Ubud, Bali

After a few days in Seminyak we were ready for some exploring, so head out for the second half of our trip based in and around Ubud, an area famed for it's culture and variety. Ubud's popularity seemed to sky rocket following the book Eat, Pray, Love and what was once a sleepy cultural centre is now bussleing with life. 

I booked our villa on the outskirts of Ubud, although sadly wasn't warned it was only accessible by moped, the walk through the rice paddies was wonderful though.

 

Morning boys!

We finally found our villa, Jagi Villa half way down the road and were greeted by the lovely owners. We dropped our bags off, had a quick cup of tea and then begun exploring Ubud.

First stop was Ubud Monkey Forest which is a wonderful temple series based in lush forest, filled with very cheeky and overly friendly monkeys. A word of warning do not take open bags, food or anything remotely nice smelling as the monkeys will mug you.

Entry was 30,000RP per adult and it's worth every penny, I could've spent all day wondering around.

From the monkey forest we strolled back up to the centre of town and spent time roaming the shops and markets.

I had to include these photos just to show how tourism is affecting Ubud, I think I could write a whole post about it, and maybe I will, but it's sad to see how a once sleepy artistic place is now selling mass produced Bintang t-shirts and cock shaped bottle openers (thumbs up emoji here) !

Luckily, after the madness of the shopping areas, we stumbled upon Soma High vibe cafe, a wonderful cafe in the centre of Bali, walking through their courtyard I instantly felt relaxed again. 

The vanilla coconut smoothie is to die for, honestly. 

I also highly recommend the pizza, but I ate it too quickly to photograph, bag blogger!

We spent the next days wondering around the many temples, indulging in food and drink (there's a good selection for vegetarians, vegans and raw foodies across Ubud).

There is a beautiful temple, shrine, theatre etc. etc. every turn and you could easily spend a week exploring everything. My best advice for a day, or three, in Ubud is to get lost; the main centre of town is easily explored by foot, but those wanting to go further a field will do well with a bike (around 200,000 RP / $2 a day) or moped (around 500,000RP / $5 a day).  However, The monkey forest, ubud palace and ubud water palace (Puri Saren Agung) make for a brilliant days itinerary in Ubud and will leave you plenty of time to find somewhere to eat and to find tickets for a dance show in the evening...more on that later.

xo

Bali's mother temple

Pura Besakih, or the mother temple, is Bali's biggest temple. Nestled way up in the clouds on Mount Agung it is an extensive complex of temples and on a clear, sunny day has incredible views of Bali. Sadly we had a really crap taxi driver so we didn't arrive until 3pm, moral of the story book a taxi driver based on recommendations. We paid our entry and parking fees and then begun the long, steep walk up towards the temple. 

After about 100m mum gave up and hopped on the back of a moped for 10,000 RP ($1 / 50p) which zipped her, without a helmet -eek, to the top of the hill. In hindsight it was probably worth paying the dollar, as the whole street is lined with tourist shops who relentlessly try to drag you in. 

We arrived at the top and were told to pay more money to every man, wife and dog in the place. 'Temple Guardians' insisted that you required a guide by donation only but then gave suggested prices varying up to $50. They said no entrance to the temple unless you were worshipping, unless you paid a guide extra money and then you could go in. We decided to just walk around the outside and have a look, on mum's last trip to Bali they paid for a guide and she said at every door he demanded more money. A sad example of how tourism has affected Bali.

Every few metres another stall was set up trying to sell postcards, umbrellas, key rings and so on..and the sellers were relentless following us up pathways shouting prices, and when we politely declined a small child would pop up and in perfect english ask for ' one dollar' for something or rather. Without sounding ungrateful, it ruined the whole experience. One would expect a temple, especially such an important one, to be a peaceful, honest place but it felt like everyone wanted to rip you off and get money for anything and everything. 

To top it off just as we got to the top the heavens opened and the umbrella our driver had given us fell to pieces, brilliant. 

The whole day was a lesson is looking on trip advisor and paying attention to reviews, because if you look a hell of a lot of people are saying it's not worth the trip. I'm not saying don't go but I'm not saying you'll regret it for the rest of your life if you don't.

x