Ubud, Bali

Phil and Chris were able to make a short side trip inland to Ubud.  Ubud is about a two hour drive from where Basanti is moored and I stayed on the boat to keep watch and protect the rum.  From all accounts, they seemed to spend most of their time eating.

An early start saw us in Ubud before lunch.  We hadn’t booked any accommodation ahead of time, so we explored a few bed and breakfast/homestay places and got a great deal.  The town is full of these sorts of places.  Check out our glamour bathroom… Chris was determined to find a place with a nice shower as we are constantly very mindful of the amount of water we use on the boat, yes, even with a water maker.  We even had a kitchenette and tiny Balinese garden…all for $30.00 per night.

Once we had our accommodation sorted it was time for lunch.  We found a place with roast suckling pig (babi guling…there are some Indonesian phrases worth knowing).  Yum.  Note the little piglet sculptures at the hand basin.

 

We visited the markets and wandered the streets for a while in the afternoon.

Ubud is full of artists and creative types, which is part of why it is such a popular tourist destination. 

We went back to our room to fully enjoy the long hot showers and prepare for dinner.  We’d stopped at a cafe to use the internet earlier in the day, and we decided to go there for dinner, it was a great choice.  Both of us had beef rendang, the best we’ve had.

We were up before dawn the next day to walk out to the rice fields in the cooler part of the day.  Nice.  Saw a few farmers out tending the crops and enjoyed the serenity of the morning.  We were back at our guesthouse in time for breakfast, which is included in the room.

There were several schools further up the road from our accommodation and we were surprised that so many kids had motorbikes.  Apparently they can drive motorbikes at the age of ten.

Also saw the whole family out taking the little dog to be clipped.  The little dog is down at the front of the scooter.

Happy hour found us on the main street through Ubud having a beer and delish tapas.

Then we went to another place for dinner.  There are so many places to eat, it is difficult to narrow it down, so we did our best in trying a few out.  The dinner place was really busy and there weren’t many staff…below is a photo of the cook in her kitchen.  Great meal!

It was a quick trip and before we knew it, it was time to head back to Basanti.  One thing we hadn’t tried yet was “Civit Coffee”, which is a really rare coffee from this area.  The bean is eaten by a civit and then collected from the feces and processed into this rare coffee.  Not being big coffee drinkers, the finer aspects were fairly lost on Chris and Phil.

Finally it was time to say good bye to Ubud and our pleasant little guest house with the great shower.