Roti, Butterflies, the Beach, Oh My!

Tuesday, April 19: Day 7
Today Laurel took us down the block to this Indian restaurant for breakfast so we could have Roti. This is the same as the Prata bread we had in Singapore. We got some plain, some with cheese in the middle, egg and banana. It is served with curry and you are supposed to chop it up and dump curry on it- sort of like one would do with french toast and syrup. I liked it plain and thought is was also good with curry, but I just can't fully embrace eating curry for EVERY meal. They all were so good! Of course Scarlett acted as if we were trying to poison her, as she has acted for most of this trip. She seems to be on an every other day eating schedule. At least there is plenty of cheap rice everywhere we go, which we can almost count on her eating whenever. The rest of us loved it, and including coffee, tea and hot Milo, we spent about 24 RG, or $8.
We then headed out to the Butterfly Farm, which was very much like the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO (only they don't have to manufacture the humidity!).
After that we stopped at the beach on the way home. Audrey enjoyed the water but Scarlett wouldn't get near it. It could have been the rotting, dead, very large (perhaps a shark??) fish just down the beach from us.
We then headed home for lunch and baby naps. While they were napping, Laurel and I popped out to go to the batik factory. There were 4 batik artists working on fabric in the workshop while we were there. We had a chance to talk to a couple of them about their process. They use a mix of stamps and hand drawn patterns with wax. Then they use paint (the consistency of watercolor) and dab it into the wax shapes. It bleeds into the fabric, but is contained by the wax. Those guys move quite fast too! And the colors they use are at the artist's discretion. One thing that is nice to note here is that if we were in China in a place like this, it would have felt pretty... "manufactured for the tourist's experience." Here however, it was very much like we just happened to pop in and see a slice of a day in the life of a batik artist. It was very enjoyable to see! Laurel and I then went into the shop where they sell the batiks and one in particular caught my eye. It was 480RG (which the lady in charge will discount 15%, or down to 405RG, for me), so I chose to wait and ask Joe what he thinks about spending that much $$. If we were at home, I would have snapped a quick photo of it with my Iphone, emailed it to him and either waited for a text with instructions to buy or not buy or just called to talk to him. Then I could have purchased it on the spot. Instead, I will wait and if he agrees, then we can come back in the morning.
After the batiks, the mommas took the kids down to the pool for awhile until Tim got home from work. We then headed down the block to this Chinese restaurant where you just tell them what you would like to eat (using their ingredients on hand of course), then they make it for you. No real menu to order from. The food was so good and the girls gobbled up 2 orders of noodles. We also had a couple of tofu dishes, spicy prawns, broccoli, and a couple of other dishes plus 2 rounds of beers and waters. All of this deliciousness for about 110 RG or $35. Yum!
We played a fun game of Scrabble after putting the kids to bed where Tim came in first place.