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To say I was excited to visit Bali is an understatement! It was somewhere I had always wanted to visit (and no, not because I had read Eat, Pray Love)! However, its hard to talk about Bali without mentioning the terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005. The bombings in Kuta in '05 resulted in 20 fatalities and many injuries and as a result of this and ongoing terrorism concerns, visitors to Indonesia are warned to avoid all but essential travel. We weren't too worried as we intended to avoid the tourist traps of Kuta and Legion and instead, headed into the town of Ubud in central Bali. We arrived late and had organised a pickup to bring us there.After a long drive, we arrived at our guesthouse and checked into a beautiful villa with engraved wooden doors and a balcony with cushions to relax! However, when we got inside we realised the beds were all damp (its rainy season). Because it was so late, we had to make do until the morning. The next day, we were served breakfast on our little balcony, sitting cross legged on cushions, very Bali!! The surroundings were really beautiful and when Vinny spoke with the
owners about the beds, we were moved into an amazing room up on the 2nd floor, with windows all around and a large balcony!!
We spent the next few days relaxing, reading and drinking Bali coffee which is really good! It was quite rainy so we whiled away the days sitting reading on the balcony sheltered from the rain! The town of Ubud itself its really pretty. As Balinese are predominantly Hindu, they give offerings to the gods every day in the form of pretty little trays made of banana leaves and filled with flowers. Everywhere you look, on the ground, on the steps of shops, along the paths were little yellow and pink flowers! It really added to the beauty of the place. The architecture and style of all the buildings were really ornate and unique. Everywhere we looked was a photo op. One of the most popular Balinese dishes is something called Babi Guling which was really good. Its a sort of spit roast pig served with rice and vegetables and is well worth a try.
After a couple of days, we decided to do a bit of sightseeing and headed down to the Monkey Forest,
on the outskirts of the town. It is so named because of the many monkeys that inhabit it, some so tame from the visitors that they follow you around begging for food. Signs on the way in warn you not to even have food in your bag because they will get it off you! Not a big fan of monkeys, I was happy to keep my distance but some people were feeding them and had them up on their heads. Our reluctance to get close to them could also have been due to the fact that the doctor we went to in Thailand told us about having to give an irish guy immunoglobulin shots to the head after he was mauled by a monkey!! Ouch! It was a cool place to visit though, the monkeys were everywhere! The park staff came out that evening with bags of food for them and it was like something of Planet of the Apes when they heard the bags! Monkeys came running from all directions towards the staff!! It was mental!
On our last day in Ubud, we decided to arrange a taxi to bring us to a few of the sights in
the area. This was not difficult as in Bali as soon as you set foot out onto the street, all you here is ‘Taxi’ ‘Taxi’ nonstop! So it wasn’t hard to find a driver and negotiate a price. First stop, the temple of Gunung Kawi, also called Poet Mountain where we were required to wear sarongs to walk down to it. We arrived at the entrance to discover that for a small donation you can help yourself to one of the sarongs on offer and just return it when you leave. So Vinny in a sarong was worth a few pics!! To get to the temple which is located at the base of a steep valley, you have to walk down 371 steps. It was really beautiful walking down, the scenery was amazing as everything is so green, particularly during rainy season. Once at the bottom, the ruins of the temple were pretty impressive with stone sculptures of elephants set into the walls. We then had to turn around and walk back up all those steps, which nearly killed me!!
Back to the taxi and on to the next stop. However, along the way the driver stopped to
let us take some pictures of the rice fields. They are staggered all down the hillside and are just so beautiful! Its just how I imagined Bali would look. The next stop was another temple, called Tirta Empul. Here, we were both given sarongs and wandered around looking at the temple and the ponds There was a ceremony going on while we were there, which was great to witness, but you kind of feel like an intruder, going round in your sarong taking pictures! There was also a large pond where people were going in to get cleansed. Basically, there was a line of pipes spilling water into the pond and you had to dunk yourself under each one as part of the ritual. It was interesting to watch.
When we left, our driver brought us to a coffee plantation, which was our favourite place. We were greeted by a really nice little Balinese guy, who first showed us these weird weasels called Lowaks. He then described the process of making Lowak coffee, which turns out to be coffee made from beans that have passed through the digestive system of these weasels!! He was really informative and showed
us the different stages. Apparently, the weasels are given the best Arabic beans, which they then only eat the best of these. The following day, the poor staff have to pick out the beans from the weasels droppings and leave them dry in the sun, they are then washed, dried in the sun again before being roasted and made into coffee!! Our guide then brought us to a sort of cafe, overlooking the spice and coffee plantations, which were so beautiful and green. It was lashing rain, so the place just looked magic. We were given 8 different types of coffees and teas to try, such as vanilla coffee, honey tea and chocolate coffee. They were so good! We also decided that while we were there, we might as well have some Lowak coffee! At €5 a cup, it was fairly pricey in comparison to living costs in Bali but we gave it a try. And it was worth it, the coffee was absolutely gorgeous and so much nicer than the normal Bali coffee that we had been drinking! We spent a good while there trying different samples and enjoying the view, before heading back to the car and back
into Ubud.
After four really nice days in Ubud, we decided to leave Bali for a few days and head for the island of Nusa Lembongan as we had heard good things about it.
We organised a van and a boat to take us to the island and were collected the next day in the lashings of rain. Bali traffic is as bad as they say and we didn’t get to the boat till about 20mins after it had left! However, another boat was organised to bring the last of us over. Safety standards aren't exactly a priority in Indonesia, so we were all packed onto a boat like sardines and off on a hairy enough crossing to the island of Nusa Lembongan!
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seamus
non-member comment
hey it seems just wonderful keep up the blogging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!