(7 October)

Woke up with a pretty awful hangover which wasn't fun! Had to pack and check out and figure out where I was going next and how! I had been thinking of going to Ubud, and the girls thought they were heading there too, so I thought I would just share their taxi, but then they said they weren't actually sure where they were going - I only realised later that it was a taxi and I probably could've just gone to Ubud even if they got dropped somewhere else! Fail, but my brain really wasn't working. To be honest I hadn't really clicked with them anyway, so was just happy enough to go off on my own!

Booked a shuttle bus from a place next door to our hotel...I think if my brain had been working I would have thought to ask if it would be air conditioned, how long it would take, and how a bus was going to get down that alley. Needless to say, I didn't. Oh well, at least it was cheap!

I walked to find some water and had a wee McDonalds...bought my meal then turned around and dropped the drink straight on the floor...epic fail. At least they gave me a new one! Haha. Was starting to think this wouldn't be a great day.

Walked back to where I'd booked the tour and had my first motorbike ride to the bus pickup...that was interesting with my rucksack and two bags! Glad it was a proper motorbike and not a moped! It was actually ok though...just a teeny bit scary lol. Waited outside a shop for the bus driver to wake up haha, and then got on to a rickety old bus with leather seats and no aircon...not my favourite transport so far!

After a couple of hours I arrived on Ubud where I immediately had a man telling me to come stay in his rooms! He offered to drive me there and back if I didn't like the room, and I was too tired to complain so went with him...turning into a motorbike pro! The first one he showed me was 150000, and I was like eh no chance, so he took me to his uncle's...this one was 100,000, and to be fair, it was a nice clean room with allegedly hot water for about £7...when I get to oz a dorm would cost 3 times that! So I gave in and took it - hungover me didn't think about wifi until afterwards though! Fail.

The room was nice though and was really cool...it was actually built in to the grounds of a temple where the priest's family lived, so it was really pretty!

I chilled out for a bit, then went for a wander around the town. It was more of the usual, every person you walk past trying to sell you transport, but everyone is very friendly and I felt a lot safer than I had in Kuta (not that kuta was unsafe at all, just the men shouting at me made me a bit uncomfortable!).

I wandered down to the Monkey Forest which is one of the main attractions there, apart from day trips to temples and volcanoes etc. I was a bit apprehensive after the horrible monkeys in KL, but figured I should give it a go! 20,000RP later and I was walking among loads of monkeys in a really pretty, peaceful forest! It was awesome, there were cool temples inside and it was just so pleasant to walk around! The monkeys were really well behaved, didn't come anywhere near me! Out the back of it I saw some of the rice paddy fields and some local homes which was good!

Was so chilled out after the forest and went for a walk again, planning to find somewhere cheapish with wifi for dinner and sit for a bit. I ended up walking through a lot of the town having a look and checking out restaurants and shops etc...I got it in my head that I could do with a massage because they were even cheaper than Thailand, so after checking out prices of half the town on my walk I ended up getting a Balinese one, which was pretty good, not as good as the Khmer one but still awesome!

After that I was seriously chilled haha, considered going to see a traditional dance show but couldn't really be bothered, saw a few glimpses of one later on and it looked a bit like the Khmer dancing anyway! Managed to remember to book my transport for the next day... I had been thinking of leaving lateish and seeing a bit more of Ubud, but the only time was 7am if I wanted to get there without an overnight in Lombok, so I just agreed to it, decided to take a slow boat because it was a lot cheaper than the fast one and I didn't mind the 8 hour journey!

I didn't actually know the name of the place I was staying to arrange my pick up in the morning lol, so the guy drove me to it on his bike to find out and then brought me back to the main strip.

I wandered for quite a while, half looking for somewhere that was busy or had people i could chat to! I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner (let my budget stretch to about a fiver haha!). Eventually a local pointed me in the direction of cheap local food "behind Nomads"...when I got there I had a look at Nomads and decided to go in.

It was awesome!! Lol, actually the best meal ever. The place was mega fancy but not too expensive. The waitress was really friendly, if a little horrified that i was alone lol, and I got a tapas of Indonesian food - 6 different things, it was epic! I know you are all laughing at my love of food right now but seriously! The service was really good and quick, I got satay chicken, snapper fish wrapped in banana leaf, curried pork, spicy shredded chicken, spring rolls, and green beans mixed with shredded pork, and a big portion of rice! Afterwards I still wanted to use the wifi, so ordered a passionfruit smoothie which had loads of stuff in it and actually came with a spoon cos there was big lumps of like ice cream/sorbet stuff in it! It was actually one of the tastiest meals of my life! Best decision ever!

I had planned on getting a bike back but it wasn't too dark so I just walked the 10 minutes home, and went to bed. Loved Ubud! The room was fine for sleeping, but I had loads of really itchy bites on my foot that kept me up, and there was a few bugs in the room - think I must have had one visiting my bed because I woke up with shoulders covered in bites... Not fun!