Update: Ubud, Bali
We saw an ad on a Bali Digital Nomad FB page from a girl looking to share a Grab from Chenggu to Ubud and decided to join her. More for the social aspect then saving money as we only saved around $5. We arrived at our villa around noon and were in heaven. The place is large and airy (3 large double doors) with an outdoor shower and private pool. Home for 2 weeks! We spent the rest of the day exploring our new town and doing some grocery shopping and laundry. Ubud is in the center of Bali and a digital nomad haven. It has a real jungle vibe, including mosquitoes, wandering livestock and monkeys everywhere waiting to plunder booty from unsuspecting tourists. There are more dinning choices here including more places geared towards western appetites. Still, all and all the food here in Indonesia isn’t on par with the rest of SE Asia. Everyone we ask for food advice tells us to try the national dish, Nasi. Nasi is rice. You can get all kinds of Nasi including with beef, prawns, chicken and vegetables. And honestly the quality of the meat isn’t great. The fruits and fruit juices are SE Asia Amazing though.
Day 2 in Ubud we spent exploring the town some more and relaxing by the pool before heading out for a night walk and a dinner at an Italian restaurant owned by an Italian expat. The food scene here is sad to say the least. Two nights ago, I saw chicken parm made with cheddar cheese and french dressing for example. My Italian ancestors would have haunted me had I ordered that. But this place had some amazing food. After dinner we walked home stuffed and spent the night watching a movie on the DVD player. There’s no cable here just 2 local channels on the antenna.
Day 3 we got an early start and heading to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.
We spent about 3 hours walking around enjoying the antics of the hundreds of free roaming jokers. Walking through the jungle atmosphere was so peaceful. It cost $5.50 each to enter and was worth every rupee. We had so much fun. The night before I was jumped on the street by one of these thieves as I was not paying attention and he saw I had a bag of Doritos. They will steal anything from glasses to hats and cameras but especially food. At one point, Alyssa bent down to take a picture of a few monkeys playing with a sprinkler and she was jumped from behind. They are more playful then aggressive. She stood up and spun around and he jumped right off her, same as with me the previous night. Before leaving the park I actually held some corn in my hand and had one climb up my back and down my arm. The park was so much fun and as it is a sacred place the monkeys are treated like royalty. The only one in a cage was an old blind monkey in a rehabilitation program. At one point in the park we saw a Hindu burial site. There were around 6 shallow graves where people had been buried temporarily. We asked the groundskeeper what was going on and he explained that the bodies are buried there until the families can gather for the cremation at which point they are dug up for the ceremony. I’ve learned more traveling the world for the last 4 years then I did in all my years of school.
After leaving the monkey forest we went in search of Bali’s famous poop coffee. Yes, that’s right. It is made from beans gathered from Cevit poo. Checkout my blog and our video for more on this. I don’t drink coffee but even I could tell it was less bitter then regular coffee, an effect of the digestive enzymes. See, still learning. Alyssa is a coffee drinker and gave it a thumbs up. An added bonus was the 2 Cevits we got to pet in the coffee shop. They weren’t too exciting as they are nocturnal and just laid there with the occasional yawn and roll. Another fun day in Ubud but our wandering souls are getting restless so tomorrow we are renting a scooter for a week of day trips to temples, waterfalls and rice fields.
