So, after island life on Gili Air we headed down to Ubud, a city in Bali inland. We had heard from many people that it would be a nice city with a lot of yoga and good restaurants. We went there for five nights to explore what the surroundings would have to offer.
When booking hotels in totally new places, downside is that you don't know which location would be the best one. We booked a room at Pajar House Ubud because it had received good recommendations and it looked nice in pictures. The downside was that it was rather far away from the city. BUT, the hotel had a brilliant shuttle system. When we came to the hotel, we got an old Nokia mobile phone (Edda even remembered how to unlock it! 😂) and we could always call their reception or driver when we needed something. E.g. every time we were in the city, we called the driver when we wanted to come back and he picked us up. For free! Cool.
Our hotel itself was okay. It would be perfect if a) their breakfast was good and b) if we didn't have to walk on dead ants all the time. We don't know why, but every day the floor was covered in small dead ants!
On our first day we just explored the city. There is a market in the center (Ubud market/Art market), similar to the ones we've seen in Latin America. Stalls with clothes, woodwork, ceramics and other things. It would be nice to look around in peace but it's not really possible because the vendors start to sell immediately and don't stop until you buy or walk away. But they were maybe not as pushy here than in Peru for example. We didn't buy much - some spices only.
When you walk in Bali, you see temples everywhere. Our driver explained that every town has their own three temples, every house has their own and then you have public temples that are open for everyone and temples for rice fields, etc. A lot! Many of them are beautiful and have great detailing on them.
We passed by a small shop selling coconut ice cream. Had to try of course. It was made without milk and it was quite good. We tried also a weird jelly-type drink. The shop owners put the ingredients in (including jelly leaves) a glass and then we had to mix it before drinking. The taste was alright but the consistency was not that pleasant with the jelly leaves lumping... But we found some coconut flakes and coconut butter (looked like peanut butter, delicious!) and left happy. Then we stopped at a coffee shop to get Markus his coffee. The girl behind the counter knew what she was doing and explained some things about Balinese coffee and which ones were the stronger ones, etc. The coffee Markus took was rather nice!
We started to come closer to the Monkey forest and suddenly saw dozens of monkeys jumping around. Many of them carried a baby as well. This is where we got robbed. 😦 Edda was just about to put the plastic bag with the coconut products into her bag when a monkey came and ripped the plastic bag and took a bag of coconut flakes!
Then it started to rain so we had to come up with an inside activity. We walked to Agung Rai Museum of Art. It is a museum with both modern and traditional art. There was plenty to see and we were especially fascinated about the traditional paintings with so many details! You had to go really close to see what was happening all over the paintings. Most of the paintings were painted in dark colors and the images were violent.
In the evening we stopped at a restaurant with many healthy items on their list. Unfortunately, we don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it's on Jl. Hanoman around 5 minutes from Coco Supermarket towards center. Our meals were good and tasty, but we noticed that even here the spicyness has been altered to a "tourist level". We have had to ask for extra chili or sauce in many restaurants because the food hasn't been spicy at all.
There are many dance shows around Ubud every night. The main dance show is at Ubud Palace and it lasts for 1,5 hours. We saw a story of 'Legong dance and Ramayana' where a woman is captured and then saved by a monkey and all the sudden a bird comes along and you were not really sure what was happening in case you didn't follow the program handed at the entrance. It was interesting and something different. The music certainly stuck to your head after the show! When we headed out, the musicians gathered together to play among themselves.
The next morning we had quite a wake up! All the sudden we woke up because the bed was shaking so that we were moving in the bed and we knew we have to get out as soon as possible because it was an earthquake. We had never felt one before so this was, well... don't know which word would describe it the best. A bit frightening, interesting, weird... It was a 5,5 magnitude quake but it was 118 km deep and on the coast so it wasn't that bad. But the shaking did last for maybe 10 - 15 seconds and those seconds felt long!
After the unusual wake up call, we got prepared for an 'Ubud tour', that we had booked from our hotel. We had looked around in the city for prices and they were cheaper but didn't include a guide. The tours offered in the city only included drop-off to different locations. The tour offered by our hotel didn't include a professional guide but our driver would tell us about different things along the way and show us around. The cost was 500,000 for both of us, i.e. ~38 €. Our first stop was at rice terraces (Tegallalang). It is an image that you see often in tourist guides, etc. We walked around and our guide told us about different rice types, how long they grow (3 or 5 months, depending on the type) and about the planting process (all by hand, one by one). Later on, we stopped at a rice field where our driver showed how almost-ready rice looks like and then at another field where we could see people harvesting the rice. All done by hand. We also stopped to have a view of Bali's two volcanoes, Mt. Batur and Mt. Agung.
Then we visited Gunung Kawi/Rocky temple with great rock carvings. Here we also tried a snake fruit for the first time. The skin of the fruit looks just like snake skin, hence the name. Inside it looks like a big garlic. The taste is a bit weird at least when trying the first time, but quite nice actually. 😊 We also saw an ugly red frog and a snake in a temple. Our driver told that especially the snakes are seen to be guardians of different temples. We also saw some men making roofs for temples of coconut trees.
Our third stop was Tirta Empul/Holy Spring Temple. This is a place where people get holy water for their sacrifices and where people come to pray and bathe in holy water. We didn't go in the water but our driver told that there was one point where one was allowed to make a prayer and take holy water on one's face/head also without going in. Markus did that. 😊
Then it was time for a third temple - Gua Gajah/Elephant Cave Temple. Again, great rock carvings and inside the temple there were statues of God's holy trinity. Our driver told that some people also do meditation inside the cave.
The tour included also a visit to a coffee plantation. It was a very short visit but nice. We were told that we would see different spices and how they make their coffee. Well, we saw different spices in bowls and one woman roasting coffee in a pan. We are not sure if everything really happens there... But we got to taste many different coffees and teas, which was nice and interesting. There was lemongrass tea, ginger tea, etc. that would've been very good but they had put so much sugar in them that we could only taste sugar.... You might have heard of Kopi Luwak coffee - the most expensive coffee in the world? Well, they have it all around Bali. Why is it so expensive, you ask? Well, a cat-like animal chooses the best coffee beans and swallows them (whole) and poops them. Then coffee makers wash the beans, roast them and detach the bean from the skin. So there is no poop on the beans anymore! We bought a small jar of it because it was just a fraction of the prices in Europe. It was around 19 € and we believe we will get maybe around 20 cups of coffee from it! In Europe, just one cup of Kopi Luwak costs around 35 - 100€. 😲
We also stopped at a wood carving place, that wasn't included in the tour but was on the way. They explained that men do the ground work and women often make the small details and polishing. We bought a small ebony box for ourselves.
As our last stop we went to see a big waterfall, Tegenungan waterfall. There were quite many people there and many went for a swim. We thought we would try it as well and changed into swim outfits. The water wasn't that warm, but not too cold either. We tried to walk backwards under the waterfall but it kept on pushing us out!
One day we decided to walk to the city instead of taking the shuttle. We walked through many rice fields and saw many people working there. The path was narrow and it was only possible to drive a motorbike there. Some people were building a roof and we saw scooters driving back and forth with roof tiles on the seat and some women walked back and forth with a pile of tiles on their heads.
We would've wanted to do some yoga since we were in Ubud and neither of us has never done yoga that we remember, but Edda was still sick (flu) so we thought that having to hold a posture with head down for several minutes might not be the best idea... So, we went to dance salsa instead! Edda found a dance school in Ubud that taught different styles and we went for two LA-salsa lessons. The teacher was good and we had fun!
In the city we went for a dessert dinner in the healthy restaurant we mentioned before. We had a gluten free brownie and a spicy apple pie. Their apple pie reminded of Edda's dad's apple pie 😍
We met a Finnish girl, Helmiina, in the hotel's shuttle car one evening. We then asked if she would like to join us for white water rafting one morning. We had thought we would've done it in NZ, but the prices were so high there. Here it was only around 35 €, including lunch. This rafting wasn't too scary, which was good because it was our first time. Well, Markus would've liked an even livelier river. 😉 Later on we went for dinner with Helmiina. She introduced a nice restaurant, Fair Warung Balé, where all their profits go to health care for poor people. After that, we stopped by an ice-cream shop, also recommended by Helmiina, and bought some delicious ice-cream 😋
When booking hotels in totally new places, downside is that you don't know which location would be the best one. We booked a room at Pajar House Ubud because it had received good recommendations and it looked nice in pictures. The downside was that it was rather far away from the city. BUT, the hotel had a brilliant shuttle system. When we came to the hotel, we got an old Nokia mobile phone (Edda even remembered how to unlock it! 😂) and we could always call their reception or driver when we needed something. E.g. every time we were in the city, we called the driver when we wanted to come back and he picked us up. For free! Cool.
Our hotel itself was okay. It would be perfect if a) their breakfast was good and b) if we didn't have to walk on dead ants all the time. We don't know why, but every day the floor was covered in small dead ants!
The only eatable breakfast at the hotel - nasi goreng or mie goreng (noodles)
On our first day we just explored the city. There is a market in the center (Ubud market/Art market), similar to the ones we've seen in Latin America. Stalls with clothes, woodwork, ceramics and other things. It would be nice to look around in peace but it's not really possible because the vendors start to sell immediately and don't stop until you buy or walk away. But they were maybe not as pushy here than in Peru for example. We didn't buy much - some spices only.
When you walk in Bali, you see temples everywhere. Our driver explained that every town has their own three temples, every house has their own and then you have public temples that are open for everyone and temples for rice fields, etc. A lot! Many of them are beautiful and have great detailing on them.
We passed by a small shop selling coconut ice cream. Had to try of course. It was made without milk and it was quite good. We tried also a weird jelly-type drink. The shop owners put the ingredients in (including jelly leaves) a glass and then we had to mix it before drinking. The taste was alright but the consistency was not that pleasant with the jelly leaves lumping... But we found some coconut flakes and coconut butter (looked like peanut butter, delicious!) and left happy. Then we stopped at a coffee shop to get Markus his coffee. The girl behind the counter knew what she was doing and explained some things about Balinese coffee and which ones were the stronger ones, etc. The coffee Markus took was rather nice!
We started to come closer to the Monkey forest and suddenly saw dozens of monkeys jumping around. Many of them carried a baby as well. This is where we got robbed. 😦 Edda was just about to put the plastic bag with the coconut products into her bag when a monkey came and ripped the plastic bag and took a bag of coconut flakes!
Offerings for gods. These you can see all over the streets, temples, statues, shops, etc.
Then it started to rain so we had to come up with an inside activity. We walked to Agung Rai Museum of Art. It is a museum with both modern and traditional art. There was plenty to see and we were especially fascinated about the traditional paintings with so many details! You had to go really close to see what was happening all over the paintings. Most of the paintings were painted in dark colors and the images were violent.
Modern art
Traditional art
In the evening we stopped at a restaurant with many healthy items on their list. Unfortunately, we don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it's on Jl. Hanoman around 5 minutes from Coco Supermarket towards center. Our meals were good and tasty, but we noticed that even here the spicyness has been altered to a "tourist level". We have had to ask for extra chili or sauce in many restaurants because the food hasn't been spicy at all.
There are many dance shows around Ubud every night. The main dance show is at Ubud Palace and it lasts for 1,5 hours. We saw a story of 'Legong dance and Ramayana' where a woman is captured and then saved by a monkey and all the sudden a bird comes along and you were not really sure what was happening in case you didn't follow the program handed at the entrance. It was interesting and something different. The music certainly stuck to your head after the show! When we headed out, the musicians gathered together to play among themselves.
The next morning we had quite a wake up! All the sudden we woke up because the bed was shaking so that we were moving in the bed and we knew we have to get out as soon as possible because it was an earthquake. We had never felt one before so this was, well... don't know which word would describe it the best. A bit frightening, interesting, weird... It was a 5,5 magnitude quake but it was 118 km deep and on the coast so it wasn't that bad. But the shaking did last for maybe 10 - 15 seconds and those seconds felt long!
After the unusual wake up call, we got prepared for an 'Ubud tour', that we had booked from our hotel. We had looked around in the city for prices and they were cheaper but didn't include a guide. The tours offered in the city only included drop-off to different locations. The tour offered by our hotel didn't include a professional guide but our driver would tell us about different things along the way and show us around. The cost was 500,000 for both of us, i.e. ~38 €. Our first stop was at rice terraces (Tegallalang). It is an image that you see often in tourist guides, etc. We walked around and our guide told us about different rice types, how long they grow (3 or 5 months, depending on the type) and about the planting process (all by hand, one by one). Later on, we stopped at a rice field where our driver showed how almost-ready rice looks like and then at another field where we could see people harvesting the rice. All done by hand. We also stopped to have a view of Bali's two volcanoes, Mt. Batur and Mt. Agung.
Mt. Batur on the left, Mt. Agung on the right
Then we visited Gunung Kawi/Rocky temple with great rock carvings. Here we also tried a snake fruit for the first time. The skin of the fruit looks just like snake skin, hence the name. Inside it looks like a big garlic. The taste is a bit weird at least when trying the first time, but quite nice actually. 😊 We also saw an ugly red frog and a snake in a temple. Our driver told that especially the snakes are seen to be guardians of different temples. We also saw some men making roofs for temples of coconut trees.
Our third stop was Tirta Empul/Holy Spring Temple. This is a place where people get holy water for their sacrifices and where people come to pray and bathe in holy water. We didn't go in the water but our driver told that there was one point where one was allowed to make a prayer and take holy water on one's face/head also without going in. Markus did that. 😊
Temples should be visited with a sarong/long dress/long pants.
Then it was time for a third temple - Gua Gajah/Elephant Cave Temple. Again, great rock carvings and inside the temple there were statues of God's holy trinity. Our driver told that some people also do meditation inside the cave.
The tour included also a visit to a coffee plantation. It was a very short visit but nice. We were told that we would see different spices and how they make their coffee. Well, we saw different spices in bowls and one woman roasting coffee in a pan. We are not sure if everything really happens there... But we got to taste many different coffees and teas, which was nice and interesting. There was lemongrass tea, ginger tea, etc. that would've been very good but they had put so much sugar in them that we could only taste sugar.... You might have heard of Kopi Luwak coffee - the most expensive coffee in the world? Well, they have it all around Bali. Why is it so expensive, you ask? Well, a cat-like animal chooses the best coffee beans and swallows them (whole) and poops them. Then coffee makers wash the beans, roast them and detach the bean from the skin. So there is no poop on the beans anymore! We bought a small jar of it because it was just a fraction of the prices in Europe. It was around 19 € and we believe we will get maybe around 20 cups of coffee from it! In Europe, just one cup of Kopi Luwak costs around 35 - 100€. 😲
Coffee pooping animal, 'palm civet'
We also stopped at a wood carving place, that wasn't included in the tour but was on the way. They explained that men do the ground work and women often make the small details and polishing. We bought a small ebony box for ourselves.
As our last stop we went to see a big waterfall, Tegenungan waterfall. There were quite many people there and many went for a swim. We thought we would try it as well and changed into swim outfits. The water wasn't that warm, but not too cold either. We tried to walk backwards under the waterfall but it kept on pushing us out!
One day we decided to walk to the city instead of taking the shuttle. We walked through many rice fields and saw many people working there. The path was narrow and it was only possible to drive a motorbike there. Some people were building a roof and we saw scooters driving back and forth with roof tiles on the seat and some women walked back and forth with a pile of tiles on their heads.
We would've wanted to do some yoga since we were in Ubud and neither of us has never done yoga that we remember, but Edda was still sick (flu) so we thought that having to hold a posture with head down for several minutes might not be the best idea... So, we went to dance salsa instead! Edda found a dance school in Ubud that taught different styles and we went for two LA-salsa lessons. The teacher was good and we had fun!
In the city we went for a dessert dinner in the healthy restaurant we mentioned before. We had a gluten free brownie and a spicy apple pie. Their apple pie reminded of Edda's dad's apple pie 😍
We met a Finnish girl, Helmiina, in the hotel's shuttle car one evening. We then asked if she would like to join us for white water rafting one morning. We had thought we would've done it in NZ, but the prices were so high there. Here it was only around 35 €, including lunch. This rafting wasn't too scary, which was good because it was our first time. Well, Markus would've liked an even livelier river. 😉 Later on we went for dinner with Helmiina. She introduced a nice restaurant, Fair Warung Balé, where all their profits go to health care for poor people. After that, we stopped by an ice-cream shop, also recommended by Helmiina, and bought some delicious ice-cream 😋
A gekko waiting for us when we came back from rafting
Edda and Helmiina
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to comment or ask but do it in a nice way. :)