Ubud

We bought a shuttle bus ticket to Ubud when we arrived back in Bali for 20,000 at Nomad (a competitor of Parama - prices and times were the same with every company. The ticket included all methods of transport from A to B and was much less hassle than doing it yourself. We left at 8:00am and eventually arrived at 6:00pm after a fairly long day of travelling. Unfortunately we broke rule #3.

After checking out a few bungalows, we found a spacious affair called Puri Ulum Carik, halfway down Monkey Forest Road, which we were pretty happy with. It was like a bungalow in the middle of a jungle and it absolutely dwarfed the size of our apartment in Japan, but that's not saying too much.

Ubud was fantastic. Our trusty (Hmmm… really? More on that later) Lonely Planet guidebook boasted that it was the 'cultural capital' of Bali, and that was pretty much confirmed the minute we began exploring the laid back city. The streets were lined with artisan's galleries and shops selling everything from batik and woodcarvings, to paintings and sarongs. We stayed in Ubud just three nights, but you could easily amuse yourself for a week with all the day trips available. Lots of people were hiring (wow… I was beginning to speak like a Brit) bicycles, jeeps and motorcycles to enjoy the amazing scenery in and around Ubud.

Beth and I debated going on one of the 'day tours' (we're not 'tour people' as a rule, but we had read that they were 'good value') and after checking around we decided on the Kintamani - Volcano tour. It cost 15,000 each and was to run from 9:00 to 3:00.

As expected, there were highlights and lowlights to the tour. We started out at a temple called Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave, which was… all right. Then we went to another forgettable place. It required a donation (as opposed to an entry fee of roughly 1,000rp required everywhere else) of any amount and after entering the gate and seeing, well not much, you immediately regret donating a single rupiah. Of course, after writing in your donation of 1,000 in the 'donation book', the guard writes in an extra zero which fools some people into donating more "how much should we give? Oh, look, they gave 10,000 so….".

Next, it was off to Gunang Kawi, which was excellent! It had a great walk through a rice-terraced valley, and some impressive stone sculptures that were carved out of both sides of the valley with a picturesque river flowing between.

Near Gunang Kawi was the Holy Spring of Tirta Empul that was fairly good. After the temples, it was off to the heights of Bali where we stopped at a lookout point for impressive Lake Batur. The lake sits at the foot of Mt. Batur, the island's largest volcano that had a minor eruption in 1994. The lunch stop was a bit of a joke, or a scam. We were ushered into a restaurant by our guide Wyan, and after hearing the price for the buffet lunch and seeing the number of elderly German tourists in line, we decided to find something on our own.

On our way back, we stopped at a place along the road called Pujung which had a magnificent view of a narrow valley covered with lush rice terraces. I couldn't get enough of seeing the beauty and relatively primitive farming that provided the lifeblood of Asia. I guess I appreciate it more when rice had been my primary staple for three years running!

We found Ubud full of email service shops and were at once relieved and thrilled at the ray of hope that this was a sign of things to come throughout our trip. The place we used was called Pt. Kartika Chandra Telecommunications, located across from the supermarket on the main road. It cost 5000rp to send one message - so we sent one group message to our friends and family. You could also receive messages for 1000rp per page (the operator printed them out) but we didn't want to risk losing any message if we left too early.

Just down the road from the supermarket was the hands down best restaurant in Ubud, called Casa Luna. Unfortunately we only heard about it on our last night, but it was cheap, upscale in appearance, had great desserts (Beth is a bit of a chocoholic… and by “bit” I mean the same “bit” as when John Candy was describing his weight problem in Stripes) and seemed to be the only place that actually drew a crowd. As soon as we got to our table, we looked back, and a line of around twenty people had formed at the front door.

Two other sights in Ubud were the market and Monkey Forest. The market was a typically bustling place filled with fruit, vegetable, and spice vendors, clothing shops, jewelry places (silver was the precious metal of choice) and many other trinket vendors. What we were most intrigued by was the making and selling of the "offerings to the Gods" that you see everywhere around the Island (and Indonesia for that matter). Put out three times a day in front of every shop and temple (and taxi!), these little bamboo boxes are filled with small flowers, incense and other things.

Monkey Forest was a little disappointing - not for the lack of monkeys, but for the preponderance of annoying tourists trying to agitate the animals by taunting them with food. I was pretty happy when one large monkey bit an Italian guy who had been teasing the animal.

One night, we went to a Legong dance performance at the palace, which featured traditional Balinese dancing. There were 5 or 6 dances separated by short musical interludes performed by an orchestra of about 20 people lining the dance floor on both sides. The dancing was beautiful, although a little long (one and a half hours), but when I got bored, I watched the band leader. He made subtle movements with his hands and head to control the tempo and volume of the music that was as mesmerizing as a snake charmer.