Ubud

  Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

We arrived back in Kuta early evening. Sarah was due to fly the following morning so we had enough time to hire a bike and grab some food and beer. The following morning I took Sarah to the airport and then spent the day catching up on something's. I also decided that time was quickly running out in Indonesia so I planned to head to Ubud the following day to explore the more quieter aspects of Bali.  

Ubud was the complete opposite of Kuta. Beer swigging bars where replaced with swanky wine bars and posh places to eat. The place was nice and quiet though and I stayed with a lovely family in their home stay. The town is really small and consists of only a couple of main streets and after that you quickly enter the countryside and the surrounding rice fields.  It was nice to wander around the town and out to the countryside. As with everywhere in Bali family temples are abundant and walking around the town was a visual treat.





I visited Monkey Forest (which is what is says on the label) and is a forest containing three temples and hundreds of monkeys. The monkeys are playfully aggressive and will jump on your shoulders or tug at your shorts to try and fumble into your pockets in search of food but there are enough rangers around the place to help out, plus they seem to constantly keep them well fed so that their search for food is not too aggressive. There is a pond in the middle of the forest and it was fun watching the monkeys climb branches then throw themselves into the water to cool down.

The temples within the forest where all under renovation, but as with all temples in Bali unless you are in full traditional Balinese dress you cannot enter them but there locations where magical. There as one that you followed steps down then over a bridge and arrived in this opening shaded underneath huge tree towering above. It really was very atmospheric down there. The forest itself was not huge but it nice was to hang out down there, watching the monkeys harass people crossing the bridge, and enjoying the enchanted atmosphere down there.





Some more pictures from around Ubud.