Ubud (Via Bedugal)

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Thursday 17th:
After leaving Lovina, we were happily on our way to Ubud, and we asked the driver to stop at Bedugal so we could see the temples on the lake. They were nice to see, but not nearly as impressive as the photos we had seen of them.

Got to Ubud and the driver took us to a nice hotel near the centre called Argosa on Monkey Forest Road. It's a nice place, 2 double beds, with an outdoor bathroom - with hot water (a luxury for us by now), and it's set back in a nice garden - all for Rp 60,000 (about £3.40).

So we walked around Ubud, went to the Post Office, posted our PADI forms, postcards etc, and walked on. Figured Ubud, even though it's Bali's second largest town, really isn't that big. So after having Mexican Burritos' (which turned out to be Guacamole in a soggy pancake) we went to bed at 5pm. Diving, plus the change in altitude really knocks you out.

Friday 18th:
Bit bored of Ubud already by now, bored of Bali even. It's peaceful where as we're used to hectic. So we went back to the post office, posted more postcards, and stopped at a cafe for brunch. There we met a rotund Australian lady that has been coming here for 30 years and always stays in homestays (Like a B and B). After that we walked down our road (the one our hotel is on) and went to 'monkey forest.'

It's basically a park, with some temples and hundreds of monkeys. They were fun to watch and the baby ones can be quite cute but some of them can be quite aggressive, whilst others steal water and food from your bag. We walked round the park and saw deers in an enclosure aswell, and a temple dedicated to a demon-ogre that eats children.
Then on the way back a particularly aggressive monkey pestered us, but luckily a local dog came by to see if we had any food (as dogs do). The monkey wasn't half as cocky then.

So later being a bit bored after eating we did a bit of internet and tried Arak a 40%!w(MISSING)ine made from coconut. We drank nearly the whole bottle sat outside our room, and at about midnight (with Matt as the main instigator) we used a clothes airer to try and get a coconut down from a tree (waking several other hotel guests up in the process - Oh well.)

Sat 19th:
Decided to hire bicycles, and trek out to see the rice terraces today. Which we did.

They were very pretty and scenic and it was thoroughly enjoyable. We found that the rural people are a lot more friendly than the ones we normally see, and the shops don't try to charge more for foreigners. Genuinely nice people. We saw people harvesting rice by hand, and drying it by the side of the road. Funny, you see it in the supermarket and don't realise how much hard works goes into getting it there.

On the way we got invited into a temple by a crazy deaf lady, who in impossibly unintelligable words tried to show us round. We both had to wear Sarongs. It was interesting, but at the time we were trying to get a picture of a rice terrace.
At the end of it all she demanded Rp 10,000 of each of us, we gave her Rp10,000 for both. Bad Karma to her.

Later we booked our bus out of Ubud to Sanur, a place that isn't mentioned in our guide but in the postcards looks nice. So who knows.

Then we went to get last minute pics of Ubud and nipped into the market, before heading back to hotel to sort bags, do journals, get dinner, update the blog and then finally bed.

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Photos

Monkey sleeping.
Monkey Forest - Ubud

Bedugal.
The temple.

Our room
The outdoor bathroom. Looks a lot more grotty in the picture.

Naughty Monkey
It stole this water out of a womans pocket, managed to take of the plastic seal, open it and drink it!

Baby Monkies
Monkey Forest - Ubud

Rice terraces.
About 3km outside Ubud on our bike ride.

The temple.
The one we saw on our bike-riding excursion.

Ubud market.
Utter chaos