I was woken up this morning not by my alarm or a friendly wake up call, but a rooster. A good old “cock a doodle doo”ing rooster … at 5am. Who knew these things existed outside of childrens’ cartoons? All of which reminds me I’m living in a zoo out here. I live up the street from a monkey forest where monkeys wander (and attack) freely. Anywhere I eat, pee, or use the internet I see a new lizard hanging out next to me. And, I swear there is a bird in my bathroom, though I just can’t get him to show his head. Here is the a-hole that woke me up. If I ever get close enough to grab him by his neck, he’s going into a cage and straight to the butcher.

Today was Day of Food. In the morning I attended a great cooking class taught by a local chef with decades of cooking and teaching practice here in Ubud. The class was made up of approximately 15 travellers who have an interest in cooking. We first learned about the various local ingredients and then prepared a traditional Balinese meal. Here are some of the people at the preparation table.

We used this large mortar and pestle (Balinese food processor) to crush peanuts into a fresh-made peanut sauce, which was much better than anything I’ve had in any restaurant.

Here I am stir-frying our meal, and looking over to make sure she wasn’t doing a better job than I was.

Immediately afterwards, despite the great feast we just ate, a few Australians and I decided to seek out Warung Ibu Oka, the famed local food vendor that prepares an amazing roast suckling pig. They cook that pig for over five hours and serve it from only 11am — 3pm. After a little walk we found it, and luckily it was only 1pm. For only $5 we each got a plate of tender, flavored pork with “crackling” (roasted pig skin) with tons of spices on top and rice on the side … and a big bottle of Bintang (local) beer.

After stopping by my bungalow to change shirts, I then immediately set out in search of a highly-recommended restaurant. It was a long walk — over 2.5 miles one way! — but I decided to commit to it. After a grueling uphill walk for several hours, discouraged at times since there wasn’t another white person in sight, I finally found it …

… and it was closed. Two hours of hiking the humid heat, and it was closed. Since when is anything closed here? So I made the return walk — also 2.5 miles — tail between my legs, and came across another place people speak well of, Naughty Nuri’s. I went inside, partly to honor a friend from home and mostly to have one of these:

Four hours, five miles, and one stiff martini later, I arrived home and jumped straight in the pool under a full moon.