Ubud, Bali: High Five Alive!

Once again, we had to wake up super duper early to travel. Our ride to the airport did not show up on time, so we ended up calling a taxi, which was easy enough. We arrived with plenty of time to check in, have a double espresso and baked item, and still sit and relax for a bit. Our plane was incredibly scary, and small. They had to attach propellers and before we took off I told Scott and Robert that if they survived and I didn’t they should tell my family that I loved them. It was actually way better than I thought, but I was thankful to arrive, and was equally thankful that my bag was the first off the luggage cart. "High Five Alive!" Our driver was waiting with my name on a piece of paper and we were quickly escorted to his van and on the road.

coffee plantation....not the actual one, but still beautiful!

Along the way he asked us the usual questions about where we were from, what our plans were, and also attempted to sell himself as a driver for us for the next few days. We started asking about some of the places we could see, and when he mentioned the coffee plantation we all showed immediate interest. He mentioned Kopi Lukwak, and then agreed to take us there, no cost. After a brief tour of an example plantation where lots of spices and fruit trees were growing, we got to taste their different flavored teas and coffees and we all sampled Luwak coffee for 50,000 rupiah (5USD). It was made in a very different fashion at this place as opposed to the place in Jogjakarta and I felt like it was very scientific. We stopped at the gift shop, and I was proud of myself for buying absolutely nothing, and not falling into a tourist trap!

Upon arrival at our hostel we all began speaking in awe of the extreme splendor of the greenery. I seriously felt like I was in a temple from the moment I walked in. Our room was quite large and we had a nice small table over looking the gardens. Immediately all I wanted to do was sit, drink coffee, and read/write in this spot. Good thing the boys were on board.

Since we had been up for about 8 hours we were getting quite hungry so we went in search of food. All my body was craving was veggies and fruit and luckily I was able to get an Avocado juice, and salad, which was followed by some honey dew slush, all for about $5. I was already thinking I could live here and then we started exploring other random hostels/homestay’s gardens. It’s great because you can walk in anywhere and explore, and no one bothers you. I seriously wanted to ask “Berapah” (how much?) for ones of the tree houses I saw. I could easily spend the rest of my life here, just walking around the streets, and taking trips to the forests and fields a few hours away. We stopped at the supermarket to buy a kettle ($3) wine ($13) a bit of fruit (40 cents) some yogurt for my tummy (40cents) and some other random necessities such as mixers for our liter of gin, and water.

Exploring my future dining room. (Roberts picture)

Upon arriving back at the hostel we made coffee, chatted about our plans for our time here and smoked a few cigarettes. (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t buy a few packs on this trip.) Then we opened the wine and put on some music to read and write to.

Eventually we left to get some dinner and on the way managed to stop at several bars/cafes for various coffees and drinks. It felt like a typical Robert, Scott and Tiara day of drinking/exploring, which was just what I wanted. One of our stops included a view overlooking rice fields.

Eventually we opted to return back to our hostel to start drinking our large bottle of gin. “Starting” led to nearly finishing the entire bottle in one night, plus after already having several drinks together, while out. It was just what I needed as we discussed everything going on in our lives and I got lots of good advice. It was ultimately the perfect night for the three of us to have together.

Crazy tree. All those things hanging down are roots!

I woke up decently early the next morning to find my computer completely dead, and was unable to turn it on. With a frustrating start to the day we tried to troubleshoot a bit, but I opted to not let it ruin the day, and soon after enjoying our delivered tea and breakfast on our balcony (I KNOW!!!!) we headed to the Monkey Forest. Basically there were tons of monkeys in the trees and on the streets eating breakfast. Some points were scary as the monkeys tend to think if you reach for anything (camera, tissue, chapstick) it means you have food you would like to give them.

yummy!

What I found more fascinating than the animals was the general nature around me, and the stone statues.  The trees were large and for most you could not tell where the original trunk was as so many roots had grown in all directions. The statues were mostly of hindu gods, but all were carved to the point where I just wanted to sit and stare at them while trying to figure out the story behind them. It was very fascinating to me. We spent a few hours exploring, returned to our bar overlooking the rice paddies and had American breakfast for about $4.

Loved this statue for some reason

Post second breakfast we went back to the hostel for awhile. I took full advantage of the peaceful garden and headed out with my book and iPod. I was unable to read anything as I was falling in love with music over and over again. It is truly amazing what new people and places can do to old music. I couldn’t stop smiling and thinking about my awesome life, until eventually Robert came out and pointed out an adorable cat. We spent the next hour trying to lure the cat over towards us so we could pet it. Problematically, the neighborhood dog came over and chased the cats away, so we played with him instead. Basically we adopted him for the next hour and let him hang with us in our room while we researched what to do next.

Reading in the garden. Thanks for the great picture Robert!

We headed to an art gallery just down the road, paid our 5 dollars to get in and spend the next hours wandering around looking and Balinese art, most of it related to Hindu gods and stories. Our entrance fee also included a coffee outside next to a beautiful garden. On the way home we stopped for a Mexican dinner which was very satisfying as I was able to get a taco salad. I’ve been trying to keep up the fruits and vegetables for this trip.

On the way home we stopped to purchase another bottle of wine (I have tasted and now cannot stop!) and as it started to pour rain from the sky we stopped to get a dessert of shredded coconut filled crepes with coconut ice cream to top them off. Seriously Ubud? Stop having such delicious food!

Finally we had to make a dash for the hostel, which meant we all got completely soaked. We spent our evening scoping out our choices for the following day: Rice paddy tour, walking around and exploring, or spa. We opted to do the rice paddy tour even though it would cost us more.

We woke up the next morning and I was able to have a quick skype with my mom (thanks for letting me borrow your computer Robert!) before we headed out to meet our driver. The morning was very rainy and thus the tour was awful. We were hardly able to see anything, and we got suckered into paying 9 dollars for a disgusting buffet. This was the most I had spent on a meal in Ubud and it was, by far, the worst one. Arriving, back to the hostel at about 1:00pm and decided to head out to explore the other side of the city, which was incredible. Our main stop was the used bookstore, which was stocked decently with literature from many languages, followed by a small snack of Indian food and chai tea. 

Rice Paddy

Once home, I found my computer magically working, which was a very nice surprise. Robert and I headed out for a 2 hour spa treatment, which was by far the best spa treatment I have ever had. The massage was the perfect intensity, and was followed by a skin soothing body wrap, shower and hot bath in a bathtub filled with flower petals. This all cost me a total of $13 and left me super relaxed.

I had been eyeing up a delicious vegan restaurant a few time as we passed it, mostly because they had pumpkin soup and that sounded too good to pass up. It was a very short walk away, so we settled on heading there, sans rain coats. I had the pumpkin soup, some mushroom cream sauce pasta and a slice of delicious carrot cake. It wasn’t as good as my pumpkin soup, or the carrot cake from back home, but it was pretty satisfying overall. When we finished it was pouring rain, so we had to walk home in it as we had made the awful decision to leave our jackets at home.

Ubud was the perfect combination of my favorite parts of all the places I have lived. It had the hippie café/bar feel of Minneapolis, combined with the walk ability of Tirana and the culture of Indonesia (notice I didn’t say Jakarta) has to offer. I honestly felt like I could potentially live there for a good portion of my life, just studying Indonesian history and Hinduism while walking the streets sipping on coffee and tea, while writing.

I am in love with you Ubud!

I’ll be glad to go back with my parents when they come to visit and hopefully, as it won’t be rainy season I’ll be able to do some further explorations of northern Bali.