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Published: August 24th 2009
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We spent a few days in Ubud sorting our bags out, doing some washing, shopping and eating lots of lovely food! We then decided it was time to see some of the island as we had only been to the harbour and to Ubud so, we set off with Ketut our host, on a trip around the island for the day. We visited Goa Gajah, the elephant cave, followed by Tirta Empul and it's holy springs. From here we went for lunch overlooking Gunung Agung, the holiest peak in all of Bali, it was pretty chilly looking out over the massive volcano and i even got goose bumps - very nice sensation! After lunch we took a lovely drive through the rice terraces and through some handicraft villages along with a trip to a coffee and spice plantation where we got to sample the local delicacy of Kopi Luwac; the coffee that is eaten by a little marsupial called a Civet and the beans are then collected once the marsupial has done with it, if you get what i mean?? It is actually the most expensive coffee in the world and retails for up to $600 a pound and it was
pretty good, as long as you didn't think about where the beans had been!!???!!! From here we went to another Balinese temple called Taman Ayun and then made our way over to the mighty Tanah Lot temple for sunset. It was good to get out and see some of the island but most of the places we visited were absolutely packed and when we arrived at Tanah Lot to see a crowd of about 4000 people we were a little disappointed, i guess realistically it was never going to be just me and Tel but everywhere we have been so far in Indonesia is just so full of people, I think more than anything it's made us appreciate just how lucky we have been over the past 7 months to have had so many places to ourselves! Anyway, enough moaning, it was a beautiful sunset and well worth seeing and then Ketut took us back home for some lovely Balinese food. Teba house, where we had been staying, was only a very small homestay with 8 rooms in total (We stayed in 4 of them) and just as it was coming up to our last few days in Bali we
were told they no longer had room for us and we had to find a new home, so, we decided instead of staying in Ubud to spend our last few days in Seminyak and Kuta. We had ended up spending almost 2 weeks in Ubud and we had been treated as part of the family there so on our last day we went and bought an orchid for the garden as a gift to say thank you to Ketut and his wife Ayu. When we first arrived at Teba house they had had a new spirit house and Ganesha statue built but the lady of the house wasn't happy with the height of it, so, tel ended up spending about 3 hours showing her how it could be changed and moved, all with only a few common words spoken, but we got there in the end and when we returned back from the Gili's Ganesha was in his rightful place, and now our orchid will be by him too! We were quite sad to leave Teba House, it really had felt like the closest thing to home since we had left and it was so nice to stay with a
family rather than a hotel but it was time to move on! We packed up all of our newly bought Balinese tat along with all the other stuff from Vietnam and stopped off at DHL to send it back to mummilys very full house before we waved a sad farewell to Ubud. It became clear from trying to book somewhere on the internet that pretty much everywhere in Kuta and Seminyak was full but after a lot of walking around we managed to find a sweet enough place to stay for a couple of nights and spent our last few days in Bali watching the surfers and catching a few last rays of sun! We had heard that Kuta beach was a bit of a nightmare but we were actually very surprised by it and it was from here we watched our very last sunset in asia. Indonesia had had it's ups and downs for us, possibly if we had gone in low season it may have been different but it wasn't altogether what we expected. The price of everything had taken us by surprise in comparison to the rest of s/e Asia, it was a shame we didn't get
to see the komodo's but I just couldn't spend 5 nights on the deck of a boat to only spend 2 hours on the island of komodo! I'm glad we went to see Indonesia and maybe with a lot more time and a lot more money it might be a totally different experience but it was just a bit of a strange one! Either way the last 7 and a half months have flown by so quickly and before we knew it it was time to board a plane to the mighty Australia. Bye bye S/E Asia, we had an absolute blast and I have so many lovely memories. While I'm being sentimental, a massive thank you to Mum, Jono and Luce for allowing me to do this, I feel very very fortunate to have seen and done all that we have and it has just been the best experience ever - thank you, I'm a very lucky lady!
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