Ubud

Ahh, we are so far behind on blogging, not quite sure where or how to begin. It's our last day in Bali, tomorrow we leave for our flight to Hong Kong, then eventually to Vietnam to start the next journey. The past 3 weeks have been filled with many temple visits, eating great (and cheap!) food, and just soaking in the sights, smells, and sounds of this little island. Not too bad;)

Our great family friends, Lance and Ketut, do quite a bit of business in Bali and gave us some tips before leaving - the only way to really get around the island is either by motorbike or hiring a driver. There was no way in hell Stephanie was going to drive a scooter in the crazy Balinese traffic, so the driver was the way to go. Plus, Nyoman (who is Ketut's brother-in-law) was able to tell us a few extra things along the way and point us to restaurants and hotels.

Nyoman picked us up from our hotel after our stay in Contiki and we headed to Ubud, the center of the island known for it's culture and spectacular rice paddies. We made a few stops along the way to see some people making silver jewelry and batik weaving - watching both gave us a new perspective on how labor-intensive both crafts actually are.

Both stops were definitely geared towards tourists with tourist pricing, so we decided to look instead of buy, with the exception of two small fans at the batik store - these ended up coming in very handy as the humidity was pretty stifling at times.

We stopped for lunch at a little cafe before heading over to the Monkey Forest, one of Stephanie's favorite stops. The Macaque monkeys are considered to be sacred and they know this very well. We had read the monkeys can be agressive, especially if he/she thinks you are in possession of some kind of food, preferably bananas. There was a stand at the entrance of the park selling bananas, but we decided to watch the other suckers get attacked instead. Some of our favorite photos (trust us, there are many):

Nyoman took us to see the white herons after the Monkey Forest - for some reason, the herons fly back to the exact same spot every evening for no known reason. Sometimes they come in flocks, other times, not so much. This happened to be one of the other times:/ So, as we were waiting for these white birds to fly home, we became dinner for the mosquitoes and decided to head back to the hotel and freshen up for dinner.

Dinner was at a place in central Ubud called Dirty Duck - it's specialty being, obviously, duck. We pulled this from the internet to explain the naming of the restaurant, it's not because the ducks have poor hygiene.

The genesis of the restaurant's name was an incident in which numerous ducks from a nearby paddy field decided to seek shelter from a storm in the place prior to its decoration and opening, leaving myriad muddy webbed foot prints in their wake.

Steven ordered the house specialty, crispy duck, Stephanie ordered the roasted duck:

Day 2 in Ubud started with a traditional Balinese dance with intricate costumes. It tells the story of a fight between the good and evil spirit - the good spirit ultimately winning, of course.

Nyoman then took us to a stone and wood carving demonstration - both were, again, geared towards tourists so we admired the work but kept our money for later.

Our next stop was at a coffee plantation of sorts, Bali is fairly well known for their coffee and we were able to try a few varieties with chocolate coffee being the best in our humble opinion.

Coffee roasting the old-fashioned way:

Lunch was next on the agenda and we stopped at another tourist trap, but at least this one had a nice view of lake Danau Batur and Kintamani, a dormant volcano.

Our next stop was supposed to be some hot springs but, upon arrival, we found the entrance fee to be a bit high just to soak in some warm water so we decided against it. No matter though, we saw some beautiful scenery along the lake so it wasn't all for nothing.

Our first of many temple visits was the Pira Tirta Empul, a sacred spring temple. We were lucky enough to visit during a prayer so we saw some of the traditions and customs associated with the Hindu religion. In order to enter any temple, one must wear a sarong - Steven and Scott seem to be enjoying wearing theirs - the random guy in the middle is in charge of the sarong rental stand for tourists who don't come prepared.

Even the younger ones need to put on fancy clothes:

A few other pictures of the temple:

We ended the afternoon with a drive through the rice paddies and Nyoman showed us his village and village temple. Bali has something like 22,000 temples, pretty impressive considering the island is about the size of Delaware.

Dinner was at Cafe Lotus in central Ubud again; the restaurant overlooks yet another temple area where there just so happened to be another Balinese dance going on as our food arrived. Surrounded by good food, good friends, and a good atmosphere, we couldn't ask for much more.

Day 3 in Ubud, the hotel organized a hike down the mountain to the river Sungai Ayung - Stephanie stayed behind because her stomach was upset, turns out that wasn't such a bad idea. It had been raining all night so the trail was muddy, treacherous, and they had to cross over a river at stomach height to get back to hotel.

We decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the hotel. And with this view of the rice paddies, can you really blame us?