Stop #13: Kuta & Ubud, Bali

I have to admit that I had high expectations for Bali, and I’m so glad to say that that our visit to this beautiful island far surpassed all expectations.  I read a lot about Bali online and in a book I purchased, and I’ve heard about my friends’ experiences when they visited.  But actually, Bali was the only place on our itinerary that I purposely did not pre-plan before taking off on our trip.  Out of the 7 days we had scheduled for Bali, the only thing I pre-booked was 2 nights in Kuta.  The final 4 nights were either going to be set for Ubud (close to the middle of the island), or the Gili Islands (far North East).  If we picked Ubud, our adventure would entail all land activities.  And if we picked Gili Islands, our adventure would entail lots of scuba diving and exploring the ocean.  At first, I was a little hesitant to leave this “choose your own adventure” part up in the air, but it actually turned out to be the best decision.

If you’ve been reading my blogs in order, then you just read about Thailand and how we got sick right after our scuba diving liveaboard.  Lorenzo had a nasty cold since the first day on the liveaboard, and I vomited on the first day, and ended up with a cold on the last day.  We carried this sickness to Bali, unfortunately.  We felt weak, tired and just wanted to rest.  Luckily, I had booked 2 nights in the same place, so we had some time before we had to move again.  We arrived in Kuta in the late afternoon, and all we wanted to do was go out and have a nice dinner together.  So we showered up and headed down the (very touristy) streets.  Eventually we ended up at a nice restaurant with a decent menu, and it wasn’t long til we ordered our food and had a beer in our hands.  But Lorenzo and I couldn’t help staring at a very tall and strong-looking lady in a skimpy dress and extremely high heels.  We looked at each other with the same idea, but didn’t think too much of it.  But just a few minutes later, the music stopped and that same strong-looking lady announced that it was Drag Show Night and the show was about to begin!

And quite a show it was!  Those ladies could dance better than any Las Vegas dancer I’ve ever seen, and their heels were MUCH higher.  The did a great job entertaining the crowd, strutting their pretty outfits and impressive moves… we were enjoying every minute of it.  But a few songs into the show, one lady came over and whispered something into Lorenzo’s ear, and Lorenzo couldn’t stop laughing. I had no idea what was going on, but before I knew it, they took him to the center stage and sat him on a chair.  The two ladies continued to remove his shirt, and give him the craziest, horniest lap dances I’ve ever seen in my life!  I mean, they were doing things that I think would be illegal in the US.  On one hand I was getting a little concerned that Lorenzo was getting truly harassed by two men, but on the other hand, I just couldn’t stop laughing.  He was blind folded, and I don’t think he could really see what was going on.  I’m sure he could feel it, but he couldn’t see the whole scene.  Good thing I got it all on video!

After what seemed like forever, they brought my husband back to me… tainted in every way.  Then we finally got to proceed with our dinner, which actually didn’t taste good at all.  I’m not sure if the food was actually that bad, or all our senses had just been drained.  Regardless, that was one incredible dinner I’ll never forget.

The next day we mustered up our energy and set off to explore all the touristy parts of Bali – Kuta, Legion and Seminyak.  All the books and online resources say that these are the most “popular” places in Bali and have all the “best” beaches.  But I knew when I first booked our place in Kuta that it would just be completely overrun with tourists and not a good representation of Bali at all.  One of the books I purchased said to just skip the area and go straight to Ubud.  But you know what?  I actually like to see “all ends” of a country – from the hustling touristy areas, to the cultural areas, and to the country side.  I already know that I won’t like the touristy areas nearly as much, but I also know that it’s part of Bali.  It’s always so sad to see a beautiful part of a country, such as Phuket in Thailand or Kuta in Bali, be completely destroyed by tourism.  The locals do what they need to do to make money, but it transforms a part of their country into something they don’t even recognize.  Its an extremely sad thing to see.  One of the locals we met in Bali said “They say Kuta does not belong to Bali anymore, it belongs to the Australians”.  They say this because most of the tourists come from Australia, and most of the hotels, restaurants, tattoo shops and stores are owned by Australians (since Australia is so close to Bali).  So with all that in mind, we went out to explore these areas.  Lorenzo was definitely not a fan of the area, since it was mostly shopping and the beaches were lined with tacky “mini beach bars” and rubbish, but I took it all in with a grain of salt.  The best part of the day was when Lorenzo got a haircut, which turned out really nice, and we both got foot massages… always a winner!

Shortly before we arrived in Bali, we decided that we’d spend our final 5 days in Ubud rather than the Gili Islands.  The decision was mainly based on the fact that we just did 3 days of scuba diving in Thailand, and we were both still sick and unfit to continue diving.  Once this was decided, I booked us a super inexpensive yet nice hotel for 4 nights ($35/night including taxes and fees!).  I also planned us a full-day private tour, and Lorenzo booked us 3 days of land activities – mountain biking, hiking/waterfall/temple tour and river rafting.  So on our 3rd day in Bali, we took off for our private tour.  This tour entailed a lot of research on my end, as I wanted to see the best of Bali, and to also not repeat anything that Lorenzo had planned.

Itinerary:
1. Jatiluwih Rice Terrace – Supposedly the best view of rice terraces in Bali
2. Pura Ulun Danu Buyan – The famous temple on the water that you see on all postcards
3. Gigit Waterfall – Supposedly the best waterfall in Bali
4. Lovina Beach – Black sand beach in the far North, which is very popular
5. Grand Sunti Hotel, Ubud – Our hotel (drop off)

Jatiluwih Rice Terrace

This is basically a tour that takes you from the far South (Kuta) to the far North (Lovina Beach), while stopping by some great spots to see.  I didn’t realize it at first, but the whole thing took us 9 hours!  This is an incredible deal since the taxi only cost us $53 for the entire day.  I read in a book that you could hire a driver for the entire day for less than $60, and its true!  But of course I felt bad that it was so cheap, so we tipped him an additional $25 or so.  Anyhow…

Jatiluwih Rice Terrace was a very beautiful view indeed.  You don’t actually get to go to the terraces, but you get to see the whole scene from a nice vista point.  Pura Ulun Danu Buyan was also a beautiful site to see, but it was quite overrun with tourists.  Although we enjoyed the place, we didn’t stay very long.  Gigit Waterfall was quite entertaining.  It was a lovely walk across bridges and through greenery to get to the waterfall… yes nature!  The waterfall itself was gorgeous, and it fell into a big pool in which you could swim in. Both Lorenzo and I would have loved to jump in, but we decided not to since we were still a bit sick.  So after several pretty pictures, we headed up to Lovina Beach.  At first, I didn’t expect much from Lovina Beach since I heard it was “just” a quiet beach town, but I actually really enjoyed it.  It was far better than the Kuta area, and the ocean was much more swimmable (less waves).  Lorenzo and I enjoyed a nice lunch on the beach and soaked in the beautiful view.  I thought to myself, if I ever came to Bali again, I’d stay in Lovina.  But that was before we experienced Ubud…

We arrived in our hotel in Ubud in the evening, so Lorenzo and I just had a quick dinner and went to bed.  The next morning, our mountain biking guide picked us up and prepped us for a long 7-hour adventure!  To be honest, the two of us were considering cancelling the mountain biking trip since we were both still under the weather (and this trip was considered for “advanced riders only”).  But, we decided to go through with it.  We got picked up in a van with just one other person – a girl.  I couldn’t tell you how happy I was that it was a girl!  I had been so nervous that I’d be the “worst” bike rider in the group, so I thought that if the other rider was a girl, maybe I wouldn’t be the last one.  But I couldn’t be any more wrong.  This crazy lady was a hard-core mountain biking competitor, triathlete, adventure racer and fitness guru!  I was screwed… I was going to be last ☹

But the day turned out to be one of the best days we’ve had during our trip.  Yes, I was definitely last, but I still managed to complete the whole trip, which was almost 45 miles!  We started off the ride going up and along Mount Batur crater, which was no joke.  I felt beyond pathetic, as my chest was burning and I could barely catch my breath.  Where the hell did my cardio go??  Travelling for just two months and my cardio goes out the window?  It’s so crazy that you can train hard all your life, then when you take some time off, your fitness level drops significantly.  But it was ok, no one minded that I was slow, and we all enjoyed the views very, very much. Our long journey continued through many trails, through bamboo forests, villages, and volcanos.  The terrain around the volcanos was quite challenging, as we’d ride through stretches of sharp rocks, and then sand pits, and then sharp rocks again.  The scenery was spectacular, although I didn’t get to absorb much of it since I was concentrating so hard on not falling.  Luckily, I didn’t fall at all and I survived the hardest part of the ride.

On the way to lunch, we stopped by a really cool temple that was only accessible by a narrow dirt path.  I felt like we discovered something “secret”, or something that most people would never get to see.  I felt like that most of the ride, as we rode through many very narrow trails through several villages and farmlands.  We got to see locals harvesting cabbage, women picking flowers for an upcoming ceremony, little children riding motorcycles (ya, seriously), and tried some local snacks.  It was definitely a very different, and very fun way to see the countryside!  You wouldn’t get this kind of experience from a tour bus.  After the first ½ of our biking tour was done, we had a delicious buffet lunch at an outdoor restaurant that had the most perfect panorama view of the volcanoes and landscaping.  It was pretty funny, and a little nerve wrecking, that one of those volcanoes had just erupted a couple days before we arrived in Bali, and it was still smoking lol.  That’s one thing that Murphey’s Law forgot to through at us during this trip – get blasted by a volcano explosion.  Anyhow, our ride ended with a very memorable ride through a very large rice farm.  This turned out to be my favorite memory from the whole ride.  We had to bike along these very narrow paths between the water-flooded rice fields – one wrong move and you’ll be in the mud!  I’m happy to say that we all completed the journey safely, and very happily 😊

The next day we had a private full-day tour with a local guy named Tude.  We wouldn’t have actually thought of doing this tour, but it was free.  Let me explain the chaos we had to go through to end up with this free tour.  Just a couple days before we arrived in Bali, AirBnB said that Japan changed its laws which required all hosts to have a license.  Since our hosts in Osaka and Tokya did not get their license in time, AirBnB cancelled both of our reservations.  This really sucked because it was just 10 days before we were to arrive in Japan!  All the remaining accommodations were ridiculously priced, and supply was very limited.  Since AirBnB knew how much of a hassle the cancellations were, they compensated us.  Not only did they give us a full refund for the amount we paid, but they also gave us additional credit for that same amount to use on any future reservation.  That means, if we paid $500 for an apartment, they refunded us the $500 we paid, and gave us a voucher for $500 more to use on AiBnB.  In addition, they gave us a $100 voucher to use on any “AirBnB Experience”, anywhere and anytime.  And since they cancelled two of our reservations, we got a total of $200 credit for Experiences. This is how we booked the private day tour & river rafting tour in Bali for free 😊

Our first stop with Tude was to Tibumana Waterfall.  We were lucky to get there early enough that there was (almost) no one there yet… excellent for picture taking.  I would have loved to swim in the waterfall pool, but I didn’t want to risk it since I wasn’t quite over my cold yet.  But Lorenzo didn’t care, he jumped right in!  The next waterfall we visited was Tukad Cepung Waterfall.  This one was very picturesque.  You had to walk through kind of a cave to get to it, and I was all about it!  But I must have gotten to excited because I immediately tripped on a big underwater rock and ripped open the skin on my big toe.  It stung so badly, but I really wanted to go to the waterfall.  After a very fun photo session with the falls, we headed back to the car to bandage up my toe.  I’m so tired of getting hurt!  Now I can’t wear closed toed shoes for a while… oh well, it was worth it!

Our next stop was to the Tirta Empul Temple, which is something that I think EVERYONE must visit when they visit Bali.  Honestly, this place was never on my radar (and I wasn’t even expecting it on the tour), but I’m so glad we visited it!  This is not just a temple – it a very large area for worshiping and holding purification rituals.  It’s a very special place that I felt honored to visit.  The temples and structures were impressive, but I was really taken aback  when I witnessed the purification ritual.  First, you need to wear a sarong if you enter the area, as well as tie up your long hair (hair down = angry energy).  Then, you need to kneel down in a certain area and pray.  Then, you need to give an offering in another area – this can be food, money, etc.  Then, you go into the pool of water and wait for your turn to dip your head under the running water spouts – all 10 of them.  This is the purification process to clear your mind.  It does NOT forgive your sins, it just gives you a new beginning.  They believe that, although you cannot clear your sins, you can do many good deeds to re-balance yourself so you have more “good” than “bad”. I actually really like this concept, because I don’t think it’s fair for people to “clear their sins” by just praying or doing rituals – if you sinned, you should do many good deeds and change yourself for the better, to make up for it.  I would have even participated in this ritual, but… the line was long, the water was freezing cold, I didn’t have a swim suit to wear under my sarong, and Lorenzo wasn’t up for it.  Pictures will just have to suffice.

The next place we went to was a Luwak Coffee plantation.  I didn’t realize we were going to this place, I thought we were just going to have coffee somewhere.  Some of you may know about this very “unethical” coffee, which I hope you never drink!  Here’s how they make Luwak Coffee:

1.      Capture Asian Palm Civets (type of cat)
2.     Feed them only coffee cherries (which they usually eat in the wild)
3.     Collect their poop which includes whole fermented (not digested) coffee beans
4.     Make coffee from these beans

Asian Palm Civets - used to make Luwak Coffee

The problem with this is that the cats are kept in small cages and fed only these cherries, whereas in the wild they would actually eat a variety of food.  Lorenzo and I read about this animal cruelty before we got to Bali, but now we got to see it for ourselves.  They showed us the cats in cages, with their bowls of cherries (and nothing else).  They were pacing and jumping all over the place like they either had way too much energy for the small cage, or they were going cage-crazy.  Regardless, you could tell that they were not happy at all.  One of them had a huge gash on its neck, as if the cats were fighting when no one was looking.  I was very sad to see this.  At the end of the tour, they asked us if we would like to try Luwak Coffee.  I said no, and I explained why.  I told them about how it’s animal cruelty, unethical, etc.  But they continued to lie and say that they actually go out into the wild and only collect wild poop.  Lorenzo and I knew they were full of shit (no pun intended).  So we agreed on just trying some regular coffee.

After the coffee tasting, we go to do the “sky high” swing.  I had no idea what this was all about, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!  It’s basically a very sturdy swing attached to two trees, that swings over a very steep area of greenery.  I was a bit nervous as well, but when they strapped me in a harness and locked me to the swing itself, I felt a lot better… and it was fun!  Lorenzo and I both had a blast swinging on that thing; it was something that we’ve never encountered before and was happy to try out. 

Our tour continued on to the Tegalalang Rice Terrace, where we had a very delicious lunch at a place that over looked the terraces.  I think I actually loved the view and the set up of the restaurant more than the food itself!  After lunch, we got to take a long stroll up and down the rice terraces and explore them up close and personal.  It was truly a maze to weave in and out of the terraces.  There was even one girl we saw who was completely lost, and a local had to escort her out.  It was pretty funny 😊  The cool thing about being on this tour was that our guide knew the area very well and was able to take us to a place where no one was.  We were able to sip on coconut water (out of a coconut of course) and soak in the beautiful view.  These are the kind of moments I’ll never forget!

Walking around Tegalalang Rice Terrace - a must do!

That evening, Lorenzo and I enjoyed a very delicious dinner with a beautiful view of a grassy field (we love greenery).  It was definitely one of the best meals we had in Bali!  At least that was the case til I barfed it up that night.  I don’t know what it was, but I had food poisoning all night.  Murphey’s Law is at it again!  I wouldn’t have minded getting sick, except for the fact that we were supposed to go river rafting the next day.  When I woke up, I just couldn’t get out of bed and told Lorenzo to go on without me.  Reluctantly he did, and I went back to sleep. By the time he got back, I felt a whole lot better and was looking forward to getting out of the hotel room.  I was very glad to hear that he had a pretty good time, although he was stuck with a Spanish family the whole time (the odd guy).  Good thing the tour was free!

River Rafting in Ubud, Bali

That afternoon, we made it over to Monkey Forest.  What I thought was going to be a cheesy zoo actually turned out to be a really beautiful (and huge) natural park!  We spent a couple hours walking around the whole park, enjoying the banyan trees, babbling brooks, carved statues, and 800 monkeys.  The cool thing was that the monkeys were not afraid of people at all, so you could observe them quite closely.  But perhaps we observed them too closely… or maybe they observed us too closely.  Shortly into our visit, a baby monkey jumped onto Lorenzo’s arm.  He just sat there for a minute and stared at us.  Then he continued to grab Lorenzo’s shirt by his nipple and started sucking on it! It was really funny to watch Lorenzo nurse a baby monkey 😊  Once the baby realized that no milk was coming out, he climbed onto Lorenzo’s shoulder and started chewing on his head (luckily he was wearing a hat).  I gotta say that this was a good laugh!

Another funny thing that happened was that a teenager monkey attacked my purple bag that Lorenzo was carrying.  It full on jumped onto the bag, held onto it with its hands, and started chewing on something in there.  Our oranges!  At first, Lorenzo tried to gently shake him off, but he wouldn’t drop off.  So he started shaking the bag harder and swinging the monkey around.  I started getting nervous because people surrounded us to watch the scene and it kinda looked like Lorenzo was abusing the monkey lol.  I got it all on video, you’ll have to check it out sometime.  After a few more funny encounters with the monkeys, Lorenzo and I decided we should leave before something bad happened.  The last thing we needed was rabies!

Using Lorenzo as a launching pad

That evening, Lorenzo and I enjoyed 3 hours at the spa to completely pamper ourselves.  We got a full body massage, body scrub, cream bath, facial and manicure/pedicure for $23 per person!!  If you ever come to Thailand or Bali, you have to take advantage of the spa services… they do a great job and it’s incredibly cheap.  In my opinion, Thailand does better massages (since I like it super hard), but Bali is cheaper (by a few dollars).  That night, we slept really well and got ready to wake up to our journey to Japan…

PHOTOS OF BALI