Para Luhur Uluwatu

My last day in Bali I arranged to get a driver to take me from Ubud to the airport at Denpasar. Having not seen much of the area around Kuta, I paid a bit extra to get the guy to take me around to some extra tourist attractions. By this point in the trip I'd just about had it with the constant sales pitches everywhere I went, so when one of the "attractions" along the way turned out to be a handy-craft store, I almost reached over and strangled the guy. I could tell as we drove away from the handy-craft store that the driver was visibly shaken by whatever look I'd given him, this must have set the course straight again because there were no more "shit attractions". The highlight of the day was a temple called Para Luhur Uluwatu on the cliffs of south Kuta, where I watched the sun set one last time before flying back to Beijing.

Looking down from quite a high cliff

Jalan Dewista @ Ubud

Throughout my stay at Ubud, I kept venturing back toward Jalan Dewista. Coupled next to each other here were a couple really great bars and restaurants, my favorite of which was the Cafe Havana. On top of the live music every-night, the variety of meals, tapas and mixed drinks at the served here kept me coming back each day.

Empandas Rebeldes

Pinchoes De Peurco

Tegalalang Rice Terraces @ Ubud

The Tegalalang Rice Terraces are about 10 kilometers to the north of Ubud. As you traverse up or down the hillside here you are bound to bump into local rice farmers begging for money. Ultimately this excursion is a hike, and quite a steep and muddy one so don't wear sandals like I did.

View on the way down the hill

Monkey Forest @ Ubud

The Monkey Forest is on the south west side of the town about a kilometer from the town center. As you get close to the park you'll start to see monkeys climbing about the hotels and shops around you. Inside there are several pathways you can walk about in order to visit the monkeys and a small museum filled with art at the center of the park. The more adventurous tourists purchase bananas to feed the monkeys, which if your lucky causes them to climb onto your back and snatch the banana out of your hand. The funniest thing I saw here was a Chinese family that made their 4 year old child hold the banana, and pointed and laughed while he was accosted.

Scared away the other monkey that was grooming this one

Ubud

Ubud is a small village located in the mountainside an hour north of Kuta. On the drive in from the outer edges of town you can see the traditional farming village culture slowly become infused with more and more tourist oriented shops and hotels. Even though there's some native culture preserved in the center of town, this place is a bustling tourist attraction. My favorite street here just south of the main road at the center of town is Jalan Dewisita, here there are several good restaurants and bars all grouped on a bumpy little road walking distance from almost any place in town.

Sunset on Jalan Raya

Lovina Sales Pitch

With darkness already setting in and little time to search for a hotel room for the night, I settled for the first place my driver could find, missing things like AC and a flush-able toilet. The next day I awoke feeling tired and irritable, while I sat on the deck cycling through my morning routine, a man walked up and welcomed himself to take a seat on my unit's deck. I'd barely digested the presence of this person before he started blabbering nonsense about how important it was that I come to the free breakfast. While I drank my morning coffee he eventually switched to trying to pitch a diving trip and a more expensive hotel room. I tried to give the polite social queue to go away by stating that I was going to take a shower, however this only prompted him to argue that I didn't need to shower here because the new hotel room would have a nicer shower. Eventually I just walked inside and locked the door.

Since this scoundrel had wasted half an hour of my time, I decided I'd try to return the favor by wasting some of his. After I showered (he waited outside of my room), I went along with him on a motor bike to the office of another hotel. After looking at each room, and hemming and hawing about the aspects of each one, he would say in an increasingly agitated voice, "Ok you will take this room!", to which I responded each time that I couldn't make up my mind right away. After the fourth room, and the fourth time saying this statement in the exact same way, the scoundrel exclaimed with his voice cracking , "Your brain thinks too much! You will never make up you're mind, you never make a decision!". He then walked in a heavy footed ferver over to his motorcycle while his fit degenerated into an all out racist rant. As he started up the motorcycle and sped off down the road I felt the joy of revenge.

Black sands of Lovina

Kuta to Lovina

The drive from Kuta to Lovina was quite a nice trip, outside of the debacle of negotiating with the local taxi drivers. Once I was finally on the road we drove through a maze of local villages which exhibited pristine local culture, mini houses and shops were sandwiched between the rice patties and Hindu temples for as far as the eye could see.

Villages just north of Kuta

View from where I stopped for a beer