We ummed and ahhed for a while about the best way of getting to Ubud, from using the cheap but long winded local bemos (Indonesia's buses) to the slightly expensive taxis and private shuttle buses. It transpired that out best option was to hire a car. Between the three of us it came to 50,000 rupiah (less than £2.50) each a day. Other than hiring mopeds, which wasn't ideal with Beth's very limited riding experience, it was the cheapest method, plus it meant that we would have our own transport for the six days in Ubud.
The car we received from a local rental shop was outside our guesthouse just after midday. But it wasn't exactly what we were expecting. The car we'd agreed to hire was a subtle black Toyota mini MPV. The car we received, looked as Beth described "like a shoe" and in a far from subtle bright orange! But looking on the bright side (quite literally) at least we were easy to spot in the chaotic traffic around Bali.
The forty odd kilometre journey from Uluwatu to Ubud was only meant to take around an hour, which getting to the outskirts did, but to actually reach the centre of Ubud it took a further hour of crawling through relentless traffic. As Amelia and Beth both agreed, it was a good job I was driving, as neither of them were too pleased about how close the mopeds and oncoming traffic got to scraping down the sides of our little 'Faith' - the name Beth used for our car, when the pathetic little engine struggled to propel us up some of the steep hills around Ubud.
Our homestay called 'Teba House', like many of the places around Ubud was family run and squashed in amongst the congested and highly populated area of central Ubud.
The main religion in Bali is Hinduism, so the houses in Ubud and the majority of other homes in Bali have their own house-temples, also called ‘Pura’ – they say there are more temples than there are homes in Bali! So walking into and through the Teba family home, was like walking through the grounds of a miniature temple, with its lots of little shrines and statues of Hindu gods.
The room we stayed in was the deluxe room as all the others were occupied, fortunately with a bit of bargaining the three of us stayed (with an extra bed on the floor for Beth) for less than a fiver each, which was only a little more than the standard rooms.
Seeing the picturesque streets lined with penjors (penjors are tall, curved bamboo poles decorated with coconut leaves with an offering at the base. It is a decoration used in Bali as part of almost every important ceremony), quirky little cafes and shops from the inside of our 'shoe' during our battle through the traffic had wetted our appetites, so we quickly sorted our belongings and ventured out to explore.
It wasn’t long before our stroll along the streets had taken us into a cool café serving lots of healthy fruit juices, tasty smoothies and awakening coffees. Amelia and Beth couldn’t resist the peanut smoothie with cacao and banana.
After our drinks at the café called ‘Kafe’, we went to see a traditional religious Kecak and fire dance at a nearby temple.
We arrived with plenty of time to spare expecting to get some good seats, but when we arrived we were a little shocked to see the amount of people who were already there and in the seats we were wanting.
The first dance started with approximately one hundred men wearing only checked cloth around their waists. They appeared from the entrance of the temple in single file. The single file slowly filtered out and formed into rows of circles, with a burning candelabrum in the centre of the group. They moved their body’s rhythmically to the left and to the right, chanting a trance inducing “cak ke-cak ke-cak ke-cak” continuously, in slow rhythm (known as the monkey chant). Gradually the rhythm increased and by turns they lifted their hands, trembling, into the air. Whilst this was all happening a fragment of the Ramayana epic was unfolding in and around the masses of chanting men that were now sitting. The tale and performance concluded with a dramatic fire dance whereby Rama tramples over burning coconut husks. It was a very unexpected experience and well worth the visit!
After I’d managed to 'drag' Amelia away from one of the old men performing in the dance, we went to a place called ‘Fair Warung Bale’. The warung is a restaurant and workshop that funds ‘Fair Future Foundation’ and ‘Bali Sari Foundation’. These foundations treat tens of thousands of poor, sick, disabled, disadvantaged people each year, without consideration of race, religion, origin or age. Not only does the workshop and restaurant provide over sixty percent of these foundations total annual funding, but they also offer training and help supply jobs to local poverty stricken communities with the hope of giving them a brighter future.
Amelia chose the chicken red curry, Beth opted for their cashew and chicken dish, but it took me a while to decide on what to have, so I ended up asking for the waitress’ recommendation which was a spicy fish red curry. The food was fantastic, and we went away feeling happy that we’d (according to the menu) funded six free medical consultations to those in need.

As we made our way up one of the main roads in Ubud, I could sense how difficult Amelia and Beth were finding it to walk past the selection of quirky souvenir and clothes shops dotted all around. Every now and again they would pause then reluctantly carry on by.
Beth had been highly recommended a few cafés from an Aussie man, who owned a holiday home in Bali so knew the area well. It just so happened that the route Amelia was leading us on would pass by one of his recommendations, 'Alchemy'. In theme with Ubud's hippy vibe, this café was focused on organic, locally sourced and vegan ingredients in their large choice of drinks, snacks and meals. I kept it simple and ordered an iced laté, whilst the girls struggled to resist the ‘chipmunk’ smoothie (banana, raw chocolate chips, cashews, palm nectar, and cinnamon). The laté was slightly unusual with its almond milk but nothing spectacular, whereas the girls' smoothie was incredible!
Feeling energised we began our walk through the rural areas of Ubud, along small walkways past rice paddies and local women balancing three at a time breeze blocks (for building work) on their heads! We carefully followed the narrow pathways which allowed us to appreciate the quiet and what seemed undiscovered countryside. It was great to quietly observe the locals at work in the rice fields and enjoy the quieter side of Ubud.
Having spent the entire morning walking, covering around ten kilometres, we were definitely ready for some grub for our grumbling stomachs.
Down a back alley, out of the way from the main bustling streets of Ubud, was an extremely crowded hog roast style restaurant, 'Ibu Oka', which was full to the rafters even at 2.30pm. We were surprised at how jam-packed it was being so well hidden! Eventually we were told we could sit at a small table on some cushions on the floor, suiting us fine. Thankfully it didn't take long for the food to arrive; a basket containing almost every type of pork from crackling, to black sausage and other random parts of pig. Beth and I thought it was great, especially the perfectly crispy crackling, but Amelia wasn’t so impressed.
Catching sight of more local women carrying breeze blocks on their head and other photographic opportunities, I was distracted by where Amelia was leading us to.
But I was not surprised to find us at the market, with her and Beth grinning at me looking for unrequired acceptance. We spent the remainder of the afternoon souvenir and clothes shopping, slowly meandering down the street of endless market stalls.
After resting and showering, we found a place down the road called 'Who's Who', where the only table available was again sitting on the floor. The food was nice but unfortunately was not quite filling enough after our active day, so we called in for a stop at a nearby supermarket for some dessert!

Due to bad planning we ended up having to move homestays (Teba House was fully booked). Luckily, we found a nice place just around the corner called ‘Desak Puta Putra Homestay’.
It was fairly early when we arrived as we had places to be and things to do, so after lugging our things into their storage room (aka next to the TV in their living room), we jumped back in Faith and whizzed ten or so kilometres north east, along the windy roads to Gunung Kawi.
Gunung Kawi is home to an 11th century Hindu temple spread across the Pakerisan River. On one side of the river is a seven metre-high cliff with ten rock sculpted shrines carved into the face and on the other, a temple area with ruins that are only allowed to be explored by barefoot.
Once we’d finished slipping and sliding around the damp moss covered rocks, we headed back up to the carpark and drove to another temple called ‘Pura Tirta Empul’.
Tirta Empul means holy spring in Balinese, so the Hindus of Bali come here for purification from its holy water. Whilst there, we were able to witness dozens of Balinese people bathing themselves and their young children in the sacred waters for its supposed healing and spiritual properties. Certain parts of the place were quite stunning, but it was heaving with people and with the only properties I could ‘sense’ from the waters being ammonia we moved on.
Heading west and back towards Ubud, we stopped by some nice rice terraces near a place called ‘Tegallalang’. We naively expected the area to be relatively untouched, how wrong we were. The amount of cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops took us all by complete surprise. The rice terraces themselves were being trampled down by numerous tourists. We were however in need of a drink by this point, something other than the luke warm water sat in the car, so we stopped at a quiet café for a quick iced coffee and carried on south back to Ubud.
Having gorged on Indian food throughout much of the Malaysian peninsular, we were starting to miss it, so off to ‘Little India’ we went (a nearby Indian restaurant). We tucked into some delicious curries, popadoms, roti and vegetable sides.
To complete our ‘temple run’ for the day we went to ‘Goa Gajah’ which is locally known as ‘Elephant Cave’ because of its close proximity to the Elephant River. The entrance to the cave looked like some sort of demonic mouth leading into the unknown, and with the crowds of people around desperate to get their picture stood outside, it took some patience to enter. Once inside, it was a little bit of an anti-climax - you walk through a dark tunnel (approximately ten metres) to find a few dimly lit shrines covered in rotten offerings. On the upside, the area in which the temple was located was amid lush green rice paddies and also next to a nice cool forest.
The rivers around Ubud are home to a few graded white water rapids, and with local tour operators being very keen to offer ‘really good’ rafting trips left, right and centre, we thought we should check it out. But being the dry season we weren’t sure on the validity of the local tout’s claims. So before ‘signing on the dotted line’ we went to check the rapids for ourselves.
Before we reached the rough whereabouts of the rapids, Amelia noticed a ‘180 degree rice terrace viewpoint’ on the GPS. Never one to turn away a good photo opportunity we made a slight detour. The viewpoint was actually located in the grounds of a very unusual looking hotel. Each room and building was completely different to the other, from extremely rustic looking shacks, to very modern and contemporary bungalows. The main lobby area was even made to look like some sort of pirate ship made entirely of chunky painted black bamboo poles.
The best 180 degree view of the rice terraces were from the top of a very tall rickety treehouse! The climb to the top was up a steep wobbly bamboo ladder, but Beth and I took up the challenge and reaped the benefits at the top, whilst Amelia looked up glumly and waited at the bottom.
Once we’d finished looking around at ‘Bambu Indah’, we carried on along to where Amelia and Beth had sussed out a good place to stop and look at the Ayung river. Unfortunately the vantage point was near a flat part of the river with no rapids in sight, so it wasn’t really ideal to make a good judgement. Luckily there was a local rafting company not far from where we’d parked Faith, but after not seeing the quality of the rapids and the company not willing to come to a sensible deal on pricing, we decided to opt out.
It’d been a long busy day, so we went back to the homestay to finally check in. The room was nice, but not quite the quality we’d had in the deluxe room at Teba House. However, they did have a breakfast we’d not heard of before, so as requested, we made sure to reserve the ‘special breakfast’ for the following morning.
Dinner was at a place called ‘Putu’s Wild Ginger’, which we’d made sure to reserve a table (for the first time in our trip), as the place was small and very popular on TripAdvisor. The restaurant, after much deliberation by the family, was actually built on top of the old family house-temple in order to give their children the best possible lives. As we can only imagine, it wasn’t an easy decision to make, but luckily it looks like it paid off. They only had five or six tables but they were constantly occupied, and we could see why, the food was outstanding!

The ‘special’ breakfast was ‘black rice pudding’. In terms of texture and consistency it’s not much different to what we get back home. But that’s where the similarities end, the black rice and coconut milk make for a much nicer taste.
With Teba House just around the corner and now having space again, we checked out and transferred our belongings back to Teba. Unfortunately the deluxe room wasn't available so we settled for their still more than adequate, standard room.
It's fair to say Amelia has had her fair share of bad experiences with macaques, from trying to steal her guidebook in Cambodia to jumping onto her back in Vietnam. But with our first stop for the day being at the 'Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary' it was time to try and put Amelia's new found fear behind her.
The forest is home to over 600 macaques and contains over 115 different species of tree. Before entering the forest we learnt that macaques can feel threatened by eye contact, so with this new found knowledge in mind we made our way into the forest hoping Amelia wouldn't attract any of the aggressive ones.
We stayed in the forest for roughly two hours hearing the sounds of screams from those who clearly don't adhere to the rules, and looking at the various 'attractions' including Beth's reason for wanting to visit - the 'temple of the death' which is one of three Hindu temples in the grounds.
Nearing the end of our walk through the forest, we bumped into a small group staring at something in a small stream. It took us a while to see what they were actually looking at, but when we finally caught a glimpse we were too very intrigued.
On closer inspection (with the camera) I noticed that it was a viper of some sort, swallowing down a live frog! Poor frog, but I must admit I found it very interesting.
Leaving the snake alone to consume the rest of its breakfast, we went on and out of the monkey forest with no incidences for Amelia! Hopefully it was the 'no staring' that did the trick and not just the amount of people she was able to hide behind!
Since Beth's arrival in SEA, with her own willingness, we have made it our goal to turn her into a coffee lover, and succeeded. Being keen to visit and try out some of the quirky coffee shops in Ubud, Beth led us into one called 'Cafe Seniman'.
After enjoying some iced coffees along with a 'cerorot' - a delicious rice cake, we went to Ubud Royal Palace.
To be honest he palace wasn't spectacular, and we were surprised by its small scale and lack of 'bling' for a royal palace.
With its endless choices of mouth watering food, Ubud is a hard place to 'eat cheap'. But with a stroke of luck we found a place called 'Warung Garasi' down a side street.
What caught our eye was the front half of a Vespa scooter poking out of the eatery. Behind the front half and behind the wall, was the back half of three Vespas in between typical bar stools. We sat on the three Vespas whilst enjoying some great local food. Looking around the part restaurant, part 'Garasi' (garage), I noticed loads of scooters, including a Vespa and sidecar were not just for decoration. Old Vespas are becoming very sought after and fetch quite big money back home, so I was surprised to see you could buy one in fairly good condition for around 5,000,000 rupiah (£250)!
With Ubud being the spiritual and cultural heart of Bali, and Beth being a keen Yogi back home, we decided, as it was our last afternoon in Ubud, to try and participate in some yoga at a tranquil place out in the sticks called 'Intuitive Flow'. Amelia had reserved three places on their 'sound' yoga session, and received confirmation of our reservation.
To reach Intuitive Flow we had to take Faith through the torturous traffic and park by the side of a road, before making the last few hundred metres by foot. Arriving hot and sweaty before starting yoga is probably not ideal, but we were happy to arrive before the class had commenced. However, even though the class hadn't started we were told they were full. We mentioned our reservation assuming they thought we were 'walk ins'. But no, they'd given away our places to others who hadn't reserved and were unwilling to do anything about it. Obviously we weren't at all impressed and made our feelings perfectly clear!
We all decided that instead of saving money, to have a one hour massage for a mere 60,000 rupiah (under £3). The massage was much needed and definitely relieved some of the pent up stress and tension from the chaotic roads and just as disorganised yoga centre.
The last evening in Ubud was spent at a very popular Mexican restaurant, before going back to Teba House and enjoying some of our duty free alcohol.

The next day we got up and hit the road.. Next stop Canggu..