Bali
We flew back to Bali from Komodo on Thursday and this time travelled north from the airport to the inland town of Ubud, where we had booked a 2-bed villa with a small pool for five nights, set in the rice fields about 6km / 20 mins by taxi out of Ubud.
We have enjoyed the villa - sunbathing, chatting and playing lots of games. Diana and I went into Ubud on Friday morning for a wander, visiting one of the Balinese art galleries, the water temple (where we had to don the clothing pictured below) and the palace. It has a reputation for a thriving arts scene, which has developed since the 1930s, and there are an also host of places to eat and drink. We found an excellent cafe for coffee and pastries.
On Saturday, Kit and Natasha had booked to take us for drinks and dinner at Ambar, which has a fantastic position high above a jungly gorge. We enjoyed the view looking out to the sunset, the cocktails, the low-key jazz band and some delicious sushi.
On Sunday, Diana and I had booked a full-day tour. Since they’d both been to Bali before, Kit and Natasha opted for a bit more time relaxing at the villa, before heading off on an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) adventure, which they said was great fun.
Our first stop was the Taman Ayun temple, at the heart of the Mengwi kingdom. We arrived about 08.30 and found the place completely empty. It was lovely to wander around at our leisure. The temple and its grounds are beautifully kept.
Then onto a small coffee plantation, where we met Po - a very fat but friendly civet cat (or luwak in Balinese). As you will probably have heard, one of Bali’s specialities is luwak coffee, produced from coffee beans that have passed through the gut of civet cats. We tried the coffee, which was strong but apparently lower in caffeine than normal coffee.
Then to the Jaitulwih rice terraces - brilliantly set up by the locals with way-marked trails. We really enjoyed walking around, seeing how the rice is grown and how the whole water engineering process works to keep everything well irrigated. The paddies were spread over a huge area and make for a very beautiful landscape.
After a lunch stop, the weather began to worsen as we headed up the mountain to see the Ulun Danu Beratan temple, set at 1,239m above sea level. Much more crowded, with busloads of tourists from Java, and all a bit Disney but the gardens were beautifully planted. We had been due to head on to a couple of mountain viewpoints, but with the clouds closing in and heavy rain we weren’t going to be able to see anything, so we skipped those two stops on our itinerary and headed straight for the Tanah Lot sea temple…
…after which we headed back to the villa to rejoin Kit and Natasha. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant close by, with bamboo pavilions set over water and looking out over the rice plantations. Diana got a couple of great photos as the darkness closed in….
…and Natasha added one of the three wise monkeys!
We have had a lazy day at the villa today. Diana and I had a massage at 4pm this afternoon and we are waiting now for a chef to arrive, who’s going to cook up a Balinese feast in our villa for us to enjoy, which should be great.
We go our separate ways tomorrow. Diana and I head on to Java and the city of Yogyakarta. Kit and Natasha have one more night in Bali before heading back to Singapore and back to work! We have really enjoyed travelling with them and getting to know Natasha, but we are very much looking forward to continuing our travels in Java before rejoining them in Singapore before we fly home.