Gotta Love Ubud :)

October 19^th 2010 – October 27^th 2010

Anyone who has ever read Elizabeth Gilbert’s "Eat, Pray, Love" knows exactly why people are drawn to Bali. Bali has this seductive power over most people; it seems to be the perfect mix of comfort and unknown. It is not part of one of those third-world countries that jolt you and throw you completely out of your comfort zone. Instead, it allows you to experience a new culture and new environment without leaving you feeling too uncomfortable or desperately missing modern society.

While I have very few nice things to say about Kuta Beach, I did really like Ubud. It is MUCH nicer than Kuta and because it is more off-the-beaten track you lose some of the trashy weekend tourists that tend to flock to Kuta Beach. Instead you find an artsy, relaxed, hippie town surrounded by rice terraces and lush rainforest. Most people come to the city to relax a bit, OR they come strictly to see the Monkey Jungle and then they leave. Either way a lot of people love Ubud, which is why we decided to spend almost all of our time there.

Ubud is one of those little cities that has a good atmosphere. It is perhaps one of the more cultural areas of Indonesia. It is known as an art hub and artists from around the country flock to Ubud to open up studios and galleries. Some are quite successful as tourists and art collectors often travel to Ubud to find unique art. The area is also full of craftsman and woodworkers. Travelling just north of the city you will find tons of woodworking studios, shops with hand-made instruments and statues, shops that have ceramics and mosaics, and shops that sell hand-made jewellery or crocheted items. And the best part of it all is all of these lovely hand-made items are dirt cheap in Indonesia. For a couple of dollars you can get mosaic dishes and bowls, crocheted shawls and shirts, or a small recorder or drum.

In total we were in Ubud for about nine days. I honestly cannot tell you where the time went. We didn’t do much at all really and most of our days were spent relaxing, reading, or exploring the shops. Why didn’t we do much? I guess in order to answer that question I need to explain a little bit about how we felt by the time we reached Ubud…

So, Ubud was our last stop in Southeast Asia. After Bali we were heading to Australia which meant a country more like home J To be honest, travelling in Southeast Asia for several months can start to drive you mad. You tire of the constant haggling, the constant party scene (and especially of the tourists that come for two weeks, drink the whole time, trash the beaches and don’t care at all about the country they are in), the lack of good consistent transportation, and you miss the comforts of home (i.e. your own bed, toilet paper in bathrooms, dairy products, etc). Thus, two months into our trip we were slightly sick of it all and we just wanted a place to relax and get away.

When we got to Ubud, we found a room (that included breakfast) for 100,000rp (roughly $11CAD a night for both of us). It again was a basic room – double bed, bathroom, fan. Nothing fancy. It had a porch, which was nice, and we would eat breakfast on the porch every morning and enjoy the scenery. The room backed onto a rice field and flower garden and it was quite pretty. We stayed in that room the entire nine days.

While in Ubud we also decided we wanted to try out a motorbike. We really wanted to explore the area a bit on our own and since Bali is small enough that you are able to see most of it by taking day trips, we decided to rent a motorbike for the week. The bike cost 50,000rp to rent each day and was a pink honda bike. We named it "Pink Thunder: The Smooth-Ridin’ Sass Mobile". The woman at the hotel showed us how to use it and we practiced on the grass beside the hotel. I drove the bike most of the time and Ali would sit on the back. When she drove it really scared me, haha! It took a little getting used to, and the most confusing part was that they drive on the left-side of the road in Bali.

We used the bike for several day trips including: Mt. Batur, the woodworking villiage, and the rice terraces. Our first trip was a 2-hour ride to Mt. Batur – an active volcano to the north-east of the island. It was a long ride, but very pretty. It was kind of a terrible trip as we got pulled over by the police because we were tourists and did not have an international drivers licence (they accepted a "fee" to not give us a ticket) and because people were trying to scam us and charge us to enter the volcano area. Our second day-trip was to the art/craft area about 30 minutes from the city. We bought some ceramic dishes (mosaics), jewellery, and crocheted items. Our final day-trip was to see the local rice terraces that central Bali is famous for. Locals have been growing rice for centuries and have perfected the difficult system. The hills in the area are perfectly cut and the irrigation system produces nice crops. In many restaurants in Ubud they serve locally grown rice and vegetables from that area.

While in Ubud we also decided to check out the local "Monkey Forest" in town. After paying a small entrance fee we headed into the forest in search of monkeys. We did not have to look hard. They were EVERYWHERE! Big monkeys, small monkeys, baby monkeys, crazy monkeys. They were climbing the trees, bridges and buildings that were scattered throughout the forest. In addition to climbing objects, they were also climbing people. While Ali was taking photos one small monkey managed to jump on her head and tangle up her hair! She was not too happy! Haha. We spent about 2 hours in the Monkey Forest exploring the area and taking photos and videos.

Overall, we got to see a bit of the country from our base in Ubud, we got to relax and unwind a bit, and we got to eat some good organic and vegetarian food. It was a nice place to spend Ali’s birthday and a week of our time.