R&R in Ubud

After brashness of Seminyak and Kuta, the idyllic beach lifestyle of the the Gilis, it was time for some Balinese culture. Before arriving, the girls had already established Ubud was the place to go.  With some excellent haggling - it comes naturally to the Turkish sisters - we were on another fast boat back to Bali with a transfer to Ubud thrown in.  The owner of our villa was very impressed with the deal we got, even he, a resident, doesn't get it that cheap!

The accommodation in Seminyak and Gili Trawangan had been pre-booked from the UK but we hadn't booked any further villas or hotels, whilst the girls were on one of their dives I scoured the internet looking for a nice place in Ubud.  I found a great deal for a pair of rooms in 5 star hotel called "The Mansion Resort Hotel & Spa".  As the minibus pulled into the hotel's driveway we were all a little surprised with what we saw, Chloe had a fit of the giggles, even the driver raised an eyebrow and checked with me that we were at the correct place. The hotel has a grand driveway lined with Balinese style umbrellas, gardens with ornaments and gazebos and two koi karp filled ponds either side of the steps leading into the hotel entrance.  Now this place was a million miles from what Nilgun and I were used to!

After an iced tea welcome drink, the concierge gave us a tour of the hotel, taking in the wine bar, restaurant, sunrise swimming pool, sunset swimming pool, various spa facilties, lots of gardens, more ponds, another larger pool, even a couple of art galleries!  Our rooms were just as impressive with a humungous bath, four poster bed, chaise longue and minibar. Despite an initial plan of exploring Ubud, it seemed rude to not make use of the facilities so we grabbed some loungers by the pool and soaked up the sun.

I fully expected our guide to be a local from the village taking us around crammed into his old 4x4, but no this was a five star resort, so we had one of the luxury resort mini-vans, blacked out windows, ice cold air-con and one of the hotel drivers in full traditional dress no less. Nice! First stop the nearby waterfall.  A lovely waterfall in a magnificent setting.  The humidity was so high, must have been 90% plus, I was seriously tempted to jump in the water but the rapid current made me think twice.  A large souvenir shop was next on the agenda, with a small silk production setup attached.  The silk was interesting but all the garments were massively overpriced, however the Batik artwork captured our attention and Nilgun and Tina indulged in a few small paintings.

The final stop, the Elephant temple.  The grounds were curiosly laid out but nevertheless pretty with many water features and ponds.  I stumbled upon a huge spider spinning a web spanning two metre.  Whilst I was photographing spiders the girls were exploring and came accross and old toothless entrepreneur.  He encouraged the girls to approach an alter and pray, he would then bless them (i.e. flick  water at the girls from a tea pot), then demanded payment.  Nilgun encouraged me and Nilufer to participate, I found it all rather amusing as the only English this chap knew was "money" and "more"!!!  We then followed signs for the temple which took us on a rather longer than expected walk through the forest.  Along the way we found some local ladies showering under some natural water more than happy to chat to us practically naked.  Eventually we did find some temples, but we weren't quite sure which one was the elephant temple that we came to see.

The following day we headed off early to the elephant sanctuary.  En route we spotted a Balinese wedding that was beginning proceeedings.  Nilgun being Nilgun dived out of the mini-van with the camera and grabbed some great photos of the two soon to be wed couples.  The unhappy looks on the ladies faces suggested this was an arranged marriage.  I was a bit skeptical of the elephant sanctuary but it turned to be pretty good.  The elephants were working but looked like they were well kept and fed.  Nilufer and Tina had a very enjoyable ride on one of these gentle giants and even had a cuddle with a tame bear before their ride.

We had a short stop at a small coffee plantation just off the highway.  We had the pleasure of sampling a range of Balinese coffees before being offered a cup of Kopi Luwak coffee.  This isn't any ordinary coffee; the beans a civet cat eats the plantations coffee beans and they harvest the beans from the poo of the cat!  Nilufer reliably informed us that this coffee retails for around £50 a cup in central London; we paid less than £4.  I would love to tell you how amazing it was, but honestly it was nothing more than a reasonable cup of coffee.

We had a long drive north to the Git Git waterfalls, yes that really is their name.  We made one more stop, this time for lunch.  But the driver, assuming we were loaded and frequenting 5 star resorts was the norm dropped us at a ridiculously overprices buffet restaurant.  Fortunately, accross the road on the shore of a crater lake were some local street food vendors.  A potentially expensive lunch became our cheapest meal in Indonesia!  The final stop on the tour was the impressive waterfalls.  This pair of waterfalls were more impressive than the previous days and I think we all had a great time walking around and getting soaked in the spray.

Unfortunately the girls two week holiday was approaching the end.  We still had one day to squeeze in some more activities.  After the obligatory sun bathing (girls, not me) we headed down to the Monkey Forest.  We didn't even have to enter the forest to find the monkeys, they were climbing around everywhere jumping from shop awnings to overhead wires.   One even had the cheek to grab our bag of crisps off Tina and gleefully demolish the lot.  Inside we saw monkeys of all sizes, from the large alpha males to pregnant females, cheeky juveniles and newly born hanging onto their mums.  We even saw a couple of monkeys checking each others fur for fleas and another couple having a cheeky shag in full view of the visitors.  If you dared carry bananas you were an instant target, but our bottles of water also got a lot of attention.  At one point I had three monkeys hanging off me trying to steal my camera bag, have a root around my hair and grab a drink of water!  Unfortunately, despite not antagonising the monkeys like the rest of us when they all started to go beserk for no reason one monkey jumped on Tina and had a little bite. The first aid guy assured us none of the monkeys had rabies, which was a relief.

We ended our time in Ubud with a traditional Balinese dance show.  The performance was quiet surreal and unlike anything I've ever seen.  The makeup, costumes and poses were quite crazy.  Have a look at the photos and check out what they are doing with their fingers, toes and eyes.  Ubud showed a totally different side of Bali from what we saw and I'm really glad we spent time there.  Overall, and I'm sure I speak for all of us, we had a brilliant time in Indonesia and it's one of the few countries I have visited on this adventure that I would happily revisit sooner rather than later.