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Published: October 2nd 2012
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Getting back to Bali involved yet another boat/bus combination.....hopefully the last for a while! We were efficiently picked up in Sengiggi, then dropped at the port for the usual chaos to ensue. The Bali end was particularly interesting with drivers fighting amongst themselves to decide who took who where, but eventually and in a great deal of pain we arrived in Ubud. As we mentioned we had to spend a good bit of time walking around hunting for accomodation, usually not too bad but with our legs of pain and Ubud's enjoyment of uneven pavements and steps, it was hard work. We took a basic bungalow room for one night and vowed to go hunting for a place with a pool the next day without our bags! We spent the rest of the day walking around, checking ot other accomodation and basically getting teh lay of the land. Ubud is a very laid back town, surrounded by rice paddys and woodland. This suited us down to the ground given our current states! After a day walking round town we had some tea opposite the hotel and gave up on the idea of further exploring in favour of going to bed to
watch TV, an activity where our legs did not hurt.
The next morning we got up to move hotels. To do this we had to walk past an area of Ubud called the Monkey Forest. This is a large area of forest containing some small temples, which is home to literally thousands of monkeys and is right on the edge of town. These monkeys, as they are so many places, are far too used to humans and the fact that they carry food. So us walking past the edge of the forest with our backpacks and carrier bags caused much stress to the security guards, but we survived! Then we spent another day in Ubud style! Had a swim and a chill by the pool, walked around the town, went for a coffee and bought some books, very hard day! We considered a Balinese massage but decided we were still in too much pain. On the evening we headed out for some food and a few drinks with the standard live music and probably more hotel california. The bars were all really expensive, but eventually we found a small reggae bar which also just happened to be showing the
Liverpool game. (less said the better)
You will see a bit of a pattern emerging when it comes to Ubud, we filled our days but when Ithink back I can't remember what with, we could very much see why people go there and never leave!
We went to visit the indonesian coffee festival and James got stocked up, we met some comical staff on the stands who had been drinking coffee all day and could barely keep still. Then we headed out for the balinese massages, what an experience! We were sent into cubicles and told to strip down to our underware...nothing dignified about massage in bali! What we got was a firm combination of reflexology, massage and general joint cracking. Some quite strange moments and a lot of pain, but in all feeling better afterwards!
We got out for a bit of a walk the next day, finally feeling up to it. The walking is supposed to be fab around Ubud but unfortunately we never really took advantage of it. We did manage a nice stroll around some nearby rice fields which was lovely. On the evening we went to see some balinese traditional dancing. We
chose to go to the Kecale "fire dancing" which was very local to a small village. It was a great experience,we were picked up in the town and taken out to this village to a small courtyard outside a temple where everyone was sat in a circle around some burning candles on plastic chairs. The idea of this type of show was that the music was made entirely from male voices and most of the sounds were supposed to sound like monkeys "Taka Taka". There was a basic story but of course no words were in English but we loved it.
The next day was our last in Asia. So we went and visited the monkey forest, which was a bit scary given the sheer amount of Monkeys, they were everywhere and not afraid to jump on people. There were signs everywhere warning against carrying food or water bottles, and disclaimers at the gates about injury and death liability! Great stuff, but we got out unscathed! We had a mission to the post office to again lighten our loads and this was very interesting! We were ushered out the back where a man built us a box of the
correct size and shape out of cardboard, cost enough to send though!
We headed for tea and another relaxing massage before the taxi came to get us for our night flight. Flying out of Denpasar was frustrating to say the least. You have to queue to scan your bags at the door before you get in the check in area. Then after check in, we went through full security. After this we had the usual wait and then were called to the gate. Just before this we had bought some water for the plane. Then we discovered that we had to have our hand lugage scanned again to get into the holding area, cue - sorry you can't take your unopened brand new bottles of outragously overpriced water we just sold you after security through to the gate. However the people who have bought large bottles of alcohol from duty free are fine. Beyond annoying. Then after this, they searched everyones bags - posing the question, if they were going to do it anyway, why all the scanning?? Eventually we were on our way! Australia here we come.
We were pretty sad to leave Asia and more than
a little nervous for the next part of our trip. Time is flying! It feels like we could have spent the whole 6 months in these countries and still have so much to see, instead of crossing places of that we have seen we now have a list of places to come back to....until next time Asia!
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