As we had made our way to Lovina via the Pupuan road, we decided the return journey to Kuta should take us around Mount Tapak and through the three great lakes Tamblingan, Buyan and Beratan. The winding road up from Singaraja to the first lake brought many laughs and gasps of wonder at the ever persistent and crazy driving skills of our Indonesian brothers and sisters!!!

To make up for the fear factor of the drive, the lakes were beautiful and the air refreshingly cool. We stopped at a small local cafe on the ridge between lake Tamblingan and lake Buyan to appreciate the views, take some photo’s, drink local coffee and admire the moldy cakes and buns that looked just like the moldy cakes and buns that had been there on our first visit several months ago.

The locals were friendly, smiled lots and made appreciative gestures towards Tehya and her blonde hair. We bought some peanuts for the monkeys that we would see further down the mountain road towards the edge of lake Buyan and headed off to feed them.
When we first pulled up at the side of the road there were only three or four female monkeys. We got out of the car and rustled our bags of nuts. Suddenly a very large male monkey and about ten other females of various sizes, some carrying babies appeared. We were a little nervous at first and left the car doors open just in case we needed to make a quick escape - there was no need. The monkeys were a little afraid of us and not at all aggressive. They sat with their hands extended asking for the nuts - a few that were a little braver than the others actually took the nuts from my fingers and made kissing whistling expressions to ask for more.

We took lots of photos and then jumped back into the car so that we could make a quick stop at the gardens and temple Ulun Danu Bratan Temple where we walked for about half and hour and bought delicious fresh local strawberries.

The rest of the drive was tiring but uneventful, we arrived back in Kuta and booked back into the hotel Lusa. We spent the last week of Becca’s visit with us, doing exactly as we had promised. So we sunbathed by the pool, hired a surf board at beach for an afternoon, went shopping for jewelry, eat good food at nice restaurants and got a little drunk (again!!!).