2017-01-14-ubud1

Ubud 1

First Day

Ubud

So we are finally in Bali. We haven't been here for years! This time around we intentionally avoided the more busy tourist-y areas such as Kuta.

We ended up going to Ubud instead (among others)

The Flight

After a horrible Uber ride later, we find out at the airport that Tiger Air is grounded for all flights to Indonesia. Not really a problem for us as we're in Jetstar, except all the Tiger Air passengers have changed to Jetstar! We almost didn't even get a seat.

When we arrived a driver picked us up and drove us to Ubud. We grabbed some breads from Circle K out of desperation for food.

When we finally arrived at the AirBnB we discover that there is no aircon! Just a big honking fan.

Bali Eco Cycling Tour

We were pretty knackered in that morning. Mostly because of a late night from the flight.

The answer, as usual, is plenty of caffeine. Among other things (Steph was feeling nauseous etc).

Long ride to Mt Batur. Prior to our cycling tour. The food was terrible, but the view was really nice I suppose.

Next step was the Kopi Luwak place. They pride themselves on making the most expensive coffee in the world! Basically there's this ferret looking animal that selectively eats only the highest quality coffees. Then poops it out for us humans to make coffee from.

The coffee itself was decent. I was more interested in the crazy percolator/distillery thing that was used to make it.

Next step were to get to the actual bikes, you know, for the ACTUAL cycling tour. They were pretty solid mountain bikes with proper shift gears which is good.

So the point of this tour is that its DOWNHILL! Completely! Well 95% of the 25km ride. Which is pretty amazing because all you're doing is hooning down the road effortlessly. This is my kind of cycling.

We stopped by a giant spider colony for some reason.

We then visited a traditional Balinese house.

Lots of crazy stuff was gleaned here. Apparently the ceremony house in the middle is used for all sorts of ceremonies. As in deaths, births and everything in between.

The tour guide also said that the dead bodies left there for A MONTH while preparations take place. And that for cheaper ones they bury the body, exhume the body after a few months and then the children have to remove the remaining rotting flesh from the carcass, with their bare fingers. I thought he was joking but he said he had to do it a few months ago with his grandma.

There was also some information about how the Balinese people file their teeth, they bury the placenta of their babies and create a little rock shrine, and how they bath in the river.

Oh yeah and the kitchen looks haunted.

There was a SUPER dangerous looking spider thing, which was apparently completely harmless. I was invited to let it crawl all over me but I opted out.

Steph visited the family cow.

Here is a temple.

Here is a rice paddy.

Here is a bunyan tree. These trees look kinda creepy.

During an uphill climb, steph's bike gear broke. I thought we lost her way back, but it turns out she was waiting for us at the next checkpoint.

Then we finished! Hands were sore from constantly braking downhill and butt was sore from sitting on the seat for hours, but otherwise t was good fun!

We had lunch at Surya Rumah Makan, which was actually amazing and the best in Bali so far. That's not saying much though, as that would just be the convenience store food plus the horrible breakfast we had.

After a nap we decided to head out to the Melting Wok for dinner. Unfortunately it was closed. Luckily Biah Biah was next door and that was pretty decent. The only problem is that the food was too staggered! All of our side dishes would come, and by the time the mains comes out everything is cold. Or how there is a 15 minute gap between desserts.

There is a lizard called the Tokek lizard which makes a ridiculous rubber chicken noise.

The internet has failed us at the AirBnB so I'm typing this offline at the moment.

Indonesia,Bali,Ubud