One Day in Ubud, Bali
After another intense buffet breakfast we were ready to go by 9am. We'd hired a private driver for the day which was going to cost us about US$80. An Indonesian guy about our age called Nyoman greeted us at reception. He had a Suzuki van with 'victorious' written across the windscreen, with black and red leather seats.
The drive to Ubud took about an hour. Our driver more or less chose the first stop based on our direction we were travelling in - it was the Tegenungan Waterfall. I'd never heard of it before. We left the van in a dusty carpark, wandered down a road in between vendors to a platform with a view of a huge waterfall in a lush, green valley. The walk was down steep steps and it seemed surprisingly short. There was a holy temple at the bottom of the track that the path wrapped around towards the waterfall pool. There were lots of tourists were swimming, a 'lifeguard' reclining on a raised chair and lots of mist. A sign inexplicably said, "don't worry, be sexy".
It was impressive but we didn't stick around long, we didn't have togs. By the time we made it up the steps, we were literally dripping with sweat and white t-shirt was completely see-through. The walk seemed a lot longer on the way up! We immediately drank half the water we brought for the entire day.
Nyoman was a little surprised to see us back so early. He'd heard through the taxi stand grapevine that the volcano town I wanted to visit had a big religious ceremony on today, so the traffic was going to be bad.
The second stop was the Monkey Forest in Ubud town. It was a beautiful botanical garden with jungle trees that looked straight out of a child's book illustration. There were monkeys everywhere. It hadn't been top of my list but by halfway down the entrance path I already hated it. The monkeys were smart and unpredictable with a habit of stealing water bottles out of people's backpacks. I stood back as they play-fought. The little ones were cute but as the paths got narrower, I liked them less. We went down to a temple below the main area. Here a monkey guarding the bridge hissed at Josh, baring it's teeth. I refused to walk past it over the bridge for awhile. We saw two drink bottle robberies and a really aggressive one chased people around in a small area blocking us in. In a panicked voice I told Josh I wanted to leave now.
The journey out wasn't as quick as I would've liked due to the number of people and monkeys. And by the alternative entrance, there was a girl calmly showing the guard a bite on her shoulder. She clearly hadn't read the stories about Monkey Forest running out of rabies shots.
Again, Nyoman was surprised to see us early. At the next stop he told us to take our time. We were at the rice fields - trying to find an entrance. We could see the fields basically starting off the road, but the way was blocked by restaurants and vendors. Because we were relatively fresh to South East Asia, it didn't occur to us that this wasn't a coincidence - people were charging to walk through their restaurants.
Eventually giving up due to the heat, we went into a restaurant for a super-white hamburger and chips. The wait staff were useless so we went upstairs to pay and I asked where the entrance to the rice fields was - which was lucky because it turns out each restaurant had an entrance, including the one we were at. We had actually been sitting right beside it. We meandered down confusing tracks in the grass to a small bridge. After crossing it we came to a down-on-his-luck man in a shack with a tin full of cash and a toll-bar. We paid him 50 cents to pass. The terraces were easy to walk up if you didn't mind a bit of sweat. We got to the top and went over the lip to find old dried out fields. Another shack caused us to double back and go around instead.
After some good photos and avoiding an entrepreneurial vendor selling beer out of a chilly bin, we followed some Americans down. Apart from one lady demanding money for a photo we fell into taking with her and a lazy dude insisting we pay for "his bud", we got out unscathed because everyone on the main route out presumed we had already paid their toll bridges.
The fourth stop was going to be Ubud markets but there were fire trucks parked outside as we drove passed, with lots of people standing around. Several shops had burnt down. So instead we opted for a tourist cafe disguised as a coffee plantation.
A very enthusiastic man showed us a variety of tea and coffee plants and some very distressed looking caged civets (like possums). We opted for civet coffee and found our purchase actually got us a tasting tray of 13 different teas. The civet coffee was nice - it was the Bali coffee that I'd tried in Seminyak.
The fifth stop was the temple just out of Ubud. We made a donation, received a sarong and wandered around the beautiful temple grounds. It was really hot and Josh didn't enjoy it because of his issues with religions. Some information signs would have really helped, but I guess it is a functioning temple for the people to use, not just another tourist destination.
We got back to Nusa Dua around 5.30pm. After a quick dip in the pool and some beers, we had a buffet dinner at the hotel. The dinner was weird and expensive - we had about 20 staff waiting on us. The food was good, particularly the tuna steaks, but there was a 'cultural performance' of Balinese dancing in the middle. It was funny watching other guests refuse to go up try the dance, and we watched a strange Balinese travelogue movie screening straight out the 1930s called 'The Dance of the Virgin'.
Overall the trip to Ubud was worth it to experience the touristy side of Bali. Each sight we saw was unique in it's own way and although I write about the experiences in a negative tone, I glad I got to experience them.
The drive to Ubud took about an hour. Our driver more or less chose the first stop based on our direction we were travelling in - it was the Tegenungan Waterfall. I'd never heard of it before. We left the van in a dusty carpark, wandered down a road in between vendors to a platform with a view of a huge waterfall in a lush, green valley. The walk was down steep steps and it seemed surprisingly short. There was a holy temple at the bottom of the track that the path wrapped around towards the waterfall pool. There were lots of tourists were swimming, a 'lifeguard' reclining on a raised chair and lots of mist. A sign inexplicably said, "don't worry, be sexy".
It was impressive but we didn't stick around long, we didn't have togs. By the time we made it up the steps, we were literally dripping with sweat and white t-shirt was completely see-through. The walk seemed a lot longer on the way up! We immediately drank half the water we brought for the entire day.
Nyoman was a little surprised to see us back so early. He'd heard through the taxi stand grapevine that the volcano town I wanted to visit had a big religious ceremony on today, so the traffic was going to be bad.
The second stop was the Monkey Forest in Ubud town. It was a beautiful botanical garden with jungle trees that looked straight out of a child's book illustration. There were monkeys everywhere. It hadn't been top of my list but by halfway down the entrance path I already hated it. The monkeys were smart and unpredictable with a habit of stealing water bottles out of people's backpacks. I stood back as they play-fought. The little ones were cute but as the paths got narrower, I liked them less. We went down to a temple below the main area. Here a monkey guarding the bridge hissed at Josh, baring it's teeth. I refused to walk past it over the bridge for awhile. We saw two drink bottle robberies and a really aggressive one chased people around in a small area blocking us in. In a panicked voice I told Josh I wanted to leave now.
The journey out wasn't as quick as I would've liked due to the number of people and monkeys. And by the alternative entrance, there was a girl calmly showing the guard a bite on her shoulder. She clearly hadn't read the stories about Monkey Forest running out of rabies shots.
Again, Nyoman was surprised to see us early. At the next stop he told us to take our time. We were at the rice fields - trying to find an entrance. We could see the fields basically starting off the road, but the way was blocked by restaurants and vendors. Because we were relatively fresh to South East Asia, it didn't occur to us that this wasn't a coincidence - people were charging to walk through their restaurants.
Eventually giving up due to the heat, we went into a restaurant for a super-white hamburger and chips. The wait staff were useless so we went upstairs to pay and I asked where the entrance to the rice fields was - which was lucky because it turns out each restaurant had an entrance, including the one we were at. We had actually been sitting right beside it. We meandered down confusing tracks in the grass to a small bridge. After crossing it we came to a down-on-his-luck man in a shack with a tin full of cash and a toll-bar. We paid him 50 cents to pass. The terraces were easy to walk up if you didn't mind a bit of sweat. We got to the top and went over the lip to find old dried out fields. Another shack caused us to double back and go around instead.
After some good photos and avoiding an entrepreneurial vendor selling beer out of a chilly bin, we followed some Americans down. Apart from one lady demanding money for a photo we fell into taking with her and a lazy dude insisting we pay for "his bud", we got out unscathed because everyone on the main route out presumed we had already paid their toll bridges.
The fourth stop was going to be Ubud markets but there were fire trucks parked outside as we drove passed, with lots of people standing around. Several shops had burnt down. So instead we opted for a tourist cafe disguised as a coffee plantation.
A very enthusiastic man showed us a variety of tea and coffee plants and some very distressed looking caged civets (like possums). We opted for civet coffee and found our purchase actually got us a tasting tray of 13 different teas. The civet coffee was nice - it was the Bali coffee that I'd tried in Seminyak.
The fifth stop was the temple just out of Ubud. We made a donation, received a sarong and wandered around the beautiful temple grounds. It was really hot and Josh didn't enjoy it because of his issues with religions. Some information signs would have really helped, but I guess it is a functioning temple for the people to use, not just another tourist destination.
We got back to Nusa Dua around 5.30pm. After a quick dip in the pool and some beers, we had a buffet dinner at the hotel. The dinner was weird and expensive - we had about 20 staff waiting on us. The food was good, particularly the tuna steaks, but there was a 'cultural performance' of Balinese dancing in the middle. It was funny watching other guests refuse to go up try the dance, and we watched a strange Balinese travelogue movie screening straight out the 1930s called 'The Dance of the Virgin'.
Overall the trip to Ubud was worth it to experience the touristy side of Bali. Each sight we saw was unique in it's own way and although I write about the experiences in a negative tone, I glad I got to experience them.
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