Ubud

Small boat, walk, bus, walk, small boat, big boat, small boat, walk, bus – this was the sequence and 8 hours later we arrive in Ubud. The journey was incredibly hot so as soon as we found somewhere to stay, we jumped straight in the pool to cool off. I won’t ramble again about the place that we stayed but it was good and it was only 18 quid a night – bargain. After our swim we had a stroll but it started to rain, we were forced to seek shelter in the form of a massage table!! It was very therapeutic to look up from the massage table and see the rice fields. By the time the hour was up the rain had stopped.
Day two we checked out the town properly and did a big circuit of the main streets. It was incredibly tempting to buy lots of different things but unfortunately budget and space in our rucksacks would not allow. We did contemplate buying a teapot and some other cool crockery to send home but the thought of it arriving smashed prevented us.
One of the main streets in Ubud is called Monkey Forrest Road, very aptly named as on it is a forrest with....you guessed it! We decided to take a stroll through the forrest to see the monkeys and to see one of the temples within.

Nit Nurse Anyone?

Very stupidly, we purchased some bananas to give to the monkeys. Almost as soon as we went in, the monkeys smelt banana, Em was forced to throw several decoy bananas so that I could stuff the remainder in my pocket.

Who stole my banana?

There were hundreds of monkeys, they were everywhere in all sizes – from tiny babies clinging to the underside of Mum to quite scary looking Dad monkeys! There was one or two occasions where we had to run, as these monkeys can be a little scary, they have a tendency to jump on you if you give them a chance. The temple was small and some of the stone carving were amazing, I particularly liked the Komodo Dragons!

Ubud - Stone Komodo's

We hired another moped for a couple of days to try to get off the beaten track – we managed to do this quite successfully. We visited Tirta Empul which are holy springs allegedly discovered in 962 and holding magical powers

Tirta Empul - Holy Waters

Then we went to Gunung Kawi, these are ancient monuments which have been carved into the rock, standing 8 metres tall. The site is at the bottom of a steep valley which you have to walk down god knows how many steps to get to.

Gunung Kawi

The bonus though is that the site is surrounded by terraced rice paddies – although these views are the typical tourist pictures you see in magazines, it was so beautiful to see the lush greens – stunning!

Easy Rider!

By now, we were getting pretty good with the moped, I was able to go quite fast without being told off and Em was not only leaning the right way she had stopped clinging to me like a limpet!! The next day we were really adventurous and took an 80km round trip to see Gunung Batur, a volcanic cone by a lake – again very picturesque. Most of the tourists stay at the top of the plateau but we went right down to the lakeside which rather intrigued the locals. One guy offered to take as to his village to see a dead body in a tree – we have subsequently learnt that this is, in fact, a tradition in some parts of Indonesia where the dead are put in trees – not sure for how long and what happens afterwards. Whilst it was an extremely kind offer we declined!
Despite a couple of scams, the Indonesian people are lovely, they are extremely friendly and are inquisitive of where we are from, what our names are and whether we are on honeymoon!! I think this is what has perhaps struck us the most on this trip is the sheer friendliness of complete strangers where there is sometimes a language barrier.
To close a few stats – a litre of unleaded costs 33p, yes thats 33 pence folks, an hour’s massage is £4, a bed for the night can cost as little as a tenner, a small beer £1.40, moped hire for day is £2.96, the local dish of Nasi Goreng can cost under a pound but strangely a box of tampons is £5.11!
Next stop Java but we’re not looking forward to the journey!

Nice view for lunch

Ubud, Indonesia