'm pretty sure the toe is not broken and am hoping it will sort before the camping and trekking.. Alex got an infected leg from jumping off a statue (seriously..) into a pool but antibiotic cream has sorted. He also had a fever but calpol sorted that.. Lastly Amie had the makings of an infection so I used google (what would u do without it..) to  research the right antibiotic and paediatric dose and translated it into Indonesian so I could have an informed chat with the pharmacy.  Luckily I got it before we made the trip to Permuteran as there was nothing there and that could have turned into a bit of a drama!!