INDONESIA - BALI - UBUD - 9 to 14 Juy, 2014 - 'BIKE, HIKE, MONKEY'

Info

Car/driver Balian to Ubud – 450 000R - 2 hours

Mountain bike hire – 30 000R - Made - Jalan Kajeng, Ubud

Bali Botanical Spa -

Car/driver Ubud to Padangbai  - 270 000R

Rumah Roda - Jalan Kajeng, Ubud

Our journey

We loaded the gear in the car and left Balian for Ubud. We reached there in about 2 hours.

We had booked Gusti’s Hotel in Jalan Kajeng but when we got there were no rooms. They said they had rooms at the rice field part of the hotel. I motorbiked over there but there was only one room with no aircon for a higher price than originally quoted. We drove back and I ended up finding a room at Rumah Roda, which was across the road in Jalan Kajeng from Gusti’s.

The room was on the second floor. It was a big room with fan, breakfast, pool, balcony, Wi-Fi and a partial open air bathroom.

We went for a late afternoon walk through town and saw a large temple ceremony, drank cocktails, and had dinner. Later, we had a night swim in the pool.

Ubud is spread over a large area and semi merges with other towns and villages in the area. There are rice fields, walks, markets, heaps of restaurants and shops, temples and a monkey forest. The roads are steep in parts so walking is hot in the middle of the day. Traffic can be congested and day tripping tourists abundant.

The next day, we had a rice field walk. It started at the end of Jalan Kajeng in a direction away from Ubud, climbed an embankment and then doubled back to Ubud. The rice fields were lush and vibrant green and the irrigation channels were full with fast flowing water. We stopped at a rice field restaurant towards end of the walk which had nice food, cold beer and a relaxing view.

Later, I hired a great and well maintained mountain bicycle and rode down Jalan Kajeng and followed the rice field walk, then took a series of roads that eventually lead back to Ubud. A great ride. There were tracks, steep drop offs, roads, lots of ‘hellos’, dogs and rice fields.

Later again, I had a second bike ride along Campuan Ridge and beyond. It was harder ride with portage up steep steps, dirt and concrete tracks and roads. The people were friendly and were amused by my go pro camera on my helmet. I came across a funeral which was progressing along the road then turning off into the rice fields.

We met Sam and Sacha, who were from Paris.

I walk to the monkey forest and wandered the paths and temples and sat to watch the monkeys.

Jacinta had booked a treatment at the Bali Botanical Spa. They met her at Starbucks for car pick up. She had a facial, exfoliation and flower bath – 135 000R + 190 000R = 325 000R about 2 hours

We had an afternoon walk, which turned into cocktail time and then dinner at the Black Beach Restaurant.

We met Chris and Carmen from Melbourne later, at second cocktails. We listened to a nice duet of song and guitar until the power blackout.

After an easy morning, I had another bike ride along tracks, streets, villages, ravines and bridges around Ubud. It was very hot but fun!

We lunched at the Lotus Café. It is such a pretty restaurant with huge lotus ponds and temple backdrop.

I had another late afternoon bike ride though the rice fields. It was so cool with mud, narrow tracks, portage, steep ravines, a slow massively steep  uphill grind and a fast and furious downhill ride back to Ubud.

We met a couple from US of A. Nice young folk.

In the morning, we packed and said our silent good byes to Ubud and drove to Padangbai