DID – Day trip to Ubud, about an hour’s drive NW of Sanur – city of Eat, Pray, Love fame. Of the three places she went in the book (Rome, a yoga retreat in India, and Ubud), I had a feeling this one had the most potential to have undergone significant change as a result. (Rome isn’t going to feel a few extra tourists, and she intentionally never mentions the name of the place she went in India). It’s certainly not the quiet, simple, un-touristy place that is described in the book, but I’d say it can certainly still hold its title as the cultural heart of Bali. Lots of temples, a palace and other traditional-style buildings (dark stone construction, typically one story, with ornate carvings, lots of statues of religious figures, tiered cone-shaped roofs, and very short doorways/arches.
Did some shopping at the central market - deals not even close to being as good as Thailand/Vietnam/China. Lots of carved wood, crazy patterned textiles and incense. Every shop has a small square paper tray of ‘goodies for the Gods’ – usually consisting of flower petals, small crackers, incense and a few other random things. All the stuff to make the trays was on sale at the market (new trays are made daily).
Visited the Sacred Monkey Temple. Loads of monkeys around, one swiped a bottle of Sprite right out of my purse. Cheeky!! Very lively little things. There was a bath in the center of the temple grounds with a tree serving as a diving board – they were having a ball jumping in and swimming. Had to hold Rhys back from joining in.
Went in pursuit of a shop mentioned in the Luxe guide near the Neka Museum. As usual, we followed the guide with the hope of finding a good area to walk around/shops to our taste, but not necessarily the actual shop mentioned. And again as usual, we never found the boutique but it was a great place for a wander. Definitely if coming back to Bali I would consider staying around here, nice small hotels, good looking local restaurants, away from the tourists but still easily accessible, nice views.
Drive back took us by many temples and terraced rice paddies. Our driver (Guday) was so good, he stopped everywhere I wanted a photo, he backed up against traffic when we passed a shop I belatedly decided I wanted to go in, he suggested and brought us to places to find some things we were looking for (you would not believe how difficult it is to find a sticker of an Indonesian flag!), and along the way educated us on everything from why temples are decorated in yellow/white/red/black (has to do with spirits to the north/south/east and west) to what people do on their birthdays (get dressed up, have family parties, eat cake). He was so great we ended up keeping him for another 6 hours to take us for more shopping, dinner and back to the hotel. The best was when we told him we wanted to go to a bbq restaurant on Jimbaran Beach for dinner – he brought us to the place his wife used to work. We didn’t actually realize we’d veered to a table in the restaurant next door so he came to rescue us and in the process introduced us to the owners. :)
Rhys is getting a kick out of stepping on the back of our heels to make our shoes come off. Little prankster!!!
Great day, Ubud is good.
ATE: Breakfast at the club.
Lunch: Spit-roasted pork at Ibu Oka, across from the Palace. Very simple menu: meat, meat + sausage, meat + sausage + skin, meat + sausage + skin + rice. Communal tables. Someone from a restaurant down the road tried to sway us away towards their restaurant (he pretended like he was an employee of Ibu Oka, said the restaurant was full and it would be a really long wait but he could recommend a place down the street.) Ha!
Snack: iced coffees and ice cream across from the Neka Museum. Still no good coffee in the land of Java but ice cream was good.
Dinner: On Jimbaran Bay beach. Very casual/fun with candlelit tables in the sand and random fireworks shooting off. Rhys built a sand mountain while we waited for our meals. Calamari, grilled shrimp, grilled snapper, rice. Calamari was a bit crispy for my taste and didn’t come with lemon, but the grilled shrimp and snapper were insanely good. Both were prepared with a similar secret sauce – Jason tried to get the recipe out of Guday figuring that his wife must know it but no dice. Super tasty.
Only bad thing was that the wind was blowing all the smoke from the restaurants out onto the beach – our clothes and hair smelled like a fishy firepit when we got back to the hotel. Showers all around!
Dessert: Room service chocolate cake. Gavin said it was ‘lovely’. Good value too, two slices plus fruit and whipped cream all for $5 including delivery. Tempting enough to make a bad habit of it.
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