Village Girls
The girls in the photo above lived near the room we stayed in for a few days. They followed me around for a little bit, so I finally coaxed them into a photo. It took a few tries before I got this sweet one.
The theme songs of this stay have been "Welcome to the Hotel Cozy-Sueta", sung to the tune of the Eagles' Hotel California and "Chilli Sauce", sung to the tune of the Four Non Blonds song What's Going On.
Tadashi and Wayan having a cuddle
Fido hitching a ride (really!)
Fido playing with cows (I don't think the playtime was mutual)
Denise and Wayan, with a fuzzy Tadashi (I think it was the palm wine)
Daniel, Wayan, Molly, Ayu and Anta
Ayu's special mie gorang (fried noodles) to celebrate the engagement
Hey! One of those coconuts is mine!
Only Scott was brave enough to go in--it was a cold day
Shenanigans with half of Katrina, Ayu, Daniel, Wayan and Scott (wearing the bunny ears)
Our host family is awesome. Ayu, Wayan, Anta and Agus are great people, and the dogs, Fido especially, are sweet furballs.
Fido chill in' in the rice field
We left today, and we will have tripled our original booking. We've slept in all their guest rooms, including the boys' room, and sleeping on the floor of another guest's room (thanks again, Grace!) We were willing to sleep on the car as long as we didn't have to leave.
But the family isn't the only reason we stayed on longer. The other guests have been fantastic people who we have been honored to meet: Grace, a Singaporean who let us crash on her floor after only knowing us for less than a day; Denise, a New Yorker who lives in Korea
...Brent and Ashley, honeymooners from Tennessee; Daniel and Molly, who got engaged on thier last night staying at Cozy
....and last but not least, the famous and fun Scott and Jessica, honeymooners from Florida, who cancelled their 4-star hotel in order to stay at Cozy.
Scott and Jessica
We have had a fantastic time with all of these people, but we spent most of our time with Scott and Jessica. We went to the beach and swam in the Indian Ocean (salty!) and learned that young coconut is much better with lime juice...
We seem to be missing a drink...
...we went to the most powerful waterfall in Bali. It took nearly 500 (very uneven) steps going down to get there. And just as many to get back up. I took three days for my calves to recover.
...we attended the village temple's anniversary celebration,
Grace, Jessica and Me in proper temple clothes (I was really, really hot!)
...we joined Wayan for the big party he threw for his Australian "family". Boy, was that worth it! Photos and videos from that night are so precious they deserve their own posting. Coming soon to a computer near you!
A different Wayan at the party (Wayan is Balinese for "first born", so there are lots of Wayans)
...and we went to the village where Ayu grew up, Sideman (pronounced like cinnamon). We were lucky enough to meet her family. One of her brothers speaks four languages, one of which is Russian, and is quite the painter. He painted the two pieces below, both of which depict characters in Balinese tradition.
Ayu's other brother was so kind as to give Jessica and Scott the paintings above.
Staying here has been a great start to our trip. The moral of the story? Use AirBnB more often!
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