Ah, Ubud. Made even more famous in recent years due to the phenomenon of, "Eat, Pray, Love", it is a busy, busy place. Tranquil compared to Denpasar, but not the sleepy town we assume it once was. There is still lots to love though; rice terraces, museums, art galleries, cultural shows - Ubud is apparently known as the "cultural heart" of Bali.

We visited the famous "Monkey Forest" which is set in a beautiful, lush forest, and houses the long-tailed macaque. The cheeky monkeys are particularly aggressive here and will not think twice about jumping on you to grab your sunglasses, hat, etc., but luckily we were spared this intrusion! However, we were angry to see so many ridiculous tourists interacting irresponsibly with the monkeys, which put a bit of a damper on the whole experience. We're talking about people from the most educated countries in the world. There really are no words.

Our craziest experience consisted of being picked up from our hotel at 3:00 am to be driven to the base of volcano Mount Batur to climb to the top for a sunrise view. It is still full-on hot in the middle of the night, and so we panted and sweated our way to the top in time to see a few glimpses of sky before the clouds took over. On the drive back to Ubud the skies cleared and we managed to catch a glimpse of mighty Mount Agung which erupted several months ago. Apparently there are still restrictions on how close you can get to it, so we were happy to view it from afar.

The area is so serene and lovely once you get out of the town, and we rented bicycles one morning to cycle to one of the bigger rice terraces. It was wonderful to walk through them feeling warm and dry, after our previous wet and muddy rice terrace experience in Sapa, Vietnam! We also took in a Kecak Fire and Trance Dance which told the story of a Hindu tale while featuring the traditional chanting from the male chorus. Such a demanding vocal performance - have never seen anything like it! Ubud is similar to where we were in Legian in that there is lots of good value accommodation and eats to be had, and is a place that feels easy to be in. We have heard a ton of great things about so many other areas of Bali; amazing that such a small island can have so much to offer. We hope to see some more before this trip is through!