Beautiful Ubud

 After four days in the hustle and bustle of Sanur, we were looking forward to the peace and quiet of Ubud.  Oops.  Everything is relative.  

Ubud is an “artsie” community located only 13 mile from Sanur in the low hills of Bali.  There are numerous types of artists here making and selling ceramic bowls, jewelry, paintings, wood carvings and furniture.  All of it done quite nicely from the eye of this novice.

We hired a driver for four hours ($22) so that we could sightsee along the short journey. Leaving the itenerary to him, our first stop was at Tegenungan Waterfall (Terri never misses a waterfall😕).  A beautiful spot and since it is the rainy season, there was a good flow over the falls.  As with many of the beautiful spots in Bali, at some point there was a temple placed there.  With foresight or not, I believe this practice has worked well for the Balineese people as the Temples preclude any heavy development or commercialization at the sight.

We also made a quick stop at the coffee plantation for some Luwat coffee (Cat Crap Coffee), had to try it, I preferred the regular Bali coffee.  The next stop was in a terraced valley that has been producing rice for generations.  The terracing makes for a great view and the narrow approach makes for a captive audience of “wealthy westerners” to buy the local wares, (fortunately we have no $ or room).  The final stop, before we reached our Airbnb, was the monkey forest.  This was Terri’s most anticipated stop, she loves monkeys-this probably explains her fondness for me. Terri was not disappointed, I had to almost drag her away from the monkeys so that we didn’t go into overtime with our driver.  

We drove through Ubud and were a little dismayed at how busy everything seemed.  There were a lot of tourists with the resulting traffic.  Fortunately, our Airbnb was located about 3 miles out of town.  It was probably the nicest unit we had stayed in during our trip.  The small complex of 3 separated units and the family home, was on ancestral land.  The family was very welcoming and invited us to their religious ceremonies that occur almost daily.  They ran a shuttle service for their guests and would drop us off and pick us up in Ubud at anytime.  The highlight for us was our massage.  The “spa” area, two massage tables in a cabana, was located in the back of their property fronting a small river.  I reminded Terri that the sounds of the birds, cicadas and other unknown animals, was not being played for us but was totally natural.  It was so cool!

We explored Ubud, watched the native dances in the palace, tried the local eateries and walked the artisan shops.  But our best outing was in the village where we were staying.  We often like to just get out and walk the local paths and get ” lost.” We started down the narrow road as the locals, in full regalia for another ceremony, would pass by with chants and bells keeping time.  At one point we left the road for a walkway next to a stream and then left it for a dirt pathway through the rice paddies until we ran of any semblance of trail.  Backtracking in heavy rain, we tried a new road and were approached by two young giggling, ceremonially dressed Balineese boys.  We tried to talk to them but the one boy just kept saying “wrongway, wrongway.”  He was right.  We eventually found a temple in full ceremony at the end of the dead-end road.  It was a good outing.